NYUStern School of BusinessB40.2302

Corporate Finance

planned·~150 hours total

Professor

Aswath Damodaran

Textbook

Applied Corporate Finance
Aswath Damodaran · 4th · ISBN 9781118808931

Materials

Damodaran's full MBA corporate finance course at NYU Stern. Available free on his site with every lecture, slide deck, problem set, and exam. The book Applied Corporate Finance mirrors the course.

The core question: how should a firm allocate capital? Three decisions — investment (what projects to take), financing (debt vs equity), dividend (return cash or reinvest). Damodaran is the canonical teacher on this material; clear, opinionated, practical.

Syllabus

Week 1
The objective in corporate finance; first principles
Week 2
Risk and return; the CAPM
Week 3
Risk-free rates and risk premiums
Week 4
Beta estimation; relative valuation of risk
Week 5
Cost of debt; cost of capital
Week 6
Investment decisions; hurdle rates
Week 7
NPV, IRR; measuring investment returns
Week 8
Project analysis; real options
Week 9
Financing mix; the optimal capital structure
Week 10
Moving to the optimal
Week 11
Dividend policy; cash return decisions
Week 12
Valuation; putting it all together