Extra-Semestral Courses with Visiting International Professors

Dear Students,

We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to enrol in the following attractive course in the winter semester of 2025/2026. This course will undoubtedly enrich your economic expertise, develop your language skills, and broaden your horizons beyond the scope of your standard study programme. Upon successful completion, you will earn 3 ECTS credits.

This course falls within the group of oV elective subjects. (Course 5EN382 can be recognised as 5EN381/383.)

Extra-Semesteral Course – 5EN382, Experimental Behavioral Finance
Instructor: Prof. Dr. Philipp Schreiber, Esslingen University

Schedule:

• 3 November 2025: 9:00–12:00, 14:00–17:00
• 4 November 2025: 9:00–12:00, 14:00–17:00
• 5 November 2025: 9:00–12:00, 14:00–17:00
• 6 November 2025: self-study day for the exam
• 7 November 2025: 10:00–12:00 (exam)

Venue: NB 457
Final Exam: 7 November 2025, 10:00–12:00, NB 457
Language of Instruction: English

You may register for the course from 1 September 2025 in the off-semester courses section; registration will remain open until 15 October 2025. Please note that capacity is limited to 20 students.

Couse description: Experimental Behavioral Finance

Learning Outcomes: Behavioral finance applies scientific research on human and social cognitive and emotional biases. After completing this course, students will be able to better understand economic decisions and how they affect market prices and returns. They will know how behavioral findings are integrated with neo-classical theory.

• An introduction to Behavioral Finance
• Market Participants: Biases, purchasing and selling decision & long term savings decisions
• Linking individual investment behavior an market anomalies
• Markets: Efficiency and limits to arbitrage, event studies, calendar anomalies, cross-section predictability

Dear Students,

We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to enrol in the following attractive course in the winter semester of 2025/2026. This course will undoubtedly enrich your economic expertise, develop your language skills, and broaden your horizons beyond the scope of your standard study programme. Upon successful completion, you will earn 3 ECTS credits.

This course falls within the group of oV elective subjects. (Course 5EN383 can be recognised as 5EN381/382.)

Extra-Semestral Course – 5EN383: Chapters in Economics III.: Financial Statements Analysis – A Practical Guide for Economists
Instructor: Dr. Nikolaos Belesis, University of Piraeus

Schedule:

• The first three days consist of lectures, the fourth day is reserved for self-study, and the fifth day for the final exam.

• 19 January: 9:00–16:00

• 20 January: 8:00–16:30

• 21 January: 9:00–16:30

• 22 January: self-study

• 23 January: 10:00–12:00 (final exam)

Venue: NB 472
Final Exam: 23 January 2025, 10:00–12:00, NB 472
Language of Instruction: English

You may register for the course from 15 September 2025 in the extra-semestral courses section; registration will remain open until 17 December 2025. Please note that capacity is limited to 20 students.

Course and Instructor Description

Dr. Nikolaos D. Belesis serves as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Business Administration at the University of Piraeus. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s in Banking and Financial Management from the University of Piraeus. He also completed a postgraduate programme in Auditing (Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Greece) and earned a PhD in Accounting from the University of Piraeus.

Dr. Belesis is a certified public accountant with 15 years of professional experience as an auditor, during which he participated in audits of major shipping companies in Greece. He also holds a Class A professional licence from the Economic Chamber of Greece. His research, professional, and teaching interests lie in Accounting, Auditing, Maritime Industry Accounting, and International Financial Reporting Standards. He has published several articles in international peer-reviewed journals and participated in numerous international conferences.

About the Course

This practical course introduces students to the world of financial statements and their characteristics, highlighting their essential role in shaping financial decisions. Students will learn what constitutes the essence of financial statements, which are indispensable tools in the financial decision-making process.

The course presents various techniques for conducting an in-depth analysis of financial statements. Students will become familiar with working with financial ratios and will be introduced to both horizontal and vertical analysis. The aim is to equip students with the knowledge to see beyond the mere numbers — to perceive what lies behind the statements and to apply sound economic intuition. In addition, students will explore the key features of the auditor’s report, a critical component of financial analysis.

