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Peking University HSBC Business School Course Catalog
Statement Regarding Course Offerings
The following Course Catalog includes all courses that have been offered in the history of PHBS. Although there is the option that any of these courses may be offered in any semester, not all of them will be offered each year. Elective course offerings depend on the faculty available to teach and on the demand for courses. Specific course offerings for each coming year will be made available in late spring semester. Previous years’ course offerings can be used as a general guide of what will be offered the next year.
Peking University HSBC Business School Course Catalog (last updated 2013. 7. 11)
General Required Courses
GEN500- Mathematics This course provides a quick refreshment of math concepts that students might have learned during their undergraduate studies. The mathematical content is motivated and illustrated with their economic applications. Students without solid mathematics background may find the course useful for their study in advanced economics and finance courses.
GEN501- Research Methodology This course aims to improve critical thinking and creative problem solving skills for the analysis of graduate thesis and work place problems. It provides the tools, skills, and background to perform research across a variety of industries and job functions. Students will be exposed to and expected to have the ability to perform a variety of types of research and utilize different methodologies in their relevant settings.
GEN502- Business Ethics Ethical issues in business represent one part of the moral territory we must navigate in all of our daily activities. This course will focus not only on the particular demands of business but also analyze these in relation to how we weigh the competing interests and values confronting us in the larger world in which our work lives are embedded. From this course, students can learn about the potential consequences of business actions, and enhance their abilities in making ethical decisions.
GEN503- Graduate Thesis Seminar The purpose of this course is to provide students opportunity to hone their presentation skill and to prepare them for the thesis defense. Each student will be given a chance to present his or her thesis in a setting similar to the actual defense exam. Instructor will give individual feedback to each student based on contents of thesis, prepared slides, and presentation.
Theory, and other relevant topics that were not covered in Advanced Microeconomics I.
ECON513- Game Theory Prerequisites: Mathematics (GEN500) or Business Mathematics (ECON500) This course covers main ideas and techniques of game theoretic analysis. Game Theory is an analytical tool and the language describing strategic situation in which multiple agents have to make decision that affect other’s behavior. The course introduces the basic intuition of game theory and its application as well as the consequences of new development of behavioral assumptions. The goals of the course are to provide students with a foundation to game theory that helps thinking strategically and to let them apply its intuition to the real world examples.
ECON514- Industrial Organization Industrial Organization is the study of firms and markets. In this course, we cover firms’ various objectives and optimization problems including their technology, pricing strategies, marketing behaviors, R&D decisions and so on. These topics will be covered in various market situations with different level of competitive natures. The common analytical tool for Industrial Organization will be covered at the beginning. The course will be designed with focus on lectures, literature reviews, and presentations of new research ideas.
ECON515- Behavioral Economics In this course, we study models in which standard economic rationality assumptions are combined with psychologically plausible assumptions on behavior. We consider whether the new models improve ability to predict and understand several important aspects such as choices under uncertainty (and certainty), probabilistic judgments, intertemporal choices, and other economic applications.
ECON516- Economics for Public Issues (Welfare Economics) This course presents economic theory on how the society as a whole ranks and chooses between different alternatives. Various normative criteria that economists have suggested to choose from the large number of efficient allocations will also be described. Furthermore, the fundamentals of social choice theory, which deals with the general problem of aggregating individual preferences into group preferences or group decisions, will be presented. The theoretical tools presented in the course will be used to study different mechanisms of voting, redistribution of income, government intervention, auctions, and trade. Among other things, students will be exposed to the Pareto criterion, Arrow’s impossibility theorem, Vickrey-Clarke-Grove mechanism, Coase theorem, utilitarianism, Rawlsian ethics, the Kaldor-Hicks compensation principle, and fundamental theorems of welfare economics
ECON517- Decision Theory
This course is on economic decision making. The approach will be to understand when choice behavior is consistent with some economic model of decision making. Topics covered will include classical and modern choice theory, as well as the theory of decisions (the theory of behavior under uncertainty. Objective probability, which views probability of an outcome as a long-term relative frequency of an infinitely repeatable experiment is not useful for representing uncertainty in risky decisions. The course will help you understand how to represent and elicit your beliefs about the likelihood of uncertain events by subjective probability. Furthermore, recent development of behavioral decision theory on decision making under uncertainty will also be covered briefly.
