75571 - FINANCIAL ECONOMICS AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Anno Accademico 2021/2022

  • Docente: Elettra Agliardi
  • Crediti formativi: 12
  • SSD: SECS-P/01
  • Lingua di insegnamento: Inglese
  • Modalità didattica: Convenzionale - Lezioni in presenza
  • Campus: Rimini
  • Corso: Laurea Magistrale in Resource economics and sustainable development / economia delle risorse e dello sviluppo sostenibile (cod. 8839)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The purpose of this course is to give a practical understanding of financial risks and of contracts and methods for managing these risks under normal as well as stressful market conditions, such as those that we have experienced in recent years. Students will be able to manage market risk, credit risk, sovereign, and liquidity risk with a number of quantitative techniques. Research seminars are also included, dealing with new issues, i.e. how financial innovation, risk mutation, the increasingly systemic nature of risk, and regulatory changes have made risk management more challenging. A special session will be devoted to the analysis of the mechanics of futures and options applied to energy markets, with special emphasis to the role of convenience yield as crucial pricing tool. Green bonds, weather derivatives and other innovations in climate finance will be discussed in detail. Common hedging procedures by using derivative contracts (butterfly, spreads, and many others) will be strongly emphasized as crucial aspects of the learning process for this course. Specific features related with oil, gas, power and green certificates markets will be described both in terms of pricing and in terms of hedging mechanisms. At the end of the course practical trading cases and simulations will be presented, given their increasing importance for operators.

Contenuti

The purpose of this course is to give  a  practical understanding of financial risks and of contracts and methods for managing these risks under normal as well as stressful market conditions.

Some products of climate finance will be discussed. One of the great achievements of COP21 was the statement that mitigation and adaptation policies involve "making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low GHGs emissions and climate-resilient development". In particular, topics such as green bonds, sustainability bonds, ETFs, energy derivatives will be examined.

Research seminars are also included, dealing with new issues, i.e. how financial innovation, risk mutation, the increasingly systemic nature of risk, and regulatory changes have made risk management more challenging. Special sessions with  in-class group activities will deal with specific financial instruments and methods. A session on real options will provide methods to assess resource extraction, development and management, abatement investment under different policies and global warming risks.

Topics:

1. Prerequisites.

2. Market risk. Definition of financial risk and risk management. Risk measures.

2. The Climate VaR

4. Credit risk. Defaultable bonds.

5. Bonds. Green Bonds. Sustainability Bonds.

6. Derivatives as financial risk management instruments. Examples.

7. Derivatives and hedging strategies. Simulations of dynamic hedging strategies.

8. Credit risk: structural models.

9. Liquidity Risk

10. Energy derivatives

11.(Mis)Calculated Risk and Climate Change.

12. Investment under uncertainty: introduction to real options.A comparison between financial options and real options

13. Some applications of the real option methodology: evaluating environmental investments.

 

 

Testi/Bibliografia

Specialized articles and a reading list will be provided during the course. The reading list will be available in the "Materiale Didattico"  website before each lecture.

 Here are additional suggested textbooks:

- for a general background:

Jeff Madura, Financial Markets and Institutions, 13d ed. South-Western Pub (Cengage), 2020

- for derivatives:

 J. Hull, Risk management and Financial Institutions, Wiley, 2012

- for real options:

A. Dixit and R. Pindyck, Investment under Uncertainty, Princeton University Press, 1996


Metodi didattici

Lectures & seminars/classes. Assessment during onsite lectures. Two flipped classrooms.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The assessment method is based on the evaluation of a written test for the individual preparation. Students are expected to answer ten questions, including multiple-choice, true-false, or short answers. A mock exam as a sample will be provided at least one month before end of lectures. Students are expected to know the basic quantitative methods discussed during lectures and to critically discern the limitations of the methods employed in the analysis. Emphasis is laid upon applications of real options to environmental cases. Assessment during onsite lectures (consisting of mid-Term mock tests, short case studies reports and  flipped classrooms) are also considered.

The maximum possible score is 30 cum laude, in case all anwers are correct, complete and formally rigorous and the other assessment activities above were positive.

The grade is graduated as follows:

<18 failed
18-23 sufficient
24-27 good
28-30 very good
30 e lode excellent

 

Additional information on the assessment method will be discussed during the first lecture.

 

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Lectures and lab classes (on-site/online)

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Elettra Agliardi

SDGs

Energia pulita e accessibile Imprese innovazione e infrastrutture Città e comunità sostenibili Lotta contro il cambiamento climatico

L'insegnamento contribuisce al perseguimento degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile dell'Agenda 2030 dell'ONU.