Course content
Important note: Due to the discussion-based character of the course, electronic devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones are NOT allowed in class.
The primary overall aim of this course is to give the students a contextual and critical understanding of finance and financial institutions and their role in society. The course provides the students with an opportunity to bring together the knowledge and skills they have attained from earlier courses and to allow them to put their future courses into a context that brings together economic, political, social and cultural – or, broadly conceived, institutional – developments. This course will allow the students to use their empirical and theoretical skills but it will also force them to think out of the box, and to consider the often path dependent and time and space specific character of institutions, markets and organizations.
The course is not a finance or corporate finance course and it is not a strategy course, but it does encourage students to draw on their competencies within these areas. The course also provides the students with a critical, contextual and institutional foundation for further study in these fields.
Over the last 20-30 years, the international financial sector has developed into an economically highly important as well as a culturally and politically contested industry. In particular, the 2007-2009 financial crisis has stressed the importance of the financial sector in the economy as a systemic breakdown was averted only by massive public intervention in financial markets. This intervention has led to other problems of economic, social and political character. Global economic and financial imbalances such as increasing inequality and protectionism seems to be accelerating in parallel with a rise of populism, economic and political nationalism and fragmentation of Western societies.
As a result, the interplay between the financial markets and firms and society has become topical and much debated. Do we need more regulation of the financial sector, or smarter regulation, or is the problem the exact opposite that too much state intervention in markets have led to moral hazard and allowed rent seeking by huge financial actors? At the more general societal level, the crisis has provoked a new confrontation between protectionist, Keynesian and neo-liberal (and Austrian) approaches to the market, the economy and society in general.
Moreover, even financial players question the shareholder value model as inequality and polarization increase. In general it seems fair to say that Western societies are in search for a new narrative that can – once again – shape a coherent vision for a better society.
This course aims to provide students with an opportunity to think about and discuss these issues and how they relate to societal changes more generally.
See course description in course catalogue