In this class, students will be introduced to a variety of hybrid public/private equity investing strategies and situations, including (pre-IPO) crossover funds, tactical opportunity funds, SPACs, PIPEs, take-privates, and more. We will discuss the key similarities and differences between public and private investing, highlighting areas of synergy (and dis-synergy) in the investment process. Teaching methods will include an upfront review of hybrid investment frameworks, hands-on analysis of case studies and real-life situations, and insights from many guest speakers.
Pre-Req: B8306 - Capital Markets & Investments
In most business circumstances, managers and organizations take decisions that affect each other. We call such situations games." Game Theory provides a framework for analyzing and predicting behaviors and outcomes in situations of strategic interaction. The goal of this course is to provide students with the essential tools of game theory, and demonstrate their use by applying them to a variety business situations and cases."
Prerequisites: G6215 and G6216. Open-economy macroeconomics, computational methods for dynamic equilibrium analysis, and sources of business cycles.
As the course title implies, we will familiarize students with the tax principles that must be considered by corporate managers and their advisers with respect to transactions that result in a re-alignment of the corporations business activities or its capital structure. In most respects, the course will be taught from the perspective of the outside adviser engaged to provide guidance regarding a major corporate transaction or financing decision. The student will, once the course is completed, secure an ability to recognize common re-structuring/financing scenarios confronting management and be positioned to propose viable solutions to these problems in a manner that minimizes tax outlays, consistent with prudent and, above all, ethical business practice.The course features a final examination and a term paper; typically, but not necessarily, the paper is prepared on a group basis. The readings for the course consist, primarily, of Lehman Brothers Tax and Accounting" Research Reports and "The Willens Report" research pieces and articles from professional taxation journals as well as decided cases and I.R.S. pronouncements.We will supply all such reading materials on the first day of class."
This essential course for EHS professionals introduces the student to the field of Industrial Hygiene and Safety Engineering and the application of their principles in the protection of workers and public. EHS Managers, Researchers, Engineers and Consultants will all find the course of benefit. It provides information on contaminants, hazardous work procedures, exposure monitoring, personal protective equipment, site testing and the equipment used to perform work which has the potential to expose workers above permissible levels. The course curriculum integrates the training requirements for certification by OSHA necessary to conduct basic EHS field activities and allows the student to test for and obtain certification. The OSHA training certificate is an industry recognized continuing education certificate that is accepted by EHS employers.
Superfund sites, environmental investigations, and any other work operation requiring sampling or field research of toxic substances at uncontrolled sites is subject to compliance requirements under OSHA. At the completion of the course the participant will be eligible to take an examination for certification under the OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 standard as an “Occasional Site Worker.” Successful completion of the exam and course will give the certificate holder the ability to access hazardous sites to conduct Environmental Health Investigations.
Constitutive equations of viscoelastic and plastic bodies. Formulation and methods of solution of the boundary value, problems of viscoelasticity and plasticity.
The goal of this course is to give students a stronger theoretical foundation on data science and a provide them with a technical toolkit. This course will prepare students with skills they will need to undertake research that relies on strong quantitative and data science foundations and will help prepare students to excel in other Data Science-focused course offerings in the department of Biostatistics and Environmental Health Science (EHS). This course will build on the first half of P6360 Analysis of Environmental Health Data, which introduces coding in R and the basic framework for conducting EHS-related data analysis across EHS disciplines (e.g., toxicology, epidemiology, climate and health). This course will cover both conceptual and practical topics in data science as they relate to environmental health sciences. Each session will be divided into two parts. In the first hour of the class there will be a lecture. Following a brief 5-minute break, the last two hours of the class will be spent on a lab project where students will apply the methods they learned in the lecture.
This course was designed to provide a foundation in major topics in Environmental Health, aimed at MPH students in EHS. The course explores fundamental principles of environmental health that are not provided in the other departmental required courses; Risk Assessment, Analysis of Environmental Health Science Data and Fundamentals of Toxicology. Lectures will expand on topics introduced in the Environmental Determinants of Health core course, as well as introducing additions topics deemed central to an MPH student in EHS. This will be team taught and use both didactic and case based approaches to learning. Students will also engage in scientific writing and critical analysis of research in topics relevant to environmental health sciences.
