Course descriptions

This course is an examination of the concepts, theorems and problems which are fundamental to an understanding of economic decision making. Emphasis is on the real-life examples of fundamental concepts and application of quantitative methods to the solution of individual decision-making problems of households, firms and industries.

This is an introductory course in macroeconomics. The course is designed to introduce students to the essential concepts of macroeconomics. The approach is both analytical and policy oriented. Macroeconomics looks at the big picture of the economy. The course focuses on understanding the main macroeconomic problems, such as recession, inflation, and unemployment. In addition, the course analyses how fiscal and monetary policies can be used to influence macroeconomic performance and long-term growth.

Kuwait Economy will address the economic issues surrounding Kuwait. International trade, energy economics, cartels, optimal extraction rates, the Central Bank of Kuwait, and foreign investment issues are some of the topics that will be discussed. The class will draw on Kuwait’s rich history for examples and classroom discussions. Students are required to have taken introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics previously.

This course is projected to help students understand the connections between money, financial markets, the banking sector and the macro-economy. How are interest rates determined and behave? How does the Federal Reserve (and central banks in general) conduct monetary policy? The course dedicates specific attention to the banking sector with an emphasis on their function, position, and importance in financial markets. Topics will include the role of the Federal Reserve as a lender of last resort during the recent, and previous, financial crises, unconventional monetary policy tools such as quantitative easing and forward guidance. We will often begin class with a discussion of current macro-financial market events in the context of our course coverage.

This course will provide an analytical framework for the understanding of the reasons for international trade in products and services. Students will learn to identify the determinants and patterns of international trade, and the effects on exchange rates of international capital flows in a free global market economy. The course will cover the role of international institutions in the development of international trade, financial markets, and economic growth. Students will be introduced to policies that distort international trade and prevent the development of comparative advantage, specialization and economic development.

This course is a survey of economic growth as applied to developed and developing countries. The course will include an analysis of development policies with emphasis on case studies.

International Energy Markets develops the basic economic foundations, technical and institutional knowledge necessary to formulate and implement sound economic, business and governmental policy decisions as they relate to international energy industries and institutions. This course will assist the student in understanding international energy markets, pricing, policies, and profits. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the energy markets from a producing country’s point of view.

We are living in an explosive era of readily available Big Data and statistics. Billions of users of cell phones, internet, GPS and medical devices generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data every day. The demand for analysts that can untangle and generate creative applications from this deluge of new data has never been higher across all walks of life. The course is designed to provide an understanding of fundamental concepts of data analysis and to use statistical and probabilistic thinking in the context of the modern business world. Particular emphasis will be placed on applying the theory to practical, real-world examples to enhance skills as an analyst, manager and observer of the world in general.

This course is an introduction to the applications of economics as a science and a profession. The course introduces students to the skills and tools that make economics an attractive and enjoyable field as an overview of economic data and current debates. The course builds on the knowledge that the student acquired in the principles classes and applies it to a variety of economic issues around the globe.

This course is an examination of the concepts, theorems and problems which are fundamental to an understanding of economic decision making. Emphasis is on the real-life examples of fundamental concepts and application of quantitative methods to the solution of individual decision making problems of households, firms and industries.

This course applies microeconomic analysis to specific business decisions. Managerial economics welds together microeconomic theory and the insights of management science in a decision-making format. This course concerns both theory and practice. Emphasis will be placed on demand analysis and estimation, production and cost analysis under different market conditions, and business and economic forecasting.

Natural Resource Economics considers the efficient and equitable use of society’s scarce natural resources. Natural resources include minerals, oil, fish, water and environmental systems. Natural resource use will be considered from three perspectives: the market allocation of natural resources, efficient and equitable allocations, and government attempts to achieve a more efficient and equitable allocation. The course will study in detail when the market is, and is not, capable of efficiently allocating natural resources.

The course will cover the following topics: construction of statistical models, especially the use of statistical tools and techniques such as chi-square tests of independence, analysis of variance, simple and multiple linear regressions and correlation, and the use of extrapolating methods such moving average and exponential smoothing.

Econometrics is concerned with how to use statistical methods and procedures for economic data. Econometrics techniques have been increasingly used in macroeconomics and applied microeconomics. It is concerned with estimating relationships, testing theories, and evaluating and forecasting impacts of business decisions. This course is designed to provide the students with sufficient knowledge of statistics and econometrics to be able to evaluate and interpret econometrics research that use basic linear regression methods. After completion of this course, students should be able to perform tasks of data collection, modeling of econometrics relationships, estimating and testing of the model, and interpreting and using the estimation results.

This course will cover special topics in Economics that are not covered in other Economics courses.

