J.V. (Jules) Tinang Nzesseu, Dr

Empirical methods: This course prepares Master’s students in International Financial Management to write their final thesis. The bulk of the course focuses on how to draw a valid causal inference from observed data to answer a research question. The course begins with the linear regression model (ordinary least squares method) emphasizing the underlying assumptions, and from there, it discusses the implications of violating each of the assumptions as well as the solutions. The course covers in particular the methods of instrumental variables, difference-in-difference, regression discontinuity, panel data analysis, models with the qualitative dependent variable, and time series. Stata is the software used in this course.

Financial Econometrics: This course is dedicated to students in Master of Economics, operational Research, and actuarial science. It aims to provide students with common advanced techniques used in the analysis of stock market returns both in time series and in cross-section. These techniques have been widely used in finance research papers and have become necessary assets in the finance student's portfolio. The course covers in particular the analysis of events on the financial markets, the testing of factor models, the generalized method of moments for asset pricing, predictability of asset returns, portfolio optimization, the equity premium puzzle, and consumption-based asset pricing models. For each topic covered in this course, a presentation is made of the financial and econometric theories underlying the analysis techniques which are then applied to real data. R (mainly) and Python are the software used in this course.

Intermediate asset pricing: This course dedicated to students in the 3rd year of a Bachelor's degree in economics presents the financial markets and in particular the financial assets which are traded on these markets. In particular, it discusses modern portfolio theory and the valuation model for financial assets. it discusses the efficient market hypothesis and introduces the behavioral finance theory. The course also covers debt instruments and their associated yields, equity valuation models, as well as the evaluation of fixed-income securities and options. The central themes throughout this course are the informational efficiency of the financial markets and the trade-off between risk and return.

Supervision of students’ theses for Master in Finance, Master in International Financial Management, Master in Econometrics, Operational Research, and Actuarial Sciences, and Bachelor in Economics and operational research (324 hours): I coach around ten students each year in writing their final thesis. My role consists in particular in reviewing the thesis proposal to make sure that the research question is interesting and the hypotheses are well formulated. Then, follow up on the student's progress in the various editorial phases, notably the literature review, the formulation of the empirical model, the data collection, the data analysis method, and the interpretation of the results. I also played the role of assessor for around 30 Master’s and Bachelor’s theses a year.