The first part offers students whose prior academic background has emphasized accounting, a sufficient understanding of finance to be able to interpret the capital market professional and academic literature. Lectures on six fundamental subjects, and the completion of twelve carefully planned assignments accomplish this. The teaching style and the assignments emphasize numerical examples and computer models. Accordingly, even students with extensive backgrounds in finance can expect to improve their intuitive understanding of the concepts covered . Additionally, every effort is made to facilitate technologically efficient communication across the class participants, including the instructor.
Students design the content of the second part of the course.
They select ten topics, which pertain to the use of accounting information in the capital markets. Students are encouraged to propose topics they are enthusiastic about, and which relate to their particular work setting. Every student will participate in leading the discussion of a topic and writing a paper which summarizes the questions and controversies related to that topic, including an assessment of the evidence used to support the various positions identified. The first half of the course will consist of lectures covering the following subjects in the sequence shown. The requirements of each assignment will be carefully explained in class.