Master 2025/2026

Topical Issues in Financial Economics

Type: Compulsory course (Financial Markets and Institutions)

Delivered by: School of Finance

When: 1 year, 3 module

Open to: students of all HSE University campuses

Instructors: Maria Shchepeleva

Language: English

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course introduces fundamental ideas in the theory of finance. It consists of three parts, including microeconomic foundations of finance, corporate finance and asset pricing. The first section covers a number of topics, ranging from individual decision making under certainty and uncertainty to market equilibrium and the impact of information asymmetry on exchange outcomes. The second section revises some fundamental ideas from capital structure management such as Modigliani-Miller theorem, the concept of WACC, the role of taxes and dividend policy in creating company’s value. The third section studies conventional models of asset pricing, e.g. the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and its extensions, the arbitrage pricing theory (APT) and martingale pricing methods.