Managerial economics is a branch of economics that applies microeconomics analysis to business decisions. To effectively manage a company, the manager needs to have a good understanding of market mechanisms, consumer behavior, production decisions, costs, competition strategies and internal organization. We will gradually develop these economic concepts and show how they can be applied to managerial decisions. The analysis and principles that we learn in this course will serve as a building blocks for the understanding of other business subjects such as accounting, marketing, corporate finance and human resource management.

This course is designed to have a through understanding of the role of money and banks in the broader economy and the unique role of banks in the financial system. We aim to translate the jargon of money and banking in to plain language. We will shine a light on banking, reveal how central banks operate monetary policy and why they sometimes pursue different approaches in tackling the recent challenges. This course focuses on the interest rates, role of money in the economy, banking industry, central banking monetary theory , the theory that relates changes in the quantity of money to changes in the aggregate economic activity and the price level, how banks play a crucial role in the economy, why financial crises occur, policy responses to those crises and lessons learned associated with recent financial crises. Students will master the fundamentals of the monetary theory and its relevance to policy making.

The main purpose of this course is to help students meet the demand for econometrics and forecasting methods required by employers and decision-makers. Special emphasis will be given to time-series models used in business and economic forecasting and the practical application of the procedures discussed through the use of computer exercises. Example of topics are: forecasting with regression models, heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional, auto-correlation and time-series models, and causality analysis. The course is taught in a computer lab with a two hour lecture and a one hour tutorial per week. The most up to date software will be utilized and details will be given in the course outlines.

Focuses on energy resource valuation, economic incentives, and institutional arrangements that allow us to analyze energy's use as a natural resource and provide the means to develop effective decision tools useful for policy planning and decision making in the energy market place.

Topics in Economics

Advanced Topics in Economics

The course introduces students to the principles, concepts and practices of corporate financial management, and the theories and applications underlying the financial decision making process. The major topics covered include financial statement analysis, risk and returns, time value of money, valuation of stocks and bonds, capital structure and its cost, and capital budgeting.

Corporate Finance focuses on financial decision-making and its impact on the economic value of the firm. The course provides practical applications and is based on modern financial theory, with an emphasis on valuation and risk management. The course focuses on four major parts in corporate finance. Part one: risk and the required rate of return. This part examines cost of capital. Part two: long term investment decisions. This part examines capital budgeting techniques, capital budgeting cash flows, risk and refinement in capital budgeting. Part three: Long-term financial decisions. This part examines leverage and capital structure, in addition to payout policy. Part four: Short-term financial decision. This part examines working capital and current asset management, in addition to current liabilities management. Throughout the topics covered, this course reviews the ethical and financial implications of business decisions and their impact on the value of the firm.

This course provides students with a thorough understanding of the application of quantitative models in finance. While the finance theory is briefly reviewed, the majority of course consists of hands-on application of modeling, examination of different approaches to building financial models. The course emphasizes on the use of real financial data and familiarizes students with various sources and uses of financial data. The course covers various financial information sources as well as technologies as they relate to the modeling applications. It also utilizes various financial functions in Excel.

This course is an introductory investment course that focuses on practical applications as well as analytical aspects of investment theories. This course provides an overview about the investment background, introduces the developments in investment theory, the investment evaluation principles and practices. More precisely, this course overviews the investment process, asset allocation decision, global market investment decision. Also, it provides the basic knowledge about securities markets, security market indexes, and capital market efficiency. In addition, this course presents an introduction to portfolio management, asset pricing models and multifactor models of risk and return, keeping in mind the ethical dimensions in making the investment decisions.

This course is developed to provide students with detailed understanding of identifying financial risks facing financial institutions, namely interest rate risk, market risk, credit risk (individual loan risk and loan portfolio and concentration risk), off-balance sheet risk, foreign exchange risk, and country and liquidity risks. The course will focus on the impact made on firms' profitability and owners' equity.

Real Estate is a multi-faceted field, encompassing both an operating industry and a broad category of investments. It has its institutional features, jargon, and investment structure. This course provides a broad overview of the real estate field. This co covers the fundamentals of real estate investments including the wide range of instruments for financing, investing, controlling risk available in today's financial markets, organizations, structuring of real estate securitization and participant the market. It requires the application of financial and economic analysis.

The purpose of the course is to introduce financial thinking, tools and techniques adapted to the realm of entrepreneurship. The course introduces the theories, knowledge and financial tools an entrepreneur and investment banker require to start, build and harvest a successful venture. The course will include how and when to interact with financial institutions and regulatory agencies to take a venture to its potential and provide the return and liquidity to its shareholders.