Macroeconomics
ECON520- Advanced Macroeconomics I The purpose of this course is to develop students’ understanding of the modern theories in macroeconomics. We will learn dynamic models that are developed to study aggregate economic behavior. Meanwhile, I will familiarize you with the tools that are commonly used in modern macroeconomics. We then apply these tools to various fields including (but not limited to) Asset Pricing, Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy. This course serves as the foundation for many advanced courses in economics and finance. This course is also about China and Global Economy. We will discuss various topics related to the hottest issues happening in China and the World.
ECON521- Advanced Macroeconomics II This course studies Macroeconomics and Finance. We study this area from the perspective of both theory and empirics, with a focus on empirics. This course is divided into four parts. The first part deals with recent financial crisis. The second part examines the relation between Macro Economy and Financial sector. Questions include whether financial crisis leads to economic crisis or the vice versa will be addressed. The third part is about bubbles. Even though traditionally people view bubbles as a negative factor by crowding out investment, we see strong correlation between economic growth and bubbles. Economists propose that bubbles alleviate financial frictions since firms can use them as collateral to borrow. The last part studies all of these issues empirically using Chinese data.
ECON522- Money and Banking Prerequisites (general): Intermediate Macroeconomics (undergraduate level). The objective of this course is to guide students in the development of critical skills in economics as applied to the topics of monetary theory. Basically it is a monetary theory and policy course. The course will focus on the modeling of monetary policy, the evaluation of its performance, and the measurement of its effects. This course will provide coverage of the most important topics in monetary economics and of some of the models that have been employed to understand the interactions between real economy and monetary factors. This
alternative government interventions on economic outcomes. Public Finance include two primary topics of analysis: government expenditures and taxation. This course covers both topics, with a focus on the impact of government intervention on the relevant agents: consumers, workers, and businesses. The class will also briefly present different tax systems in different parts of the world, and discuss ongoing debates for reform.
ECON541- Human Resource and Labor Economics The aim of this course is to acquaint students with traditional topics in labor economics and to encourage the development of independent research interests. We will cover a systematic development of the theory of labor supply, labor demand, and human capital. Topics include wage and employment determination, turnover, search, immigration, unemployment, equalizing differences, and institutions in the labor market. There will be particular emphasis on the interaction between theoretical and empirical modeling.
ECON542- Taxation & Business Strategy We consider companies’ specific strategies regarding various tax regulations. On the one hand, business school students learn about a broad spectrum of factors affecting business decision making in courses such as corporate finance or financial statement analysis, valuation and investment, but no systematic consideration of the pervasive role of taxes. On the other hand, tax accounting courses concentrate on specialized administrative and filing issues but ignore the larger picture in which tax factors influence decisions. Moreover, public finance courses provide students with the role played by governments in maximizing aggregate welfare, the optimal design of tax systems and redistribution mechanisms, with no focus on businesses’ strategic responses to tax systems. This course is specifically designed to fill the gap. The course covers both Chinese and U.S. cases.
ECON543- Political Institutes and Economics Development This class provides an introduction to contemporary research on the political economy of development. Economic theories of politics will be introduced with different political systems. The course aims to cover not only some basic analytical tools but also the intuition behind the basic theories. Some of the main focuses are: How politics can affect economic development? How do political institutions determine policy choices? How do economic structures in turn impact on politics? Why do governments employ policies that hinder development? Why do seemingly inefficient institutions survive? What accounts for political accountability? How important are international effects relative to domestic features?
ECON544- Economics of Poverty This course examines causes and consequences of poverty at the micro level. We will study key aspects of life for poor households in the developing world, such as inequality, gender and the intra-household division of resources, education, child labor, health, savings and credit, institutions and globalization. Students will alsos tudy recent research in the field and examine empirical evidence on these
topics.
ECON545- Institutional Economics Institutional economics is the study of the evolution of economic organizations, laws, contracts, and customs as part of a historical and continuing process of economic development. Behavioral economics and institutional economics are naturally treated together, since so much of the logic and design of economic institutions has to do with complexities of human behavior. Topics include economic fluctuations and speculation, herd behavior, attitudes towards risk, money illusion, involuntary unemployment, saving, investment, poverty, identity, religion, trust, risk management and social welfare institutions.