The “Private Equity Lab” offers a distinctive experiential learning opportunity for students to engage directly with private equity firms on real-world projects. This course is a blend of academic instruction and hands-on experience, tailored for those looking to deepen their understanding of private equity (PE) through practical application. Partnering with PE firms identified through the Columbia Business School's (CBS) alumni network in the New York City area, this program supports students who work on specific research projects integral to the firms' current deals, portfolio management, or investment strategy. These projects are screened to be mission-crucial but not mission-critical for the firms. This ensures students will work on meaningful projects while protecting the partner firm’s performance. The course thus facilitates a connection between a student and a PE firm with a self-contained research project that could benefit from the student’s skills.
The course aims to coordinate a collection of such projects that would otherwise be organized as “Field Study Projects” in independent studies and seeks to overcome the challenge of students sourcing these opportunities and identifying faculty advisors to mentor the project. Importantly, this is not an internship arrangement, and students are not paid (thus, the hours worked are capped at the usual amount of total expected class time).
This course explores foundational environmental health laboratory approaches and techniques that cannot be taught in a classroom setting. It provides the necessary hands-on lab experience to supplement theoretical and case-study examples taught in the classroom. Students are exposed to a wide variety of experimental approaches and techniques used in Environmental Health Sciences. Laboratory exercises are flexible and directed, in part, by students’ interests and expertise but may include DNA and/or RNA purification from various biological samples, forensic analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), epigenetic modification/DNA methylation studies, gel electrophoresis, ELISA, heavy metal analysis by MS-ICP, cell culture analysis of potential neurotoxins, radiochemistry, Western blotting, microbial contamination, and others. Students will be expected to read relevant foundational manuscripts and relevant methods papers, as well as keep an accurate and detailed laboratory notebook with their experimental notes, findings and subsequent data analysis. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the material with either written or oral final exam presentations.
This course applies financial theory to the issues and problems of asset management. In order to understand these issues, we must start with the specific goals, characteristics, and considerations of the asset owner. Asset owners may be individuals (e.g. personal wealth), collective owners (e.g. families or pension funds), charitable endowments and foundations (e.g. Columbia University), corporations, and nations (e.g. sovereign wealth funds). We characterize the properties of asset returns and the nature of various investment strategies to assess how asset management can meet the specific investment goals of asset owners. Asset owners usually delegate management of their portfolios to financial intermediaries, which may invest across a broad array of assets or specialize in a certain investment style or asset class. The delegated nature of investments necessitates understanding the principal-agent issues and market frictions associated with each type of asset class.
This first objective will be achieved via an overview of the industry, overviews of specific subsets of the industry and guest speakers with expertise building and operating businesses in asset management.
The second objective will be to arm students with enough information around the practical aspects of asset management, such that they can put together a reasonable business plan for a start-up asset manager. Students will then present those business plans on the last day of class.
This course is designed to prepare public health professionals to identify, analyze, and address Environmental Justice (EJ) concerns in the development and implementation of policy and practice related to environmental health, land use, and environmental protection. We will begin by establishing a firm grounding in the theory and evidence behind the American EJ movement through study of the seminal research literature as well as government assessments and case studies of touchstone events. From that point of departure, we will examine existing health disparities and emerging EJ issues, emphasizing the tools available to public health policy makers, researchers, and advocates. We will assess the progress the movement has made in its 30-year history, evaluate the limitations of “first-generation” advocates’ toolbox, explore new approaches that would fully realize EJ goals, and the application of EJ analysis to environmental and health policy. When appropriate, individual class meetings will incorporate interactive exercises, such as role play, aimed at building the students’ ability to analyze issues from different perspectives.
This course studies the evolution of the high yield bond and loan markets, and the behavior of market participants from
peak to trough and back again through various credit cycles. Through lectures, case studies, and guest speakers, we
discuss through-cycle changes in valuation, structure, capital raising, liquidity and other investor considerations.
To provide context, we will use the Caesars/Harrah’s 2006 leveraged buyout as a case study that illustrates each phase
of the credit cycle. Four other case studies (HCA, NXP, Realogy and a contemporary case, TWTR) will be used to highlight
the two extremes of the cycle (“feast” and “famine”), and how they build on the calmer (some might even say boring)
phases of the credit cycle.
Students should leave the course with an understanding of the concept of the credit cycle and the ability to identify peak
and trough conditions and behaviors.
