Undergraduate Courses
Undergraduate Courses
Climate Finance: An Economic and Financial Approach to Climate Change
Climate change presents one of the central challenges of our generation, with a wide range of possible effects on financial markets and the broader economy. This class: (i) Thinks about the effect of climate change on the overall economy; (ii) Studies the risks and opportunities that climate change hold for firms and financial institutions (distinguishing between a variety of types of risk, including transition risk and regulatory risk); (iii) Discusses how financial markets can help transfer and hedge climate risk; (iv) Explores the economic and financial foundations of potential climate regulation; (v) Analyzes how climate risk interacts with other risks, such as the risk of future pandemics.
Managing Climate, Cyber, Geopolitical, and Financial Risk
Businesses and governments now face a growing and immediate array of nonfinancial risks, including climate-related, cyber and operational, and geopolitical risks. Precisely because these critical risks are hard to measure and analyze, firms are putting new resources - people and money - to work to anticipate, manage and mitigate them. To address cybersecurity risks, for example, JP Morgan alone has 3000 employees and spends $600 million annually. Firms are only starting to grapple with existential climate-related risks. And startups are mushrooming to provide assessments to businesses. This course will study these risks alongside financial risks. It will outline frameworks for measuring, assessing and analyzing them, and for actions needed to meet them. We will examine case studies of climate, cyber, and geopolitical risks, including from current events. Finally, we will study whether and how the information in financial markets can both inform the assessment of these risks and potentially provide tools to transfer, insure against, or hedge them.
Renewable Energy and Electric Vehicles
We analyze renewable energy and electric vehicles industries from the perspective of entrepreneurs, managers, and investors by examining the following: (1) Financial statements of renewable energy companies and electric vehicles companies; (2) Their business drivers and trends; (3) Simplified financial models of renewable energy projects.
Driving Market Solutions for Clean Energy
This course is designed to provide students with a rich understanding of the economy-wide energy transitions that are needed in the United States to help curb climate change, with an emphasis on how the private sector can drive such changes. As relevant background, the course will cover energy-related macroeconomic concepts and trends, and provide environmental and international context. It will draw on the instructor's diverse experiences, readings and other media, classroom discussions, case studies, visiting speakers, and group projects, to explore and debate how such ambitious but necessary transformations may be brought about.
Theory & Practice of Sustainable Investing
21st century investors face a broadening and deepening array of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. Climate change, water scarcity, community conflict, resource depletion, supply chain breakdowns, worker well-being, and economic inequality pose material challenges that make sustainability an imperative for successful investors and the companies they choose to invest in. This course will couple theory with the practice of Sustainable Investing (SI). We will examine current ESG investment and corporate strategies, trends, future scenarios, players, and frameworks and integrate that theory with practical investment performance analysis, metrics, and studies of data, screens, asset classes, and diversification.
Sustainability for Competitive Advantage
In this course, students will develop an effective leadership perspective through pursuit of the following learning objectives: 1) to become familiar with the key environmental and social issues affecting business today, 2) to understand the evolution of corporate response—from compliance to engagement to innovation, 3) to develop some of the skills required for leading in this new social and political environment (e.g. multi-stakeholder management), 4) to explore the efficiencies and innovations being developed by corporate leaders in pursuit of sustainability, 5) to explore innovations in sustainable finance, 6) to become familiar with the latest consumer insight research on sustainability, 7) be able to design an effective embedded sustainability strategy that will deliver competitive advantage. In short, this course is multi-disciplinary, and seeks to integrate across the functions of the firm to arrive at an effective firm-wide leadership sensibility.
Business and The Environment
Environmental problems typically arise from “market failures.” This course examines several environmental issues at local, national, and international levels, with a particular focus this year on energy and climate change, but also briefly on water and population. Drawing on the theories of externalities, market failure, and mechanism design, it explores the causes of these problems and some of the potential remedies, including government regulation, “cap-and-trade,” and carbon taxes, as well as potential related business opportunities. The schedule will include lectures by relevant industry representatives.
Accounting for Sustainability
The course provides practical knowledge and insights for: 1) integrating sustainability indicators into daily decision‐making from a managerial, internal perspective; 2) disclosing and interpreting sustainability information using several international reporting frameworks such as: SASB, GRI, TCFD, and CDP; and 3) assessing ESG performance from an analyst, external perspective.