ECON546- Transition Economics The objective of this course is to understand the importance of institutions in the determination of economic behaviors and consequences, and the general issues of economic transition from the planned economy to the market systems, which are one of main event in late 20 century and still ongoing in China. The course provides the theoretical conceptual framework and methodology to understand various policy issues in economic reforms. Students are encouraged to apply theories to reform issues such as state owned enterprise reform, financial reform, social security reform, which will be still very relevant in the real world.
International Economics
ECON550- International Trade The aim of the course is to let students understand the issues relating to international trade they will face as managers or investors. The course will provide students the tools, skills, and background to become the leaders of China and the world. Furthermore, it will improve their critical thinking and creative problem solving skills. After taking the course, students should be able to analyze international trade problems and arrive at well-reasoned solutions to problems faced in the work place.
ECON551- International Finance The objective of this course is to blend classical theory, empirical research, examples and practical cases to allow students to truly understand international fund movement and also to help the student better understand the exchange rate fluctuation in the macro context. From the study of this course, the students should be equipped with the basic tools (balance of payments and exchange rate theory) needed to analyze the real problems in the global finance. Students are encouraged to apply all these to a broad study in all four dimensions of international money and finance: theory, evidence, policy and institution.
ECON552- Introduction to Chinese Economy The aim of this course is to help students understand how China’s economic
business strategies of media firms. The second objective is to provide you with a method for evaluating public policy issues in the media.
ECON564- Experimental Economics This is a research-orientated course on the design of economic experiments. It will be run largely like a workshop, where I will first lecture about the basics, then help you find some topic to work on for your two presentations. The first presentation will be a literature review, where you can check and complete your understanding. The 2nd^ will be on an experiment design. There is no content restriction for possible presentation topics. There is a methodological restriction for your 2nd^ presentation: it must be an experimental design. There will be a quiz after my lectures to check understanding.
ECON565- Resource and Environmental Economics This course is an introduction to an economics perspective of environmental systems and their problems, with special attention to the use, misuse, and overuse of natural and environmental resources. The course will develop appropriate economic concepts, models, and tools for analyzing environmental and natural resource issues and problems. We will also discuss the efficient use of renewable natural resources such as oil, gas, land, water, forests, and fisheries. Finally, the course will explore the particular problems arising from the use of environmental resources such as the air, rivers, lakes, and the oceans as repositories for pollution.
ECON566- Energy Economics This course examines economic theory, empirical perspectives, and political economy of energy supply and demand. It discusses aspects of local, national, and global markets for oil, natural gas, coal, electricity, nuclear power, and renewable energy; and examines public policies affecting energy markets including taxation, price regulation and deregulation, energy efficiency, and control of emissions. In this course we will develop and use tools of economic analysis to understand the main contemporary policy issues related to energy. The primary focus is on global and national energy markets and institutions, and on how local and Alaska energy issues are embedded in the context of a national and global political economy.
ECON567- IT Economics This is an overview of topics on information economics and economic phenomena that are important for Internet industries. Topics covered include asymmetric information model, information aggregation mechanisms, auction, online reputation system, personalization of products and prices, versioning, bundling, switching costs, lock-in, economies of scale, network effects, standards, and systems effects.
ECON568 – An Industrial Organization Approach to Finance In this course, we focus on financial market and apply analytical tools commonly used in industrial organization. Financial institutions in emerging markets are
generally far from meeting the assumptions of most standard models in finance. In emerging markets, institutions are underdeveloped, participants are strategic and information is scarce. As a consequence, participants trade on insider information, try to learn from and manipulate each other. A growing body of financial research has begun to take these factors into account for Western markets. This course will explore that new literature and seek out applications in emerging markets, in particular, China.
ECON569- Financial Economics The goal of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental and central theories and techniques of financial economics at the Master’s level. Topics include expected utility and risk aversion, mean variance efficient, linear factor models including CAPM and APT, static/dynamic consumption-saving/portfolio decision (stochastic discount factor and state pricing), and introduction to derivatives.
