This course aims at raising awareness and scrutiny of students to possible ethical challenges firms, managers and employees face when thinking about financial laws and enforcement, with an economic perspective and illustrated with real-life and up-to-date examples. The scope of unethical financial behaviors covers mostly market abuses, with price manipulation, insider trading, and communication of false information (in particular accounting frauds). This course should contribute to a better understanding of how ethical issues play a role in finance and how they may conflict with firms’ strategies and of how managers’ and employees’ decisions can impact financial markets and investors’ wealth.
The ultimate goal of this Ethics and Finance course is to prepare students to potential ethical dilemmas they might face along their careers. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to challenge and put into perspective the financial behavior of firms (financial institutions and listed firms in particular) in terms of ethics, from an economic perspective.
