Finance for Macroeconomists (FME)

By Invitation 
Course No.: HQ 10.05
Location: Washington D.C., United States (HQ)
Date: May 03 - May 28 2010 (4 Weeks)
Language: English
Target Audience:
Mid- to senior-level officials in central banks, ministries of finance, and regulatory agencies.
Qualifications:
Participants are expected to have an advanced degree in economics or equivalent experience, and it is important that they are proficient in the use of spreadsheets.
Course Description:
This four-week course, presented by the IMF Institute, examines the role and functions of financial markets and institutions, and their linkages to the macroeconomy. The course begins with an overview of the characteristics of financial instruments and their pricing, as well as investors' portfolio and risk management decisions. It then examines the analytical tools and methods used to extract information about macroeconomic variables from financial prices, as well as to assess the soundness of financial systems and their linkages to macroeconomic activity. Topics include:

- money and capital market instruments;

- bond pricing and credit risk;

- equity pricing and portfolio theory;

- extracting information from the term structure of interest rates;

- introduction to derivatives and their pricing;

- elements of risk management and models;

- finance and business cycles;

- banking and financial crises;

- financial soundness indicators and stress testing.

Workshops are an integral part of the course, and require participants to apply some of the techniques presented in lectures. Participants may also be asked to make short presentations on topics of interest in their countries.