Finance and Ethics

Catalog description

This course will focus on finance and ethics. The premise of the course is that ethical issues in finance are not always straightforward to discern, in part because of the arbitrage-based characteristics of modern finance. The current plethora of scandals in financial firms, however, suggests that we need to think more carefully about these issues. This class will involve a variety of lectures, class discussions focusing on specific cases, and guest speakers. The lectures will use articles as well as my book Something for Nothing: Arbitrage and Ethics on Wall Street. This course is intended for second-year MBA students interested in finance, but other students interested in ethics more generally may also find it interesting. Students will be graded on class participation, two case write-ups, and a group project. This course satisfies the 1.5-credit Leadership Core that is required for graduation. Students taking the course to satisfy the core requirement must elect the graded option.