This course presents an in-depth analysis of issues relating to water, sanitation and hygiene in both the developed and developing worlds. Students will become familiar with the hydrologic cycle, the major causes of enteric morbidity and mortality, and the design, financing and implementation of sanitation systems. This course is designed for both engineering and public health students and is intended to foster dialog between the two communities. Class meets once per week for 3 hours, and consists of lecture, discussion of assigned reading, break-out work and student presentations. Student requirements include assigned readings, in-class participation in break-out work, group presentations and a final term paper. Each student will be assigned a break-out group that will work together both during and outside class on a variety of water and sanitation problems. Each group will pick two cities, one in the developed world and one in the developing world, on which they will focus their efforts throughout the term.
This course studies how private equity sponsors increase the value of their investments from deal closing to exit. Using examples from real-world transactions and guest lectures, students will learn the how of value creation in private equity.The course focuses on three types of value creation strategies: financial engineering, governance engineering, and operational engineering.
The course focuses on the set of concepts and techniques used to analyze and finance income-producing real property. It starts with the characteristics that make real property different, including cash flow uncertainties, debt sources and tax features. It then considers the available strategies and structures of real estate finance, including capital structure choices for construction and permanent financing. Extensive use is then made of cases to illustrate the range of choices and outcomes.
This course will introduce advanced methods and tools commonly used in Environmental Health Sciences. These topics include advanced regression techniques especially pertinent to environmental health, methods to quantify and correct for exposure measurement error, mixtures methods, etc. Each class will have two components: a lecture and a coding lab. Although other courses in the School and other Departments might also present some of the methods covered here, the emphasis of this course will be on applications in EHS specifically and the appropriateness, assumptions, strength, limitations and interpretation of results in the EHS framework. Air pollution will be primarily used in class as the example exposure of interest (as many of these methods were first used in air pollution health studies), but not exclusively. R will be used for all coding.
We are exposed to thousands of chemicals in the air, on our food, and as part of consumer products with many hundreds more new chemicals brought to market every year. Yet, only a very small proportion of these have been comprehensively tested for safety. Existing toxicological methods are often insufficient to test every new or existing product due to various constraints including economics, relevance, politics, and ethics. The advent of computational strategies, with high-throughput in vitro and in vivo toxicology data, now permits predictive approaches to a priori, predict potential health risks of chemicals which have not be tested in the laboratory. These strategies range from predicting cellular toxicity based on similarities of chemical structure with chemicals of known toxicity, to forecasting human cellular toxicity from pesticides on food and other exposures using high-throughput cellular assays. Integrating publicly available “omics” data, environmental and personal monitoring data, and bioinformatics, is empowering innovative discovery about exposure-outcome relationships. The goal of this course will be to expose students to the various data sources and approaches that are used to predict toxicity and introduce innovative data manipulation and display strategies that are increasingly needed in data heavy disciplines. This is a hands-on course; students will be required to mine publicly accessible data and perform their own analyses, regularly presenting their work in the classroom. Students will be evaluated on their ability to integrate the material and apply it to real data in order to garner thoughtful, novel insight into predictive or integrative toxicity.
The Real Estate Project Class provides students who intend on pursuing careers in real estate the opportunity to learn how to analyze and execute value-add investments and presentations of same under the guidance of an experienced professor and practitioner, as well as a veteran real estate owner/investor/intermediary sponsor. The course will include instruction in investment conceptualization, analysis, strategy, research and execution. Presentation skills, both oral and written, are integral to the course and project. Two student groups, each group consisting of three or four students, will work with an outside project sponsor to create a transaction presentation based on a real-world sponsor investment.
Personal laptops will NOT be permitted in class. CBS iPads will be permitted only.
Either B8332 RE Transactions or at least 1-year experience of real estate/ transactions experience with instructors permission is required for this course.
This half-term course will introduce students to the fundamentals of global real estate investment from an institutional perspective through an exploration of specific strategies for structuring global real estate portfolios. It will also provide students with an analytical framework and the tools to analyze and value cross-border real estate investments in developed and emerging markets. Given current market conditions, attention will also be paid to asset management strategies.
This advanced course teaches the real-world skills required to finance infrastructure assets, taught from the perspective of industry practitioners. Each week, students will learn how to apply project finance principles to invest in a different infrastructure asset, including utility-scale solar, wind, battery storage, natural gas, and nuclear projects. Classes will feature a mix of lectures, case studies, hands-on modeling, and discussions with industry experts.
