Introduction to Business Finance and Economics
Level: Open to students entering grades 11 or 12 or freshman year of college in fall 2010.
Session: I, June 28-July 16, 2010
Days & Time: Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM and 2:30-4:30 PM
Instructor(s): Roger Mesznik
Prerequisites: Thorough knowledge of high school mathematics, up to but not including calculus.
Related Course: Students interested in this course might also be interested in Corporate Valuation: What is a Company Worth?, Communicating with Consumers: The Basics of Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations, and Beyond the Game: The Business of Sports, all offered in Session II.
"I really believe I learned a lot in these three weeks. The college class atmosphere is refreshing and interesting. The class broadened my way of thinking and triggered my enthusiasm for business."
–He (David) Li, 2009
"Professor Mesznik shows a genuine, enthusiastic passion for his subject....he answers and explains concepts with complete confidence and he has the ability to make it understandable to beginners. This course was amazing."
–Eduardo Olondriz, 2009
Course Description
This course focuses on the firm’s financial and economic behavior. The firm needs cash to undertake worthy investments, and the firm needs to identify investments worth undertaking. What models does the firm use to identify such investments? What sources of cash can the firm use? How do the financial markets in which this money is raised function? How does the market value the firm, its securities, and its investments? What financial instruments are available to the firm? What are the microeconomic models that best describe a firm’s behavior in such markets?
In answering these questions, the participants discuss stocks, bonds, stock markets, as well as valuation models of investments, firms, and securities. They also work with concepts like optimal investment strategies, what is revealed and what is hidden in published accounting statements, and what are some of the sources of risk. Students also acquire familiarity with the mechanics and history of the financial markets.
The course includes case studies and some sustained independent work by the participants.
Note: the text book for this curricular option costs about $170.00. The book can be resold to the bookstore for up to half the price at the end of the term.
Instructor(s)
Faculty
Roger Mesznik
Roger Mesznik has more than 25 years experience in lecturing, teaching, and consulting on finance, corporate finance, financial markets and instruments, financial strategy and planning, international business, and managerial accounting. He holds and has held academic appointments at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, New York University Stern School of Business, INSEAD (France), and Baruch College (CUNY). He has held visiting appointments at the Catholic University in Lisbon, the Donau-Universität in Austria, and the Technische Universität in Vienna. Mesznik has also taught in Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, China, and Kuwait. Mesznik is a frequent lecturer and consultant to corporations and multinational and international institutions on finance, financial management, and economic analyses. He has worked in the electronics and pharmaceutical industries and has published in The American Economist, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Risk Letters, and the Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce. He has also conducted research on issues relating to the wealth of the oceans and the law of the sea. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.B.A. from Columbia University and has studied industrial engineering at the graduate and undergraduate level at the Technische Universität in Vienna, Austria.
Specific course information, such as hours and instructors, are subject to change at the discretion of the University.
