Summer Course: FINA 7A97 - Quantitative Methods in Finance (Review of Math and Stats for Business)

This is an intensive 30-hour course offered before the start of the Fall semester, primarily for entering doctoral students. This course introduces the new Ph.D. and MSF-Q students useful mathematical and statistical tools used in Business and Economics. It will be taught Monday through Friday for 3 hours a day, for two consecutive weeks. The last class (Friday) there will be an exam for the MSF-Q students enrolled in FINA 7A97 and PhD students enrollred in Econometrics I. Classes will start on August 5, 2024 (Monday).
Location: Melcher Hall, Room 210B
Time: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM (during the second week of the class, times may change to adjust for College/University orientations).

Class Organization
This Summer Course will be divided in two parts: Review of Mathematics (4-5 days) and Review of Statistics (4-5 days).

*Mathematics (5 days, usually)
Matrix Algebra and Vector Spaces
Differential Calculus: Univariate and Bivariate
Optimization: Extreme Values and Constrained Optimitization
Integration: Univariate, Multivariate and Numerical Integration
Difference and Differential Equations
Introduction to Stochastic Differential Equations
Dynamic Optimization

Reference books
Mathematical Methods for Economics (2nd Edition), by Michael W. Klein, published by Addison Wesley (2002).
Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, by Alpha C. Chiang, published by the McGraw Hill (1984).
Note: The first four chapters of Klein's book will be assumed to be known by all students. Many parts of the book, like unconstrained univariate optimization, will be assigned and not covered.

Math Lecture notes:
  • Chapter 4: Chapters 4-5 (Part 1)
  • Chapter 4: Chapters 4-5 (Part 2)
  • Chapter 5: Chapter 5
  • Chapter 6: Chapter 6
  • Chapter 7: Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8: Chapter 8
  • Chapter 9: Chapter 9
  • Chapter 10: Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11: Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12: Chapter 12
  • Chapter 12: Chapter 12-Extra
  • Chapter 13: Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14: Chapter 14
  • Chapter 15: Chapter 15


    *Statistics (4 days, usually)
    Fundamentals of Probability Theory
    Random Variables
    Distribution Functions and Moments
    Important Univariate Distributions
    Joint Distributions
    Sampling Distributions
    Parametric Point Estimation
    Stats Lecture notes:
  • Class 1: Lecture 0
  • Class 1: Lecture 1
  • Class 1: Lecture 2
  • Class 1: Lecture 3
  • Class 2: Lecture 4
  • Class 2: Lecture 5
  • Class 2: Lecture 6
  • Class 3: Lecture 7
  • Class 3: Lecture 8
  • Class 4: Lecture 9
  • Class 4: Lecture 10
  • Class 4: Lecture 11


    Reference books
    Statistical Methods In Econometrics, by Ramu Ramanathan, published by the Academic Press (1993).
    Econometric Analysis (2nd or later editions), by William H. Greene, published by the Prentice Hall.
    Note: Greene's book has a nice review of the statistical principles that will be covered in this class. It is the book used in the first Quantitative Methods class offered at the Bauer College.


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