Fin 202 – Entrepreneurial & Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Essay Project
Weight on final grade 25%
 

Purpose

This case allows students to review, present and critically discuss key findings and arguments from both academic and professional/practitioner research papers, around two crucial topics in financial theory that compare and contrast classical with more modern theories.
 

Instructions

Students need to understand the basic questions emanating from the essay topics. Based on this they should read and understand the key concepts from a variety of relevant academic papers. Upon this, they should review the said relevant papers and produce a literature review structured in a way that addresses the key questions of the topics. The essay should contain arguments that are properly referenced. An argument should be properly justified or referenced in order to have value inside the essay. Avoid using the same source many times. When tables/charts/data are presented, these should be numbered and titled accordingly while their source should be also presented. There should be a flow of content throughout the essay that takes the reader from one argument to the next seamlessly without any logical gaps. The essay should contain the following indicative structure:
 
Indicative structure:

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Introduction (here you introduce the reader to the topic and you outline what you are going to present)
• Main Part (Can contain logical sub-sections)
• Conclusion (here you re-cap what you have presented/found, you present any conclusions you have and you can provide suggestions for future research in the topic)
• References (use the Harvard system and read carefully the general referencing guidelines provided below)

 

Submission

• Assignments should be 2000 words long (excluding abstract, table of contents, references, tables and graphs) with 12-size font and double-spacing between lines. A maximum of +-10% deviation from the word limit is acceptable. Above this you lose 5% for every extra 10% deviation. (if you are 30% above the limit, you lose 10%, 33% you lose 15% etc…)  Assignments must be typed and submitted electronically on the day they are due.
• Where coursework is submitted late and there are no accepted extenuating circumstances it will be penalized in line with the following tariff:

Submission within 6  days: a 10% reduction for each  day late down to the 40% pass mark and no further.
Submission that is late by 7 or more  days: submission refused, mark of 0.
 
 
 
 
 
ESSAY TOPICS:
 
Topic 1: The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) has been considered as a classical – cornerstone asset pricing model in Financial Theory, yet it has faced considerable criticism. Present and discuss the various cases where the CAPM has been tested and criticized. Present a review of some of the alternative models that the critics of CAPM propose, that arguably perform better than the CAPM itself.
 
Topic 2: The 2008 Global Financial Crisis can be considered as a case study where the classical theory of Efficient Markets Hypothesis has failed. A lot of research has been devoted to testing if markets are efficient or not. Critically present and discuss the various  relevant research studies that test for Market Efficiency (testing EMH in other words). Are markets efficient? Are investors rational? If not, what alternative proposals/theories/models have been proposed?
 
 

General referencing rules

• References must comply with the Harvard system (you can consult the ACT library if you are uncertain).
• Your essay must comply with rules governing academic integrity.
• You should avoid plagiarism by citing all the papers that you have used.
• If you quote what others have said, you should place these within quotation marks (“ ”) and cite the source and page number. Do not lift sentences from original sources and insert them into your writing without enclosing them in double-quotation marks. Doing so is tantamount to plagiarism, and your essay will be liable to penalties.
• Use direct quotes very sparingly, if at all, only when it is necessary. In most cases, essays in economics/finance do not need direct quotes, since we are mostly referring to information such as facts, figures, theories, etc. (i.e., you are not referring to artistic or literary works, famous historical remarks or speeches, etc.). This means that you must paraphrase original sentences, rather than depending on direct quotes (paraphrased sentences must be accompanied by parenthetical in-text references).
• Do not cite / refer to “lectures” (this module or otherwise). Refer instead to available sources (mostly books and journal articles) that contain the relevant information.
• Please note that any form of cheating will not be tolerated. The module leader reserves the right to ask you to provide evidence that the essay submitted is your own work. This may require that you attend a viva (oral exam) on the coursework. In particular, you are strongly advised not to copy material from papers, which are available on the internet and present this as your own work. This can be easily detected, and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.