Trillions of dollars in investment are needed to build the infrastructure to address climate change and the growing demand for electricity. This course is designed for the students wanting to learn how to make those investments. By the end of the course, students will be prepared to navigate the complexities of infrastructure finance, including the frameworks, tools, and skills to invest in projects driving the global energy transition.
The purpose of this course is to give students an in-depth discussion of academic and policy/practitioner research to be able to address and evaluate the following questions. What are the challenges in measuring poverty? How pervasive is poverty and what are the underlying drivers of poverty? Has economic growth in developing countries (such as Brazil, China and India) helped to alleviate poverty? How pervasive is poverty in the United States? What are informal credit markets? Who participates in them? What are the interest rates and default rates in these markets? What are the challenges to the flow of credit to the poor borrowers? How can they be surmounted? What is the role of microfinance in delivering financial services to the Poor? How successful has been this effort? What are the challenges? What are some of the recent capital market innovations in the markets for the Poor? Can they help to scale up and bring down interest rates? - What are some of the innovations introduced by corporations and governments in this field? With a view to addressing the questions above, the course will begin by examining how poverty is measured, and characterize (using different measures) how pervasive poverty is. In this context, we will pay special attention to simple (exogenous) measures of poverty rates, and multi-dimensional measures of poverty, which link poverty to some underlying deprivations (such as lack of access to education, healthcare, living standards, etc.). We will also examine how the poor organize their lives, budget their consumption expenditures, and survey their access to certain services. After this the course will present evidence on the extent to which poverty has been alleviated in different parts of the world, and how the results compare with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set by the United Nations in 2000. Newly established Sustainable Development Goals will be briefly presented. We will also explore the extent to which economic growth in countries has influenced poverty rates. In this context, we will examine the poverty alleviation process and major indicators of poverty in Brazil, China and India before and after these economies began to experience significant economic expansion: this discussion will shed some light on the relationship between economic growth and poverty rates. After characterizing poverty, the course will turn to the role of markets (broadly defined to include private markets, corporate social initiatives, and government initiatives) that address the needs of the poor
The primary objective of this course is to provide you with a comprehensive
understanding of the significant economic, strategic, and regulatory aspects involved in financing
innovations within the healthcare industry. In the ?first half of the course, you will be introduced
to the risk-return pro?les and market failures specific to the biopharma industry. Additionally, we
will explore the integral roles played by various ?financing channels, including government funding,
non-pro?t organizations, venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions, in driving the innovation
process. The second half of the course will focus on examining the distinctive ?financial characteristics of U.S. hospitals and analyzing how external financing impacts healthcare quality and
technology adoption.
The course is designed to introduce law and business students to the unusual regulatory and business conditions and challenges in the media industries. A variety of topics are covered including intellectual property, the history and structure of the media industries, communications regulation, strategies of integration and consolidation and patterns of innovation in the media industry.
Applied Security Analysis I emphases practical application of value investing. Students will work in teams to find an appropriate investment idea, perform thorough primary research, and deliver a pitch to a portfolio manager."The class is integrated with The Pershing Square Value Investing and Philanthropy Challenge. This competition, which began in 2007, signifies the commitment of both Columbia Business School and Pershing Square to produce talented and knowledgeable graduates who are ready to take on leadership roles and to demonstrate the importance of philanthropy to these future leaders in value investing. Winning teams will receive a cash prize with a percentage of those winnings to be donated to a charity of their choice.All student teams will pitch their ideas to investment professionals three times over the course of the semester, simulating the job of the analyst to convince a portfolio manager of the worthiness of an idea. Feedback will be provided on the strength of the idea, the areas of further research required, and presentation skills. *Class attendance is required when outside speakers are present including Bill Ackman, the Philanthropy Discussion, and Finals (takes place off-campus). Grades will be reduced 1 level (ex. H to an HP) for any unexcused absences.**This course will be demanding. Students should expect 20-25 hours of work per week outside of class."
This course will introduce students to frameworks for making better decisions in the business world, drawing from microeconomics and the theory of rational choice in a largely non-technical way. The goal is to equip students with the know-how to quickly analyze and optimize decisions that might otherwise result in paralysis or avoidable errors. The course will pair accessible explanations of economic tools with situations drawn from the workplace and everyday life.
The goal of Distressed Value Investing is to provide students with broad-based exposure to what is one of the most complex and intellectually stimulating areas of the market. The class will introduce distressed investing broadly, touching on many different styles of investing in distressed companies and securities. The class also emphasizes hands-on distressed analysis, teaching students to interpret and learn from dynamic real-life situations. To facilitate this learning process, the class includes the insights of many guest speakers.