ECON570- Advanced Financial Economics Prerequisites: Mathematics (GEN500); Financial Economics (FIN510) This course studies the topics in finance in an advanced level. It begins with static portfolio choice problems and reviews the basics of asset pricing theory (SDF, Euler equation, complete/incomplete market, etc.). The course then turns to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and consumption-based asset-pricing model, and develops dynamic portfolio choice problems and equilibrium asset pricing theories. Finally, the course discusses market microstructure and behavioral asset pricing. The emphasis of the course is theoretical, but empirical applications are also covered.
ECON571- Corporate Finance This course conveys basic accounting principles and the most important corporate finance concepts and applications. It begins with a brief introduction to the financial environment in which firms raise capital, a review of time value of money concepts, and basic stock and bond valuation models. It then focuses on decisions related to capital budgeting, measurement of risk and return, the cost of capital, dividend policy, and capital structure. The course can also discuss a variety of special topics such as mergers & acquisitions, derivatives, risk management, and ethical aspects of the role of financial managers.
ECON572- Financial Accounting This course introduces students to business bookkeeping at its most basic level: the accounting for and the recording of detailed business transactions. The course covers established IFRS and US GAAP accounting concepts and procedures, the debits and credits or business transactions, the accounting cycle, the control of cash, and payroll, sales, purchases and other important accounting procedures. This course prepares the student with the ability to understand the underpinnings of financial reports, such as the Statement of Financial Condition (Balance Sheet), the Statement of Comprehensive Income (Income Statement), the Statement of Cash Flows, and other complex financial-analysis documents.
Course Description (Management)
Introductory Courses
MGT500- Business Mathematics This condensed course covers basic mathematics concepts required for other advanced courses in Business School. The possible topics to be covered include calculus, optimization, linear and Matrix algebra, statistics, and probability theory. The mathematical contents are both motivated and illustrated with economic applications. The course is intended to be a refresher of math knowledge that students have learned during undergraduate studies or elsewhere.
MGT501- Applied Econometrics (Management) This course emphasizes econometric methods and models illustrated by examples and scenarios. At the end of the course, students should have a deeper theoretical understanding of econometrics, statistical properties of econometric models and methods. Empirically, students should be able to construct appropriate models from real-world data and provide sound interpretations from the obtained results.
MGT502- Managerial Economics Managerial Economics is the application of economic theory and methodology to managerial decisions within various organizational settings such as a firm or government agency. Students taking this course are expected to have had some exposure to economics and be comfortable with college level mathematics.
Macro-level Management
MGT510- Strategic Management Strategic management deals with decisions that fundamentally influence the direction of the organization and effective implementation of the direction chosen. Specifically, it addresses the organizational structure, resources & capabilities, and the strategic positioning of the organization to create, capture and sustain competitive advantage. This capstone course will build on students’ expertise in the functional areas of marketing, accounting, finance, and management, to examine current business theories and issues.
MGT511- Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy is concerned with value creation across different businesses of a company, above and beyond the value creation of its individual business units. This course will focus on business decisions related to the scope of the firm, including vertical integration and diversification. Students will gain a deep understanding about the core corporate level decision-making aimed at bringing a company’s various business operations together to achieve corporate goals.
MGT512- Business Model Research This course is designed to help students develop the skills of describing, analyzing and designing business models, and thus understand better about how companies do business. The course will introduce the concept of the business model and its fundamental elements, including positioning, business systems, profit models, cash flow structures, key resources and capabilities, and enterprise value.
MGT513- Organizational Network Analysis This course introduces students to Organizational network analysis (ONA), which represents the business organization as an assortment of connected relational networks of people, groups, tasks, resources, and more. The ONA framework provides an excellent tool for aiding in the design of organizational change and management strategies. In this form, the complex characteristics of the organization will be visualized, measured, and managed. Students will be able to better understand abnormalities (relative to the preferred state) in many important technical and social aspects of the organization.
MGT514- Managing Information Technology This course will provide students with the ability to understand how Information Technology (IT) supports corporate goals. Emphasis is on the management of IT rather than on computer technology or programming. Students will be provided with an understanding of relevant issues in support and technical issues in IT.
