Course

Introduction to Financial Economics

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Economics
Course code
ECON 2298
Credits
3.00
Semester length
14 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 56 Hours
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Course designation
None
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
Introduction to Financial Economics introduces the basic principles of financial valuation, including the time-value of money and the risk/return tradeoff. It develops tools for the quantitative analysis of corporate and/or individual financing decisions, and of capital budgeting decisions. Students will learn how investors think about the value of streams of cash flows that arrive at different times. Students will also examine capital budgeting decisions and the evaluation of those decisions. The concept of risk and methods of valuing risky assets will also be examined by students in this course.
Course content
  1. Overview of Corporate Finance and Financial Statements
  2. Valuation of Future Cash Flows
  3. Discounted Cash Flow Valuation
  4. Interest Rates and Bond Valuation
  5. Stock Valuation
  6. Market Efficiency
  7. NPV and Other Investment Criteria
  8. Capital Budgeting
  9. Project Analysis and Evaluation     
  10. Realized versus Expected Returns
  11. Risk and Return - Diversification
  12. Risk and Return - CAPM
  13. Cost of Capital and Valuation
Learning activities

Lecture and discussion.

Means of assessment
Assignments:    0% - 20%
Term Tests:    0% - 20%
Midterm Exam:   20% - 40%
Final Exam:   30% - 40%
Total           100%

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course the student will be able to: 

  1. Determine the future and present value of investments with multiple cash flows;
  2. Analyze the determinants of bond price and volatility;
  3. Describe factors affecting bond yields and the term structure of interest rates;
  4. Explain how stock market prices are affected by dividends and dividend growth;
  5. Explain the importance of net present value in determining the value of an investment;
  6. Describe important determinants of project evaluation;
  7. Measure the expected return and risk of individual securities and portfolios.
  8. Utilize how the CAPM in portfolio analysis.
  9. Explain how to calculate a firm’s cost of debt and equity capital.
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

S. Ross, R. Westerfield, B. Jordon, and G. Roberts. Fundamentals of Corporate Finance. Latest Edition, McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Requisites

Prerequisites

(ECON 1150 and ECON 1250 with a minimum grade of C) AND (MATH 1120 or 1125 with a minimum grade of C)

OR currently active in one of the following:
PBD Advanced Human Resource Management
PBD Advanced Supply Chain Management
PBD International Supply Chain Management
PDD Human Resource Management
PDD International Business Management
PDD Supply Chain Management
PDD Project Management

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for ECON 2298
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU ECON 2XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU ECON 2XX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU ECON 2XXX (3)
Trinity Western University (TWU) TWU ECON 2XX (3)
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) UBCO MGMT_O 2nd (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 298 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC ECON 3XX (1.5)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
12
Remaining seats:
23
On waitlist
0
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
907
Times:
Start Time
12:30
-
End Time
15:20