Swasti Gupta-Mukherjee
Associate Professor of Finance
Why this course
Professor Gupta-Mukherjee has designed a course that not only acknowledges the power of financial markets to address the growing environmental challenges we are facing but has the foresight to understand what will be table-stakes for rapidly adapting financial markets and firms.
This course models what a core introduction to finance course could and should look like. It pinpoints where financial reporting currently falls short and addresses these shortcomings through a truly integrated approach to teaching ESG issues with the basic finance toolkit.
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Course Highlights
Course Philosophy:
Mainstream finance has largely operated separately from environmental and social development. Yet, many sustainability challenges the world faces today will require collaborative and integrated solutions that successfully combine capital market objectives with ethics and sustainability goals. Traditional models in finance describe the roles of the private sector, public sector, and society in a way which does not capture the complexity of how the different stakeholders in an economy are now working, or could work, together to create positive economic, environmental, and social impacts.
Course Objectives:
Demonstrate a foundational understanding of core topics in finance including time value of money, DCF, capital budgeting, valuation of stocks and bonds, risk-return models, cost of capital, asset allocation, and investment management.
Understand how sustainability issues affect decisions made by corporations, institutional investors, and corporate lenders.
Evaluate sustainability risks and opportunities from a financial perspective; understand how to manage/mitigate/communicate those risks.
Understand how innovative strategies and financial instruments can capitalize on opportunities in a changing world, creating economic, environmental, and social value.
Develop a basic understanding of how standard/traditional financial reporting and models are falling short of adequately measuring integrated performance which enhances both shareholder and stakeholder value.
Review diverse case studies in different industries (e.g. social media, agriculture, retail) to understand the implications of sustainability in priority areas of the economy and the way they are reshaping capital markets.
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Biography
Swasti Gupta-Mukherjee is an Associate Professor of Finance at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business. Her research and teaching focuses on capital markets, particularly investments and portfolio management. She is interested in market-based solutions to global challenges which create economic, environmental, and social value for stakeholders, moving business and society towards a more responsible and sustainable capitalism. Her introductory and advanced finance courses apply an integrated and innovation-focused lens to view mainstream finance in relation to sustainability, technological advancement, and social change. Her research has been published in high-impact academic journals, and her recent commentary on how markets can adapt better to climate risk was included in Stanford Social Innovation Review’s “2021 Guide to Climate Change Solutions” by the journal’s editorial board. She holds a PhD in Finance from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.