MGT515- Management in Investment Banking This course is designed for students who aspire to work in the global financial services industry, particularly in a front-office position. The course provides a comprehensive overview of the investment banking (IB) industry and profession. The course examines the current state-of-the-industry, the global dimensions of the business, the deal making work-flow, including the various roles of organizational players. Moreover, the course includes technical aspects of the financial valuation methodologies used in investment banking deals. The course aims to prepare the student for being conversant-ready in all aspects of the IB industry and to implant the technical how-to’s of valuation practices used on Wall Street into the student’s mind- and skill-sets.
MGT516- Managing Mergers & Acquisitions The mission of this course is to develop students’ skills in managing an organization. Specifically, the challenging time of organizational M&A (mergers and acquisitions) is used as a learning opportunity by embracing the multidisciplinary aspects of M&A. This course seeks to prepare students for a career in business management, consulting, or corporate development.
MGT 517 – Strategic Management Research Pre-Requisites – Research Methodology (GEN501) and Strategic Management (MGT510)
is designed to appeal to individuals with strong desires to become entrepreneurs, to join startup companies, or to work in the venture capital industry.
MGT531- Entrepreneurs and Enterprises This course invites well-known entrepreneurs and business leaders as instructors, one at a time, to share real-world business issues and valuable experience in entrepreneurship. In this way students are exposed to the applied side of business while covering a wide array of topics. The course helps students to bridge the gap between theories and practice, better understand the complexities of business, and consciously establish the right career development and value system.
MGT532- New Venture Investment Decision This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts and skills related to new venture investment decisions and targets students who are inspired to become a successful angel investor or venture capitalist. The course objectives are threefold: 1) increase students’ understanding of new venture investment decision; 2) examine how individual and institutional differences influence investment decision; and 3) stimulate the development of new skills through firsthand experience.
MGT533- SMEs Finance Research This course is designed to help students understand the whole picture of and to provide a deeper knowledge about the theory and practice of SMEs financing. After this course, students should be able to use analytical methods and tools learned from this course to analyze the specific problems of SMEs financing.
MGT534- Venture Design The prime objective of this course is to assist students in designing new business ventures. Students with entrepreneurial projects will find this course’s process favorable to the refinement of their projected ventures. Students should come out of this class with a blended understanding of management topics as they relate to the venture design process along with a greater understanding of the complexities involved in developing a venture.
International Business
MGT540- International Management Pre-requisite : Research Methodology (GEN501) This course examines the key environmental and management issues and challenges that contemporary managers confront when conducting business across national borders. Students should come away from this course being able to: 1) analyze key characteristics of the international business environment; 2) understand the structures and strategies of multinational corporations that can lead to competitive advantages; and 3) apply their knowledge of frameworks and analyses to current international organizational issues.
MGT541- Managing China Cross-border Development This course covers topics that pertain to conducting business specifically when such activity spans across the geographic borders of Mainland China. The topics will be cross-functional and comprehensive in nature and are explored from the perspective of a general manager involved in managing a cross-border business. This course will prepare the student for a career in general management or management consulting.
MGT542- Cross-Cultural Management Pre-requisite : Research Methodology (GEN501) The primary objective of this course is to survey the major theoretical perspectives and issues in cross-cultural management from economic, sociological, psychological, and anthropological perspectives with a holistic view. Students will be provided with insight into the issues that arise from managing across the complexities of culture.
MGT543- Global Innovation Innovation and technology management deals with understanding how innovation affects the competitive dynamics of markets. In particular, globalization of innovation will open new markets and create new opportunities for collaboration. This course introduces and employs various tools, concepts, and analytical frameworks that enhance students’ ability to define and analyze strategic problems that arise from global innovation and technological change, and to identify sources of competitive advantage from both an industry and firm-level perspective.
Operations
MGT550- Operations Management Pre-requisite – Mathematics (GEN500) or Business Mathematics (MGT500) To gain competitive advantage, companies depends heavily on their ability to efficiently design, process, and deliver products/services meeting or exceeding customer requirements. This course will provide participants with the opportunity to examine the major functions, the problems involved, the analytical tools available, and the recent developments in operations and supply chain management. After completing this course, the participants are expected to understand the importance of operations management, the interactions between operations and other functional areas, the decisions involved, and the tools that could be employed to improve company’s competitiveness.