This course establishes the ability to read banks' financial statements, discuss the different bank accounts, and represent the basics of banks' ratio analysis. Besides, this course describes the potential risks banks face in their daily operations, and the types of exposures they deal while giving more emphasis on the credit risk by representing the assets- liability management (gap management) concept. Also, this course provides an application of financial management concepts to the liquidity management, investment portfolio analysis, capital budgeting, and capital structure decision-making process required by a commercial and Islamic bank to perform its financial intermediation role within the financial system's institutional, regulatory, and competitive environment effectively.

The course shall assist students in understanding the wide range of instruments for financing, investing and controlling risk available in today's financial markets. The course also involves learning about participants in financial markets. governments and financial business and households. In addition, applying financial and economic models and theories to evaluate various securities and portfolios shall take place along with covering the organizations and the structuring of capital markets and financial operations.

This is an introductory course to Islamic Banking and Finance. Here, a historical background of Islamic Banking and Finance is discussed alongside the mechanics of Islamic financing and investment tools; rules and regulations governing Islamic financial contracts; Islamic mode of financing; Islamic financial instruments, risk, uncertainty (gharar), interest (riba). A comparative analysis will be made between conventional and Islamic banking & finance to critically explore the problems, challenges and prospects of Islamic banking and finance industry. This exposure will help our students understand the application of Shariah principles in banking & finance operations, products and services. In addition, the Islamic business ethics will be discussed at an introductory level in a setting where students take active participation to share their knowledge, views and experiences.

This course will equip our students with practical understanding of Islamic banking and finance such as Islamic law of contracts, Islamic banking activities, corporate governance in Islamic financial institutions, Islamic asset and fund management, Islamic bond market (Sukuk) and Islamic insurance (Takaful). This course will involve discussions regarding the mobilization of funds in the light of various prohibitions as well as how these funds are channeled in conformity with Islamic law (Sharia). This course will enable our students to develop intellectual capacity to critically analyze the various aspects of Sharia principles related to financial products and services offered by Islamic financial institutions alongside Islamic business ethics. According to Islamic business ethics, ethics governs all aspects of life, and it preaches that ethics provides essential support for maximizing long-term business value. This course will prepare our students to succeed in the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) exam from Securities and Investment Institute, UK..

The objective of the course is to introduce the students to the theory and practice of portfolio management. Topics included are formulation of appropriate portfolio objectives, alternative asset-allocation techniques, portfolio revision, criteria for evaluating investment portfolios, and the analysis of various investment constraints. The course will employ different equity and bond portfolio management techniques in addition to covering the essentials to professional asset management.

The course explores the risk management issues facing firms and individuals, examining how to protect firm value and personal wealth. It covers the areas of general risk management process, property and liability insurance, life and health. insurance, annuities and employee benefits. The insurance industry and regulatory concerns are also addressed. In addition, the course touches on some of the new products emerging in the risk management arena and how the insurance industry responds to them.

This course focuses on capital budgeting and long-term financing decisions. All major topics concerned with strategic investment decisions are covered in the course, including investment value measurements, cash flow analyses, risk assessments, and capital structure/financing analyses. The use of cases and problems will be emphasized throughout the course. The cases and problems will provide the opportunity to apply concepts and methods presented in the text and lectures. Course Objectives and Outcomes This course will enable the students to: 1. Analyze the application of firms’ long-term financial decision-making process, and explore the detail description of the capital budgeting process. 2. Identify the theoretical foundations in capital budgeting models and the applications of these models for valuation purposes. 3. Use the computer skill of MS Excel and have access to a computer spreadsheet program. Although such a program is not a required part of the course, students will be able to identify those certain cases and problems will be easier and faster to solve with a spreadsheet program.

This course focuses on international financial management and international foreign exchange markets. The course undertakes an in-depth overview of the multinational corporation business, risks of international operations, the international flow of funds among countries, the international financial markets, and the foreign exchange determinates. A significant part of this course introduces how governments can affect exchange rates changes and how such changes can affect the economy. Furthermore, this course explores the relationship between inflation, interest rates and currency values.

The entrepreneurial startup community is aggressively developing new Financial Technology, "Fintech", applications which are dramatically changing the way financial services and products are delivered. Some commentators foresee a revolution in finance, where there will be no need for brick-and-mortar branches, investment counselors, or even physical money itself. The reality is likely to be more gradual adoption and integration of innovative technology and mobile applications into the existing financial system. The course gives a broad understanding on the current and emerging technologies around money and payments, markets and consumer experience, and explores key ideas, principles, and frameworks around FinTech. It covers the economic, regulatory, and technological impact of the Fintech industry.