This course is required of EHS Policy Track students in the semester before they complete their practicum. Most class sessions will entail a presentation by a environmental health policy practioner followed by class discussion. Past guests include people from the US FDA, NYU Law School, and the New York State Department of Environmental Protection. Students will prepare biweekly position papers and a research essay. Open to non-policy track students by permission of instructor only.
This class, taught in Term A, is intended to teach students the fundamentals of the value approach to investment management developed by Graham and Dodd. This will be done through a combination of formal lectures, cases and in-class valuation discussions. The substantive areas covered will include (1) the fundamental assumptions and approaches to value investing, (2) techniques for assessing fundamental value - balance sheet and earnings power approaches, (3) structuring value-based portfolios to control risk and (4) designing strategies for searching efficiently for value investing opportunities.
This class combines B8377 Value Investing in Term A with the Value Investing with Legends lecture series in Term B. Term A is intended to teach students the fundamentals of the value approach to investment management developed by Graham and Dodd. This will be done through a combination of formal lectures, cases and in-class valuation discussions. The substantive areas covered will include (1) the fundamental assumptions and approaches to value investing, (2) techniques for assessing fundamental value - balance sheet and earnings power approaches, (3) structuring value-based portfolios to control risk and (4) designing strategies for searching efficiently for value investing opportunities. The second half of the semester (Term B) is intended to expose students to the practical implementation of Graham and Dodd investing principles. Through presentations by leading value investors, students will learn how individuals develop an investment process to suit their personality and personal biases. Investors will discuss: 1. search strategy, 2. valuation approach, 3. research techniques, and 4. risk management in the context of their own investments.
This will be a demanding class meant for the student intent on entering the investment management industry post-graduation. As such, only students who demonstrate a compelling interest in professional investment management will be admitted, and admission will be limited to 10 students to ensure quality of experience for all involved. This seminar is not open to the bidding process and no auditors will be allowed. The purpose of this section of Advanced Investment Research is to help students learn how to rip apart" a company and draw thoughtful conclusions about whether it might make for a good investment opportunity. Topics will include stock selection, identifying the key investment factors, developing a variant view, and networking with industry contacts to help confirm or refute one's thesis. The class will culminate with students delivering a detailed research recommendation on a single investment idea to a panel of judges. The goal is for students to leave class with an actionable investment idea and a framework for how to develop and research ideas in the future.
This class will be demanding and potentially overwhelming if you are not prepared to dedicate significant time and energy to it. Students should expect 20-25 hours of work per week outside of class, and the work load may be higher if you have not previously done detailed fundamental investment research. We recommend that you do not take this class if you are unable to put in this amount of time because you will not be able to keep up, and you will not be happy with your final grade.
Note: this class will also include a substantial pre-class assignment which will be a material part of the final grade.
How does diagramming make subjects available for intellectual exploration, explanation, and even play? How do diagrams thwart understanding? We might think of diagrams as fixed forms of imaging that passively reflect existing notions, but by exploring recent work on diagramming by historians of art as well as scholars in the philosophy of mind, this course will study the ways in which diagrams can function as creative spaces in which thinkers can contemplate the possibilities of innovative juxtapositions and systems of organizing information.
Socially vulnerable communities bear a disproportionately high burden of environmental exposures due to structural challenges such as racism. This multi-disciplinary course will introduce environmental justice scholarship and advocacy through a public health lens. The class will explore foundational theories critical to the environmental justice movement, innovative research approaches for characterizing inequities in environmental health as well as analyzing potential solutions, and community-driven strategies for systemic change. This course will draw on cross-disciplinary materials from academic articles and communications for a broad audience, such as podcasts, news articles, or non-technical reports. Lastly, using a range of practice-based approaches, students will have opportunities to reflect on their own social position and how that informs their public health approach.
This course combines the methods and teachings of security analysis with practical buy-side methodologies to identify and research value investments across the capital structure. Emphasis will be placed on the development and implementation of a disciplined and repeatable research and catalyst-driven evaluation process. This course will leverage your theoretical learning in security analysis plus require you to develop business acumen and industry expertise. A combination of fundamental analysis and assessment of intrinsic value will be balanced with thematic thinking and business judgment. The course should arm you with the tools necessary to identify attractive value investments through a variety of methodologies for several alternative fund strategies, including event-driven investments and merger arbitrage. When reviewing capital structures, potential catalysts, and other elements related to the cross-asset investment process, dislocations, security mispricing, and hedging considerations will surface creating opportunities for the long and short sides. M&A catalysts will be vetted for their quality, timing, likelihood of occurrence, and estimated impact on securities across the capital structure.
