All Finance 4335 readings are required unless they are indicated as “Optional”. Short (10-minute) quizzes will be administered via Canvas, starting 24 hours prior to the beginning of class on each of the dates shown for the required readings.
We will follow the reading schedule given below:
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Date
|
Reading
|
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August 29
|
1. Calculus and Optimization, by James R. Garven
2. How long does it take to double (triple/quadruple/n-tuple) your money?, by James R. Garven |
|
September 3
|
1. The New Religion of Risk Management, by Peter Bernstein
2. Normal and standard normal distribution, by James R. Garven
3. Mean and Variance of a Two-Asset Portfolio, by James R. Garven |
|
September 10
|
1. Supply of Insurance, by Greg Niehaus, University of South Carolina
2. Basic Economics: How Individuals Deal with Risk (Doherty, Chapter 2)
3. Introduction to Expected Utility and Risk Preferences, by James R. Garven |
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September 19
|
1. Expected Utility, Mean-Variance, and Stochastic Dominance, by James R. Garven
2. Modeling Risk Preferences Using Taylor Series Expansions of Utility Functions, by James R. Garven
3. Stochastic Dominance and Expected Utility (Optional), by James R. Garven
4. A Reexamination of the Relationship Between Preferences and Moment Orderings by Rational Risk-Averse Investors (Optional), by Patrick L. Brockett and James R. Garven |
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September 26
|
Finance 4335 Midterm 1 Synopsis, by James R. Garven |
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October 3
|
1. The Demand for Insurance, by James R. Garven
2. Demand for Insurance: Full vs. Partial Coverage, by James R. Garven |
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October 10
|
1. Moral Hazard & Adverse Selection (Doherty, Chapter 3)
2. Moral Hazard & Adverse Selection Synopsis, by James R. Garven
3. Moral Hazard and Insurance, by James R. Garven
|
|
October 17
|
1. Portfolio and Capital Market Theory, by James R. Garven
2. Portfolio Theory and Risk Management (Optional; Doherty, Chapter 4)
3. Capital Market Theory (Optional; Doherty, Chapter 5)
4. Harry Markowitz in Memoriam, by William N. Goetzman, Financial Analysts Journal, Volume 79, Number 4 (2023)
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October 29
|
Finance 4335 Midterm 2 Synopsis, by James R. Garven
|
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November 5
|
1. Derivatives and Options (Doherty, Chapter 6)
2. Teaching the Economics and Convergence of the Binomial and Black-Scholes Option Pricing Formulas, by James R. Garven and James I. Hilliard
|
|
December 3
|
1. Why is Risk Costly to Firms? (Doherty, Chapter 7)
2. How Insurance Solves the Underinvestment Problem, by James R. Garven
3. The Modigliani-Miller Theorems and Corporate Risk Management Theory, by James R. Garven
4. A Framework for Risk Management (Optional), by Ken Froot, David Scharfstein and Jeremy Stein |
|
December 10
|
Finance 4335 Course Overview, by James R. Garven |