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INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE FINANCE


Professor Michael R. Roberts
The William H. Lawrence Professor of Finance
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides a brief introduction to the fundamentals of finance, emphasizing their
application to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decisionmaking, and financial intermediation. Key concepts and applications include: time value of money,
risk-return tradeoff, cost of capital, interest rates, retirement savings, mortgage financing, auto
leasing, capital budgeting, asset valuation, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, net present value,
internal rate of return, hurdle rate, payback period.
COURSE MATERIALS
The course materials consist of short videos containing the lectures for the course, and problem sets
to be completed at the end of each week.
Each topic is largely self-contained but the lectures are best viewed sequentially as many lectures
build off of preceding ones. The purpose of each lecture is to introduce a concept and illustrate its
usage. Mastery of the concept comes from working the problems.
I want to emphasize this last point. The full value of the course can only be realized through a
combination of viewing the videos and working the problems at the end of each week. The problems
have been designed to mimic, as much as possible, financial problems that you will confront in your
personal and professional life. While I provide detailed solutions to the problems, I strongly
encourage you to first work the problems without looking at the solution. Even if your answer is
incorrect or you are unable to even come to a solution, there is value to just thinking about how to
solve the problem.
PROBLEM SETS
The goal of the problem sets is to provide you the opportunity to practice and apply your skills. The
problem sets do not count towards your grade. How much you want to practice, i.e., how many
problems you do, is entirely up to you. Some people like a lot of problems, others dont. I wanted to
make sure to offer a large number of problems for those of you who want the extra
practice. Problem sets will be available Tuesdays at noon, Eastern Daylight Time, to give you
time to familiarize yourself with the lectures before attempting the problem sets. Answers for,

and explanations of, the problem sets will be posted at the beginning of each week, on Monday
morning, after the deadline for the problem set.
ASSESSMENT
There will be an exam at the conclusion of the course (after Week 4). The format will be somewhat
similar to that of the problem sets, which offer the best form of preparation.
Course Topic Outline
Topic 1: Time Value of Money
1.1

Intuition, tools, and discounting, Problem Set 1.1

1.2
1.3

Compounding, Problem Set 1.2


Useful shortcuts, Problem Set 1.3

1.4

Taxes, Problem Set 1.4

1.5

Inflation

Topic 2: Interest Rates


2.1
2.2

APR and EAR, Problem Sets 2.1


Term Structure, Problem Sets 2.2

Topic 3: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis (DCF)


3.1
3.2

Decision Making
Free Cash Flow, Problem Set 3.2

3.3
3.4

Forecast Drivers
Forecasting Free Cash Flow

3.5
3.6

Decision Criteria
Sensitivity Analysis

Topic 4: Return on Investment


4.1

Return on Investment, Problem Set 4.1

Course Schedule
The following schedule partitions the modules so that the video duration is roughly uniform over the
four weeks.

Week 1:
1.1 Intuition, tools, and discounting: Video (14 min)
1.2 Compounding: Video (8.5 min),
1.3 Useful shortcuts: Video (13.5 min),
1.4 Taxes: Video (8.5 min),
Practice Problems: Problem Set 1.1, Problem Set 1.2
Week 2:
1.5 Inflation: Video (10.5 min)
2.1 APR and EAR: Video (12.5 min)
2.2 Term Structure: (15 min),
3.1 Decision Making: Video (8.5 min)
Practice Problems: Problem Set 1.3, Problem Set 1.4
Week 3:
3.2 Free Cash Flow: Video (13 min),
3.3 Forecast Drivers: Video (15 min)
3.4 Forecasting Free Cash Flow: Video (21 min)
Practice Problems: Problem Set 2.1, Problem Set 2.2
Week 4:
3.5 Decision Criteria: Video (10 min)
3.6 Sensitivity Analysis: Video (20 min)
4.1 Return on Investment: Video (17 min),
Practice Problems: Problem Set 3.2, Problem Set 4.1
FINAL EXAM
You must score 50% or greater on the final exam to pass the course.

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