This course focuses on the role of venture capital and venture capitalist in selecting, funding, and developing emerging growth companies. Students should expect to complete the course with a basic understanding of the processes employed by those making the risk-reward determinations to fund new and growing companies. The class should be worthwhile for students interested in venture capital, investing in growth companies, working with early stage and growth companies, and entrepreneurship.
This course examines key themes and issues related to investing in alternative assets from the perspective of major asset owners, such as defined benefit pension plans. The course will focus on the investment process and benefits of applying alternative investments, specifically hedge funds and fund-of-funds, to traditional portfolios. The course will also address the role of real estate, timber, venture capital, private equity, hard assets, infrastructure assets and commodities within traditional portfolios.The goals of this course are for participants to: Understand the objectives and constraints of institutional investors, specifically corporate and public pension plans; Appreciate the benefits, and potential drawbacks, of including alternative assets within the context of large institutional portfolios; Gain insight into the analysis and selection of hedge funds, as well as the construction of hedge fund of fund portfolios; Develop an awareness of analysis, selection, and management of alternative asset portfolios including private equity, commodities, currencies, etc.This course will make significant use of practical, real-world examples. Moreover, the professors expect to engage CIOs of pension plans, as well as major hedge fund managers (such as David Einhorn of Greenlight, Scott Bessent of Soros, and others) to participate in the course as guest lecturers.Students who are looking to pursue careers in any traditional or alternative asset class will benefit from this course. Further, students interested in careers at corporate or public pension plans, fund of funds, consultants or research providers should benefit from this course."
The course is intended to provide students with an understanding of the objectives, methods and applications of pharmacoepidemiology -- the study of the use and effects of drugs in diverse populations. Students will be exposed to the role of Pharmacoepidemiology in the biopharmaceutical development process, from the perspective of regulators (e.g. FDA), policymakers (e.g. Health Technology Assessment agencies), payers, and the biopharmaceutical industry. Epidemiologic methods will be reviewed in the context of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device evaluation. Study designs and data sources used to evaluate drug safety and effectiveness will be discussed using real-world examples. Special attention will be paid to methodological issues, such as confounding by indication, forms of selection and information bias that are unique to pharmacoepidemiologic research. Finally, select special topics are covered, including: risk-benefit analysis, clinical outcomes assessment, and comparative effectiveness research. Students will integrate the methods and operational principles discussed in class into a group presentation, which proposes and defends a study design to address post-approval safety and effectiveness concerns of a hypothetical new drug.
This course is not a traditional business law class. This course is an application-oriented class that provides the business professional with an understanding of certain essential legal concepts that are an integral to anyone embarking on a career which involves public or private company transactional activities.
The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a framework that will enable the student to identify legal issues that arise in various circumstances during the deal process and analyze ways to optimize the desired economic outcomes through an (a) understanding of the likely legal implications of a particular strategy and (b) appreciation of the consequences flowing from the deal structure and documentation. This course will focus primarily on the legal regime in the United States, although the laws of other jurisdictions will be noted where appropriate.
The course is highly interactive – legal principles will be imparted as students seek to identify legal issues arising in actual deal situations. Student class participation is a significant element of the course, accounting for 30% of the student grade.
The purpose of this course is for students to understand the methods involved in determining the role of nutrition in the etiology of various disease states. Examples in the literature will be used to illustrate various aspects of nutritional epidemiology including assessment of dietary intake, biochemical markers of nutritional intake, body composition and issues in analysis of nutritional data in epidemiological studies.
Employers now use these tools in their daily work, and they expect new hires to arrive with
practical experience rather than general familiarity. They need someone who can produce financial
analysis with AI, who knows where the tools fail on financial data, and who takes responsibility
for the result. That expectation falls most directly on the newest members of a team, and this course
is designed to help you meet it.
At the same time, I hope this course helps you build a “brand” of your own. As AI takes over more
of the analysis, the analysis itself will do less to set you apart as the people you compete with will
have the same tools. What sets you apart will inevitably have to be harder to copy: a story about
what you have done and why, a point of view about where the tools help and where they mislead,
and a reputation as someone colleagues want on their team.
