Ivo Welch, Economics 1720

News

Nov 18, 2009: Xena changed her office hours and extended them. Time: 6pm-7:30pm Wednesday at the Friedman Study Center A23
Nov 9, 2009: Tomislav is moving his office hours to Tuesday, 11am-noon, Robinson Basement.
Nov 9, 2009: Tuesday before thanksgiving is going to be a class, although an unusual one. We have Jeff Smith from CVS (strategy) come to class, give a short presentation, and answer questions. This will be from 1pm to 2:30pm. (Students from the later section should come to the earlier section.)
Recall that CVS is our class project this year. The project is described in the syllabus. Groups can be 3-5 student each. Your task is to produce a pro-forma projection to value CVS/Caremark, plus an assessment of whether the company is well-managed (or whether we should fire its CEO). This class project is due on the final day of class.
Oct 23, 2009: Final Exam Schedule: Dec 12, 9am. Dec 16, 2pm. Everyone is encouraged to take the final on Dec 12. Students that are having conflicts on Dec 12 (e.g., multiple exams) can take the exam on Dec 16. (Note: This had to be updated, because I was told an outdated date by our assistant.)
Oct 23, 2009: I have posted the midterm and the solutions to the midterm on my website in the usual classnotes location.

Econ 1720: Corporate Finance

Econ 1710 (investments) overlaps with some of the subject material in this course. Thus, if you have not taken Econ 1710, it will be a little more difficult for you. However, the course is self-sufficient. It does not require 1710.

The preliminary syllabus is syllabus1720.pdf.

The classnotes that you should print and bring to class are in classnotes. (Please print only one week ahead classnotes.)

The book can be purchased at Amazon or at the Brown bookstore. (The old lulu paperback version from 2 years ago is obsolete.) I will create/update a list of erratas to the book as we go.

The graduate TA will be Tomislav Ladikav. TA Office Hours (starting the week of sep 16):

 Monday - Andy Chong, 1-2 p.m. in Science Library Mezzanine
 Tuesday - Tomislav, 12-1 p.m. in 70 Waterman Street (new Rhodes Center Building), Room 203 (seminar room)
 Wednesday - Xena, 12-1 p.m. in Tealuxe
 Wednesday -  Andy Hunt, 5-6 p.m. in Science Library Mezzanine
 Thursday - Ben, 11 a.m.-noon in Science Library Mezzanine
 Sunday - Konstantin, 3-4 p.m. in Science Library Mezzanine

The TA's have a website on myCourses now.

Computer Programming --- Recommended

There is a new class in computer science, CSCI 0931. I like that CSCI 0040 is focused on teaching programming skills. I like that CSCI thinks about structuring programs with data. If you want to become a more quant oriented finance person, CSCI 0040 is probably better. If you want to become more of a corporate finance or consulting type, with modest quant skills, you may want to try CSCI 0931. Note that I do not know the two courses myself too well. I am just guessing. (PS: I was just assured that 0931 does have lots of programming. Do not consider CSCI 0020.)

Enrollment Rules

If (and only if) we have a roughly balanced class enrollment in both sections, then you can attend the section that you are not enrolled in. Note that the sections may be slightly out of sync, which means that you are responsible for filling the gaps yourself.

I will accept students without prereqs under the following conditions: [a] they are responsible for making up any deficits that they may have; [b] they have to hand in the homeworks for the first 5 chapters in the book by Thursday, Sep 17. (This is a tough task.)

Slightly Late Homeworks

For your convenience, we shall allow you to hand in homeworks until 4:30pm of the due date. You must deposit such into Tomislav's mailbox in the basement of Robinson. You cannot hand such homeworks into my mailbox. I often do not check my mailbox, and by the time I may find one handed into my mailbox, it is usually too late, and it would be unfair to other students. So, my secretary has instructions to discard all homeworks handed into my mailbox.