The teaching approach is grounded in real-world applications, ensuring that every concept students learn is reinforced by practical, authentic examples. This course is not merely about instruction; it is built on interaction, where active student participation is crucial.

By the end of the course, students will possess the skills to assess a company’s financial health. They will be capable of analysing financial statements to uncover a firm’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential future trajectory. This course is not just about learning — it is about empowering students with the skills to critically evaluate and interpret the financial standing of any company. Enrol in this engaging course and transform the way you view financial statements and their analysis!

Dear Students,

We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to enrol in the following attractive course in the winter semester of 2025/2026. This course will undoubtedly enrich your economic expertise, develop your language skills, and broaden your horizons beyond the scope of your standard study programme. Upon successful completion, you will earn 3 ECTS credits.

This course falls within the group of oV elective subjects. (Course 5EN381 can be recognised as 5EN383/382.)

Extra-Semestral Course – 5EN381: Economics of Incentives for Policy and Politics
Instructor: Dr. Paulo Fagandini, Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa (ISCAL), Polytechnic University of Lisbon

Schedule:

• The first three days are dedicated to lectures, the fourth day is reserved for self-study, and the fifth day for the final exam.

• 19 January: 9:00–16:00

• 20 January: 8:00–16:30

• 21 January: 9:00–16:30

• 22 January: self-study

• 23 January: 10:00–12:00 (final exam)

Venue: NB 471
Final Exam: 23 January 2025, 10:00–12:00, NB 471
Language of Instruction: English

You may register for the course from 15 September 2025 in the extra-semestral courses section; registration will remain open until 17 December 2025. Please note that capacity is limited to 20 students.

Short Bio of the Instructor

I am a Business Engineer from the University of Chile and hold a PhD in Economics from Nova School of Business and Economics. Currently, I serve as Assistant Professor of Economics (Adjunct) at the Lisbon Accounting & Business School and also at Nova School of Business and Economics, where I teach Microeconomics (BSc), Econometrics (BSc), and Mathematics (MSc and PhD). I am a member of the CEFAGE Research Center.

My research focuses primarily on applied economics. Previously I worked on corporate finance and applied microeconomic theory, mainly on auctions, contract theory, and matching. I have published my research in peer-reviewed journals such as Computational Economics and Managerial and Decision Economics.

Course Objectives

The main goal of this course is to help students understand how incentives shape behaviour in organisations of various kinds, and to confront them with situations where economic theory provides a valuable framework for designing solutions.

By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to apply basic game-theoretic and contract-theoretic models to analyse strategic situations and to recognise incentive problems within organisations and public policy settings.

Course Contents

1. Introduction to Incentives

   • What are incentives?

   • Incentives in firms, markets, and politics

   • Motivation and overview of the course

2. An Introduction to Strategic Thinking (Optional, depending on students’ background)

   • Introduction to game theory

   • Dominant strategies, Nash equilibrium

   • Simple examples from business and politics

3. Incentives within Firms

   • Moral hazard and agency problems

   • Monitoring and performance-based pay

   • First and Second Best

   • Risk sharing

4. Hidden Information and Screening

   • Adverse selection and signalling

   • Incentives in hiring, insurance, and finance

5. Mechanism Design I

   • What is a mechanism?

   • Allocating resources under private information

   • Incentive compatibility and truthful revelation

   • Voting mechanisms

6. Mechanism Design II: Auctions

   • Classical auctions

   • The bidding problem

   • The seller’s problem

   • The Winner’s Curse

7. Incentives in Monetary Policy

   • Incentives and dynamic inconsistency in monetary policy

   • Application of the Barro-Gordon model

8. Incentives in Politics and Fiscal Policy

   • Political agency problems

   • The dynamic common pool and public debt

   • Dynamic inconsistency in fiscal policy

The course contents may be adjusted dynamically to strengthen any areas depending on the students’ backgrounds.

Assessment

• Individual problem set: 30%

• Two quizzes: 10% each

• Individual final exam: 50%