This course integrates epidemiologic and human genetics methods to understand the complex aging traits. The first half of the course discusses substantive and epidemiologic aspects of age-related diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis), and the second half of the course discusses how genetic and epidemiologic methods can be used to examine the issues discussed in the first half. Topics include study design, modeling of aging, statistical genetics methods, epidemiology and genetics of age-related diseases and geriatric conditions.
Infectious disease epidemiology monitors the occurrence of infectious diseases and develops strategies for preventing and controlling disease. It requires the use of traditional epidemiologic methods as well as methods that cannot be applied to non-infectious diseases, such as mathematical modeling. In addition to knowing epidemiologic methods, infectious disease epidemiologists need to be familiar with the clinical and biological features of important infectious diseases as well as laboratory techniques for the identification and quantification of infectious agents. This course is designed to provide an introduction to infectious disease epidemiology. It will focus on the tools and methods used in identifying, preventing, and controlling infectious diseases to improve public health. Case studies based on the literature and the work of faculty members will be used to illustrate the real-world application of these tools and methods to address public health problems.
Cities are dynamic centers of human achievement where new ideas are generated, industries flourish, and cultures intertwine. Highly skilled workers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and scientists have long been drawn to these dense urban environments due to social and professional networks, industry clustering and the myriad of cultural and public resources cities offer. However, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the trend towards increasing urbanization as workers emptied urban downtowns and worked remotely. These disruptions have important consequences for city economies and urban and suburban real estate valuations. Cities are now forced to transform once again and re-imagine their future in a world of hybrid work, AI, and climate change. This course will explore how urban centers are adapting to these seismic challenges and how leaders must reconcile future growth with social and environmental stewardship. This course will explore the process of disruption and transformation using cities as the unit of analysis. It will combine conceptual analysis with real-world strategies pursued by cities such as New York City to effectuate urban regeneration. This includes critical infrastructure underpinning urban mobility, clean energy, and real estate investments in housing, office, industrial and entertainment assets, often through public-private partnerships. This course is meant for MBA students seeking a bigger-picture perspective on the intersection of business and government in the realm of real estate, innovation and infrastructure.
Prerequisites: MUSI G8412. A study of the theoretical and practical aspects of ethnomusicological field work, using the New York area as a setting for exercises and individual projects.
The course "Private Equity" focuses on the essential aspects of corporate finance relevant to the private equity industry. The course follows the "private equity cycle" of selection, valuation, and harvesting. Initially, students learn to evaluate a target company from the perspective of a private equity firm, keeping in mind the needs of investors and management. The course then delves into financial modeling, deal structuring, PE fund raising and private equity investment management. We will cover the basic LBO model used throughout the industry to structure and value deals.
This course has several goals. The first is to delineate a “personality” for chronic diseases (CDs). CDs are not extensions in time of acute illness. CDs most often have long, latent, asymptomatic beginnings, often attributable to risk factors, themselves often modifiable; interventions are usually designed for amelioration and management rather than treatment and cure As these diseases emerge in complex contexts with upstream triggers that are embedded in social, political, and economic realms, successful management requires an understanding of these drivers.
The second goal is to enlarge the visual field of the public health student to see these diseases in their global settings. It is now widely recognized that these same chronic diseases—heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, and cancer—are emerging as the dominant health issues for all countries on all continents. Hence, the course will cover these disorders in both developed and developing countries.
The third goal is to present the complexity of interventions. Prevention, or management, requires interventions that intersect personal, national and global behavior, and equally important, cultural patterns, and political realities. Effective intervention requires exploration of the impact of urbanization and globalization. Creating actionable plans requires input from a wide array of disciplines including, but is not limited to, anthropology, urban planning, political science, trade policy, corporate policy, information technology, advertising, and lobbying. This course is designed to tie these factors together in a focused manner that will permit the student to grasp the breadth of the problems and appreciate the new public health roles epidemiology will need to play to combat this modern epidemic.
“Advanced Private Equity” expands on the topics learned in “Private Equity” from a PE investment professional's perspective. The course follows the private equity cycle from sourcing to exit. With the help of guest speakers from the PE industry, students will learn about the early stages of the deal process: sourcing and diligence. The class will build a complex three-statement LBO model, learning about how modern deals are structured with private credit, management rollovers, and non-traditional capital structure decisions. The course shifts to the ownership side of PE deals: value creation. We will cover the strategies used by PE owners to grow and improve their portfolio companies, incorporating initiatives into our models. The course uniquely combines lectures and guest speakers on all topics, where the guest speakers bring applications of all key issues to the classroom.
