Department of Economics, Unit Catalogue 2009/10 |
ES20017: Money and finance (formerly EC20014) |
Credits: | 6 |
Level: | Intermediate |
Period: | Semester 1 |
Assessment: | EX 100% |
Supplementary Assessment: | Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations) |
Requisites: | Before taking this unit you must take ES10002 and take ES10010 |
Description: | Aims: * To provide an introduction to financial markets and their operation; * To understand the pricing of financial instruments; * To enable students to understand the links between financial markets and the real economy; * To demonstrate linkages between economic policy and financial markets. Learning Outcomes: At the end of the unit, students should be able to: * analyse the roles of financial markets and financial intermediaries; * explain how the pricing of financial instruments takes place; * understand the link between financial markets and economic policy. Skills: Use and analysis of economic data; problem-solving; understanding of financial and monetary theory expressed in written form through an examination. Content: Financial decision making with risky assets; portfolio diversification; introduction to the CAPM model; interest rate determination; overview of the operation of money markets and how money market instruments are priced; introduction to bond markets; the term structure of interest rates; introduction to derivative markets - futures, options, swaps. Essential reading: Howells, P and Bain, K. (2005), The Economics of Money, Banking and Finance, FT Prentice Hall; Mishkin, F. S. (2004), The Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets, Pearson, Addison-Wesley. |