This course is designed for students to analyze the promises and challenges of crowdfunding and look closely at impact investing. The course examines peer-to-peer lending and its effect on the consumer credit landscape and marketplace lending. The course helps the students to develop analytical skills to exploit opportunities to use financial technologies to improve financial health. The course demonstrates peer-to-peer lending platforms as an alternative method to finance debt to better analyze the methodology behind fintech companies that refinance loans for consumers.

The course provides a comprehensive understanding of current and emerging technologies in the financial industry, specifically in the areas of money, payment methodologies, markets, and consumer experience. Through exploration of key ideas, principles, and frameworks around FinTech and using a related software, students gain insights into the technological applications of finance and exposure to new FinTech services. Additionally, the course analyzes modern-day investment strategies that utilize FinTech and examines how FinTech is emerging as an entrepreneurial solution for both investments and payment systems. By the end of the course, students will have a deep understanding of the latest developments and trends in FinTech, empowering them to engage with this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.

This course introduces students to the principles, concepts and practices of corporate financial management, and the theories and applications underlying the financial decision-making process. The major topics covered include financial statement analysis, risk and returns, time value of money, valuation of stocks and bonds, capital structure and its cost, and capital budgeting.

Given the importance of derivatives and the dynamic risk management industry, this course is expected to provide students with the basic necessary knowledge regarding derivatives and risk management in the field of finance. This course is mainly structured to cover options first, followed by forwards, futures and swaps. The first part of the course will present an overview of the subject by introducing the basis characteristics of options and their markets, together with the fundamental principles of pricing options. Under this concern, the simple binomial model for pricing options, the Black-Sholes- model which is the premier tool for pricing options-, in addition to option trading strategies will be introduced as well. Forwards, futures and swaps will be given in part two, which introduces the basic characteristics of forwards and futures markets. The second part will present the principals of pricing forwards, futures, also, options on future contracts will be introduced. Some of the hedging strategies will be provided throughout the third part of the course.

Special Topics in Finance

This capstone course offers the students the opportunity to apply their academic experience to conduct an experiential learning project in a designated field in a practical manner. Students will work in teams where they will read a case to analyze an existing business or engage in a business simulation. This experience will allow the students to gain a better understanding of everything they have learned through hands-on experience so that they can be better prepared for the workforce. This course will improve the investment literacy of the students by applying the theory with equity analysis and investment discussions. The course aims to give the students the credibility and knowledge they need to compete for the positions in the investment profession. Students will be able to perform equity research to a publicly listed company from Boursa Kuwait. This research will expose the students to the full cycle of the analysis including and not limited to financial analysis, industry and competitors' analysis, assumptions and projections basis, financial modeling, and valuation methods. The students will learn how to reach to an investment decision based on their professional and solid analysis. The course is applied, industry- and skill-oriented, and applicable to many career paths in finance and is a fantastic opportunity to enhance students' resume and overall marketability.

Finance Internship

The course contains an introduction to the concepts of risk and return, sources and uses of funds and elements of Corporate Finance. There is also a brief introduction to financial markets, institutions and instrument, as well as project appraisal using the concepts of net present value and internal rate of return.

This course will deal with in-depth analysis of issues in corporate finance. Topics include financial asset pricing, risk and return, short-term and long-term investment decisions, the choice of capital structure, dividend policy, and mergers and acquisitions.

This course focuses on an analysis of the measurement and management of market, credit and operational risk. The subject involves the study of both financial and operational techniques of exposure to interest rate and foreign exchange risk as the two main types of financial risk. Basel II Accord on the measurement and management of credit and operational risk is also reviewed.

Exposure to Shariah Rules and Regulations governing financial activities: Islamic law of contracts, Islamic mode of financing , and issue related to Islamic money market, Islamic capital market, Islamic instruments, risk, uncertainty, gharar, interest / usury (riba) , gambling, etc.

This course will focus on the study of the foreign exchange market and other international markets as a background to the analysis of international financial operations, including arbitrage, hedging, speculation, investment and financing. International parity conditions are examined critically as they relate to business decision making.

FinTech is the label for increasingly technological approaches to the main financial intermediation functions. In today's FinTech businesses, consumers bank via mobile apps integrated into social media and institutions trade electronically. Fundamentals of Financial Technology (FinTech) course introduces the theory and practice of FinTech, as well as, it has been designed to educate students in a systemic approach to understanding disruption in the context of digitalization and enables them to build better firms with an opportunity to launch new FinTech ventures and harness new technology. The course gives a broad understanding on the current and emerging technologies around money and payments, markets, and consumer experience, and explores key ideas, principles, and frameworks around FinTech.