Rigorous coursework to prepare students for careers in industry and academia.
Faculty have created cutting edge courses that provide students with in-demand analytical skills unique to the world of finance-including training in Python, R and Stata. Classes feature rigorous theoretical training paired with hands-on learning from senior industry professionals as guest lecturers. Speakers include Federal Reserve Bank leaders and Wall-Street executives.
Classes are more analytical and quantitatively focused than traditional MS programs in either Economics or Finance. MSFE students are highly sought after for their specialized training in econometrics and financial applications.
“The typical MBA degree in finance should be repurposed and replaced with a more challenging curriculum that blends engineering, computer science, finance and economics into a tool kit for practitioners that seek to work on the edge of the frontier of knowledge. The MSFE does exactly this and thereby provides a pool of talent that is extremely valuable in the areas of multi-asset risk management, capital structure arbitrage, portfolio optimization, and valuation.”
David Villa, Executive Director & Chief Investment Officer, State of Wisconsin Investment Board
MSFE Curriculum
The core of the MSFE Program is six courses in economics and finance. In addition to the core courses, MSFE students will also take a minimum of four electives of their choosing.
The required core courses and electives are listed below.
Students will take the following six core courses.
Core Required Courses
| FIN 720 | Investment Theory and Practice | 3 credits |
| FIN 725 | Corporation Finance – Theory and Practice | 3 credits |
| FIN 730 | Derivative Securities – Theory and Practice | 3 credits |
| ECON 704 | Econometrics I | 3 credits |
| ECON 721 | Financial Microeconomics | 3 credits |
| ECON 724 | Financial Econometrics | 3 credits |
Students will select 12 credits of electives from the below approved list. Six elective credits must be from Economics and six elective credits must be from Finance. For additional information on elective courses, please see the UW Guide: https://guide.wisc.edu/courses/
Electives
| Econ 702 | Macroeconomics I | 3 credits |
| ECON 709 | Economic Statistics and Econometrics I | 3 credits |
| ECON 711 | Economics Theory - Microeconomics Sequence | 3 credits |
| ECON 712 | Economic Theory – Macroeconomics Sequence | 3 credits |
| ECON 725 | Machine Learning for Economists | 3 credits |
| ECON 730 | International Financial Economics | 3 credits |
| ECON 770 | Data Analytics for Economists | 3 credits |
| FIN 410 | Bank Management | 3 credits |
| FIN 635 | Business Valuation | 3 credits |
| FIN 650 | Mergers and Acquisitions | 3 credits |
| FIN 740 | Fixed Income Securities | 3 credits |
| FIN 745 | International Finance | 3 credits |
| FIN 757 | Entrepreneurial Finance | 3 credits |
| FIN 765 | Contemporary Topics | 3 credits |
| FIN 365/765 | Asset Financing | 3 credits |
| FIN 920 | PhD Investment Theory | 3 credits |
| FIN 971 | PhD Corporate Finance | 3 credits |
Total Credits: 30 credits
More information on Required Core Courses
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FIN 720: Investment Theory and Practice
Topics include:
- Structure and securities market functioning
- Principles of portfolio construction
- Models of the trade off between risk and expected return
FIN 725: Corporation Finance – Theory and Practice
Topics include:
- Techniques of capital budgeting under certainty and uncertainty
- Valuation of projects and firms
- Theory of capital structure
- Dividend policy and cost of capital
FIN 730: Derivative Securities – Theory and Practice
Topics include:
- Pricing and uses of the most common derivative contracts
- Trading and management of portfolios
- Advanced mathematical and statistical financial analyses
ECON 704: Econometrics I
Topics include:
- Econometric methods, theory, and applications
- Linear regression, least-squares estimation, inference, and hypothesis testing
ECON 721: Financial Microeconomics
Topics include:
- Programming Pricing Algorithms
- Hands-on Training in Python
- Pricing Fixed-Income Assets (bonds, mortgages) from YTM
- Stochastic Discount Factor Methods
- Modeling Default Risks and Systemic Risks
ECON 724: Financial Econometrics
Topics include:
- Empirical asset returns, capital asset pricing, portfolio allocation
- Linear ARMA & vector autoregressive modeling for estimation and forecasting
- ARCH & stochastic volatility modeling
- Machine learning and big data
Useful Links
Please visit UW’s Course Search and Enroll for an online listing of courses offered in recent terms.
For a full list of courses offered at UW-Madison, please see the course listing in the Guide: https://guide.wisc.edu/courses/