Courses

Indigenous people in Ecuador, which represent about 7% of the Ecuadorian population (United Nations, 2015), are disproportionately poor compared with the rest of the population. In 2008 the country embarked on an effort to improve their situation by creating and approving a new constitution. Despite all of these efforts, indigenous people continue to struggle in Ecuador. For indigenous women specially the battle goes beyond the economic hardship, as they face domestic violence and abuse in a daily basis. 

The proposed course is designed to provide students with a unique one-to-one interaction with Spanish native speakers in three different sites: the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest Reservation of Papallacta, the Reservation of Mandaripanga, and the Runatupari Community in the Andean Region of Ecuador.  It aims to:

1. Explore, learn and document the work some indigenous groups have been doing since the new constitution was approved back in 2008.

2. Provide students with a service-learning opportunity working hand in hand when possible with women community leaders at the different sites.

3. Learn about how their communities work to preserve their resources and maintain a sustainable culture.

4. Immerse themselves in the Spanish language and culture by interacting, sharing, and living with native Spanish speakers.

5. Have student produce a focused final essay linking the key concepts from the readings and their lived experiences in the communities visited.

Students will be introduced to the fundamental financial issues of the modern corporation. By the end of this course, students will understand the basic concepts of financial planning, managing growth; debt and equity sources of financing and valuation; capital budgeting methods; and risk analysis, cost of capital, and the process of securities issuance.

Prerequisites: BUSI PS5001 Introduction to Finance/or Professor Approval is required Students will learn the critical corporate finance concepts including financial statement analysis; performance metrics; valuation of stocks and bonds; project and firm valuation; cost of capital; capital investment strategies and sources of capital, and firm growth strategies. At the end of this course students will understand how to apply these concepts to current business problems. 

The course seeks to familiarize students with the basic derivatives (futures and options contracts).  Both have played a role in the markets for many-many years (before the emergence of modern derivative markets in the 70s).  Following the beginning of standardization at CBOE (1973) we have witnessed a dramatic growth in options markets and options are now traded on many exchanges around the world (CBOE, PHLX, NYSE etc.) Huge volumes of options are also traded over the counter (OTC), particularly on foreign exchange and interest rates.  Many options are traded daily in the markets on a wide array of underlying assets from commodities to financial instruments (stocks, bonds, indexes, currencies, futures etc.) to… weather! The appearance of exotic options has driven volumes even higher in the OTC market providing investors with even wider possibilities for customizing risks borne and hedging against risks. 

Students will examine the generally accepted account principles (GAAP) underlying financial statements and their implementation in practice. The perspective and main focus of the course is from the users of the information contained in the statements, including investors, financial analysts, creditors and, management. By the end of this class students will be able to construct a cash flow statement, balance sheet and decipher a 10K report.

Prerequisites: BUSI PS5020 Introduction to Marketing/or Professor Approval is required Students will develop analytical skills used to formulate and implement marketing driven strategies for an organization. Students will develop a deeper understanding of marketing strategies and how to implement tactics to achieve desired goals. Students will work on case study projects in both individual and team based projects. By the end of this course, you will be able to develop a marketing strategy based on market assessments and company needs.

This course is designed for students interested in entrepreneurship and becoming CEO/Founders or leaders in industry as innovators and operators. The class is appropriate for those with a strong interest in new ventures or innovation at the corporate level, or for those who want to develop an entrepreneurial mindset even if you have no plans to start a business. This includes potential entrepreneurs, those interested in the financing of new ventures, working in new ventures, or a portfolio company, or in broader general management of entrepreneurial firms. Entrepreneurial topics include: the entrepreneurial journey, founders & co-founders, the art of the pitch, shaping opportunities, traditional business models, business models for the greater good, the lean startup method and the hypothesis-driven approach, technology strategy, product testing, marketing strategy, entrepreneurial marketing, venture financing and emerging developments. Academic readings, analysis of case studies, class discussions, independent exercises, reading assessments, team work, guest speakers, investor panels, weekly deliverable options and a final investor pitch are the main modalities used to help you learn and assist you on your entrepreneurial path. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Prerequisites: BUSI PS5001 Intro to Finance and BUSI PS5003 Corporate Finance or Professor Approval required. If you have not taken PS5001 or PS5003 at Columbia University, please contact the course instructor for approval. Students will learn about the valuation of publicly traded equity securities. By the end of the semester students will be able to perform fundamental analysis (bottoms-up, firm-level, business and financial analysis), prepare pro forma financial statements, estimate free cash flows and apply valuation models.

Prerequisites: some high school algebra. Designed for students in fields that emphasize quantitative methods. This course satisfies the statistics requirements of all majors except statistics, economics, and engineering. Graphical and numerical summaries, probability, theory of sampling distributions, linear regression, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing are taught as aids to quantitative reasoning and data analysis. Use of statistical software required. Illustrations are taken from a variety of fields. Data-collection/analysis project with emphasis on study designs is part of the coursework requirement.

Prerequisites: some high school algebra. Designed for students in fields that emphasize quantitative methods. This course satisfies the statistics requirements of all majors except statistics, economics, and engineering. Graphical and numerical summaries, probability, theory of sampling distributions, linear regression, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing are taught as aids to quantitative reasoning and data analysis. Use of statistical software required. Illustrations are taken from a variety of fields. Data-collection/analysis project with emphasis on study designs is part of the coursework requirement.

Prerequisites: working knowledge of calculus (differentiation and integration). Designed for students who desire a strong grounding in statistical concepts with a greater degree of mathematical rigor than in STAT W1111. Random variables, probability distributions, pdf, cdf, mean, variance, correlation, conditional distribution, conditional mean and conditional variance, law of iterated expectations, normal, chi-square, F and t distributions, law of large numbers, central limit theorem, parameter estimation, unbiasedness, consistency, efficiency, hypothesis testing, p-value,confidence intervals. maximum likelihood estimation. Satisfies the pre-requisites for ECON W3412.

Prerequisites: working knowledge of calculus (differentiation and integration). Designed for students who desire a strong grounding in statistical concepts with a greater degree of mathematical rigor than in STAT W1111. Random variables, probability distributions, pdf, cdf, mean, variance, correlation, conditional distribution, conditional mean and conditional variance, law of iterated expectations, normal, chi-square, F and t distributions, law of large numbers, central limit theorem, parameter estimation, unbiasedness, consistency, efficiency, hypothesis testing, p-value,confidence intervals. maximum likelihood estimation. Satisfies the pre-requisites for ECON W3412.