Teaching

Graduate Level Courses

Financial Research Methods [Maastricht University; Fall 2019]: A compulsory course for students in the Master programs Sustainable Finance and Strategic Corporate Finance. The course provides students with the necessary tools to understand, assess, and perform research for both academic and business purposes. Students attend computer sessions, during which they learn the use of the programming language R to apply a number of econometric techniques. Furthermore, students learn where to find data to conduct empirical research. The focus of the course is on financial research, covering techniques to analyze financial time series data, such as stock prices or interest rates.

Data Analytics [Maastricht University; Fall 2020]: In this course, students are introduced to relevant data analytical methods, learn to apply these methods, to interpret their findings, and to present and communicate these findings. The course covers core data analytical techniques such as ANOVA and regression analysis, as well as more advanced data methods, such as factor analysis and structural equation modelling, limited dependent variables, time series analysis and panel data analysis. A major part of the course is the practical application of the theory, where students learn how to download, clean, analyze and visualize data in R.

Entrepreneurial Finance [Maastricht University; Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021]: A compulsory course for students in the strategic corporate finance track and the entrepreneurship and business development track. The course is further open as an elective to exchange students and students from other tracks. The course covers the challenges we face in the valuation of young companies with no track record and little hard information. Further, the course covers several possible sources of the financing of start-ups and SMEs, including bank lending, crowdfunding, angel investors, or venture capital. Students learn that in all cases, information asymmetries play an important role in financing choices, and that reality is far away from Modigliani and Miller’s theory that the value of a firm is unaffected by how it is financed. The course covers the stance of academic research is on these topics, and what potential consequences this has for practitioners, policy makers, and the firms themselves. The course literature is composed of well-published papers. The scope of this course goes beyond understanding these papers’ results, but also on the methodology used by authors to arrive at their conclusions and on the correct interpretation of empirical estimations.

 Undergraduate Level Courses

Behavioral Finance [University of Bremen; Fall 2023, Fall 2024]: This course provides an introduction to the field of behavioral finance, which seeks to explain anomalies in financial markets by examining the boundedly rational behavior of investors. The course begins by highlighting the limitations of traditional neoclassical capital market theory, particularly its reliance on the assumption of fully rational market participants. We then explore different forms of bounded rationality and their implications for behavior in financial markets. Key concepts such as prospect theory, behavioral life-cycle theory, behavioral portfolio theory, and behavioral asset pricing models are introduced. Finally, we explore the practical applications of behavioral finance in investment strategies, corporate decision-making, and policy formulation. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to critically analyze financial markets through the lens of behavioral insights and recognize their relevance in contemporary financial contexts.

Options and Futures [Maastricht University; Spring 2018]: A compulsory course  for students who elected the finance specialization in the International Business bachelor. This course covers applications and valuation techniques of derivatives such as forward contracts, futures contracts, options, and swaps. In the first part, students learn how to price forward and futures contracts and how to apply the basic option valuation models such as the binominal Option Pricing Model and the Black and Scholes Model. The course also covers how to use derivatives for static and dynamic hedging. The second part covers practical applications such as pricing via replication, testing the validity of the put-call parity and retrieving implied information from real data, such as implied volatilities.

Introduction to Finance [Maastricht University; Spring 2016]: This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of finance. Students learn the concept of risk and return, how capital markets work, and how to raise capital as an individual or as a company. Equity markets and Bond markets are introduced and the tools with which to price stocks, bonds and other financial assets, which trade on financial markets, are covered. Students learn how to make investment decisions. Further, the course covers the concept of net present value of a project, zero net present value projects, valuation of stocks, valuation of bonds, and capital budgeting. The course also introduces modern portfolio theory, the concept of cost of capital and WACC. Finally, the course covers financial derivatives, such as options or forward contracts.

Overall Student Rating: 8.7 (out of 10)

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