ACCT5420 - Fin Report & Bus Analys (Course Syllabus)
This intensive one-semester course focuses on how to extract and interpret information in financial statements. The course adopts a user perspective of accounting by illustrating several specific accounting issues in a decision context.
ACCT5470 - Fin Disclosure Analytics (Course Syllabus)
This course focuses on the analysis of financial communications between corporate managers and outsiders, including the required financial statements, voluntary disclosures, and interactions with investors, analysts, and the media. The course draws on the findings of recent academic research to discuss a number of techniques that outsiders can use to detect potential bias or aggressiveness in financial reporting. FORMAT: Case discussions and lectures. Comprehensive final exam, group project, case write-ups, and class participation.
ACCT5640 - Climate and Financial Markets (Course Syllabus)
Climate change might be the defining challenge of our times, with a wide range of effects on financial markets and the broader economy. At the same time, financial markets play an important role in financing the transition to a net-zero economy, and incentivizing firms and investors to adapt their strategies. In this course, we examine how climate risks—both physical and regulatory—affect firms, financial markets (including equity, corporate debt, green bonds, municipal bonds, insurance, and carbon markets), and markets for energy, real estate and mortgages. We also examine the role that firms’ disclosures and third-party information sources play. Because financial markets are shaped by the information that is available to market participants, we investigate the impact of ESG reporting and rating agencies, including the costs and benefits of regulating ESG reporting and the impact of greenwashing. In the second part of the course, we study how governments and private investors finance investments in climate technologies. Here, we discuss various financial instruments that have been developed to address climate-change concerns. Given the enormous importance of electrification as a pathway towards a low-carbon future, there is special emphasis on renewable energy finance and economics. We also discuss the latest evidence of how climate risk has shaped decisions inside organizations, such as spin-offs, hedging, and the structure of executive-compensation contracts.
ACCT5700 - Forensic Analytics (Course Syllabus)
Recent trends in Big Data and predictive analytics are revolutionizing the way stakeholders analyze financial data. This course teaches students the hands-on skills necessary to manipulate large-scale financial databases and build predictive models useful for strategic and investment decisions. The course will cover three applications of predictive analytics: (i) forecasting future earnings, (ii) predicting accounting fraud, and (iii) detecting insider trading. The course will draw on cutting-edge academic research in each area; introduce students to the basic SQL coding skills necessary to manipulate Big Data and conduct meaningful analyses; and leverage the datasets and computing power of Wharton Research Data Services. The course is organized as a hybrid of a traditional seminar course and a computer science course. The first few classes of each unit will cover the conceptual material and source material related to each topic. The later classes in each unit will cover the technical material and programming skills needed to manipulate the respective datasets, estimate predication models, and back test algorithms.
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
1300 Steinberg-Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365
Phone: (215) 898-7772
Fax: (215) 573-2054
Email: acct-staff@wharton.upenn.edu