Investments in EmergingMarkets

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will offer a unique investors point of view of Emerging Markets (EM) starting with an emphasis on different characteristics of frontier, emerging and developed markets indices. Analyzing portfolio asset allocation decisions within EM countries will be general theme of this course. Economic theory and accompanying evidence will be extensively employed to identify and explain sources of relative equity market returns between EM countries. Relative performance trends within a country, at sector or individual stock level, will also be discussed in detail. Investment vehicles available to today’s global investors will be presented with real live examples including ETFs, Closed End Funds, Depository Receipts, locally listed stocks, bonds and derivative instruments. Limits to market efficiency, restrictive or unpredictable regulatory frameworks, transaction costs and ownership limitations still create headwinds to investors in emerging markets, but improvements in fiscal & monetary policies and relative political stability offer unique investment opportunities for the next decade or the next century according to some strong believers of Emerging Markets story. While keeping the main focus on rationale of portfolio investments in emerging market countries, the course will also cover theoretical foundations of economic growth, business cycles and macro-economic policy in EM countries. SFS graduate students only. All others with the permission of the IBD program.