MGT551- Project Management Companies have found it increasingly important to enhance their capabilities of providing customers with well designed, made, and delivered goods or services. There are at least three basic ways to accomplish this: 1) design better product/service frequently and effectively; 2) continuously improve production
course with an understanding of marketing application in the Chinese financial industry.
MGT564- Brand Management Pre-requisite – Marketing Management (MGT560) The purpose of this course is to help students understand branding issues in marketing. Students will learn how brands influence consumers and how brand managers are to manage their brands properly. Specifically, this course provides students with a clear understanding of the overall process of brand management, from the concept of brand equity to strategic issues in branding.
MGT565- Marketing Strategy This course focuses on business level marketing strategy and uses the marketing planning process as the framework for understanding the integration and coordination of marketing decisions. Students will develop skills in creating and evaluating marketing plans, strategies, and implementation programs so that they will be better prepared to manage the marketing problems they will encounter in your profession.
Other Topics in Management
MGT570- Financial Accounting This course introduces students to business bookkeeping at its most basic level: the accounting for and the recording of detailed business transactions. The course covers established IFRS and US GAAP accounting concepts and procedures, the debits and credits or business transactions, the accounting cycle, the control of cash, and payroll, sales, purchases and other important accounting procedures. This course prepares the student with the ability to understand the underpinnings of financial reports, such as the Statement of Financial Condition (Balance Sheet), the Statement of Comprehensive Income (Income Statement), the Statement of Cash Flows, and other complex financial-analysis documents.
MGT571- Corporate Finance This course conveys basic accounting principles and the most important corporate finance concepts and applications. It begins with a brief introduction to the financial environment in which firms raise capital, a review of time value of money concepts, and basic stock and bond valuation models. It then focuses on decisions related to capital budgeting, measurement of risk and return, the cost of capital, dividend policy, and capital structure. The course can also discuss a variety of special topics such as mergers & acquisitions, derivatives, risk management, and ethical aspects of the role of financial managers.
MGT572- Principles of Risk Management and Insurance This course explores the areas of general risk management process that mainly focuses on downside pure risks, property and liability insurance, life and health insurance, annuities and employee benefits, etc. Students will learn to identify
and measure risks, and select appropriate risk management tools to reduce and finance risks. The purpose of the course is to equip students to develop a conceptual framework for making risk management decisions that increase business value and individual welfare and get familiar with the insurance industry. Furthermore, the topics related to the Chinese insurance industry will be discussed.
MGT573- Behavioral Finance This course points out the limitation of the traditional finance theories and examines how the insights of behavioral finance complements the traditional paradigm. The course begins with a review of the standard finance theories, in particular the efficient market hypothesis. It then examines a variety of financial market features that are hard to be explained by the traditional theory. We will then use psychology and more realistic settings to develop to guide and develop alternative theories of financial market, and shed light on investors’ trading patterns, the behavior of asset prices, as well as real world practices.
MGT574- Introduction to Chinese Economy The aim of this course is to help students understand how China’s economic miracle unfolded since the open-door policy was introduced in 1978 and to explore the economic, social, cultural and political implications of more than thirty years of accelerated growth from an interdisciplinary perspective. The module will introduce the students to key issues and events and provide opportunities to discuss a broad range of subjects associated with China’s rise as a global power.
MGT575- International Finance The objective of this course is to blend classical theory, empirical research, examples and practical cases to allow students to truly understand international fund movement and also to help the student better understand the exchange rate fluctuation in the macro context. From the study of this course, the students should be equipped with the basic tools (balance of payments and exchange rate theory) needed to analyze the real problems in the global finance. Students are encouraged to apply all these to a broad study in all four dimensions of international money and finance: theory, evidence, policy and institution.
MGT576- Experimental Economics This is a research-orientated course on the design of economic experiments. It will be run largely like a workshop, where I will first lecture about the basics, then help you find some topic to work on for your two presentations. The first presentation will be a literature review, where you can check and complete your understanding. The 2nd^ will be on an experiment design. There is no content restriction for possible presentation topics. There is a methodological restriction for your 2nd^ presentation: it must be an experimental design. There will be a quiz after my lectures to check understanding.
MGT577- Industrial Organization