This course is targeted for both business and law school students seeking to develop an understanding of the issues involved in raising capital for entrepreneurial ventures as well as emerging growth companies. The course will combine a brief overview of the fundamentals of securities regulation with a practical analysis of the key business and valuation issues to be considered in raising capital at all stages in a companys evolution from startup to IPO. The course will draw from case studies based on the actual experiences of entrepreneurs and companies in their pursuit of growth capital.
FINCB8421
Research on health outcomes is predicated on investigators’ ability to accurately conceptualize and operationalize health constructs of interest. This course will provide an introduction to basic concepts of measurement theory –classical test and modern —and how they are applied to public health research utilizing health outcomes. Students in this course will learn key elements of applied psychometrics using research examples from the literature and from their own area of interest. In addition to a group project intended to facilitate students’ understanding of the principles presented in lectures, each student will also undertake a measurement project that will enable them to apply this knowledge to their specialized area of research. Students will learn to select and how to collect measures as well as assess the quality of measurement in epidemiologic research.
Corporate valuation and financial modeling covers a wide range of valuation methodologies used in industry. At
the end of the course, students will be able to value a firm or a project. To reach this goal, we will cover the
following topics:
1. The free cash flow method for firm valuation
2. Financial statement modeling
3. The appropriate opportunity cost of capital for the FCF
4. Choice of capital structure
5. The relative valuation approach to firm valuation
6. Other approaches: the APV method, the LBO model
The course will consist of approximately one-half lecture and one-half in-class case discussions, for which students
should prepare carefully.
“Private Equity Capstone” asks students to synthesize their learning, experience, and service during their time at CBS
into a final project. Students identify an area of interest and deliverables before the class starts. They identify a PE firm,
investor, or portfolio company to sponsor their project from their own searches or the PE Program’s network. The
sponsor and student work to refine the details of the project (one of four general options), where the question or issue
is relevant for the sponsor’s current business. The sponsor’s role is to provide the seed of a real-world business or
investment problem faced by a practitioner, while giving the student feedback on the project. The course provides an
opportunity for the student to gain experiential learning beyond internships and networking opportunities.
Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Students will make presentations of original research.
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This course focuses on epidemiologic approaches to the study of disorders occurring during early human development (in the period from conception to birth) and on the consequences of events during this period for later development and health. The aim is to impart key concepts and methodological issues of special importance to the study of perinatal phenomena. These include: the timetable of human development relevant to teratogenesis, measurement of prenatal (and largely unobserved) event, chromosomal abnormalities, differentiation of growth velocity and length of gestation, consequences of infections during pregnancy, the role of the placenta, and long-term outcomes of perinatal events on neurological development and adult health. The emphasis is on the application of epidemiological methods to the study of perinatal exposures and outcomes and on some of the distinctive methodological and ethical problems that arise in this area.
Financial outcomes depend on far more than selecting investments with attractive risk-adjusted returns. Households, wealthy families, and long-horizon capital owners face taxes, liquidity needs, retirement spending, insurance risks, estate considerations, charitable giving, concentrated positions, and intergenerational objectives. A strong wealth management process brings these decisions together so that capital is managed in service of the client’s broader financial goals rather than in isolation.
This is what distinguishes wealth management from investment planning. Investment planning focuses primarily on portfolio construction, asset allocation, security selection, diversification, and implementation. Wealth management incorporates those disciplines but adds financial planning and, critically, the integration between the two. Each of the decisions above can materially change what the optimal portfolio should be. In that sense, wealth management is about maximizing after-tax, after-fee wealth, not simply maximizing investment returns.
More U.S. residents have been killed with guns since 1968 than died in all the wars since the country’s founding. Addressing this crisis means solving tenacious public health problems in the realms of science and of politics. In this course we will review the epidemiology of gun violence and the empirical foundations of efforts to address it through policy, study design, programmatic interventions, and environmental/physical design. We will consider obstacles to the rigorous study of gun violence as well as the innovative approaches researchers have adopted to overcome them, whether in the fields of epidemiology, health policy, medicine, criminology, or economics. And we will place all of this in the political and legal context that shapes our collective actions. Through lectures and discussion, students will become familiar with the main factors connected with firearm injury, the epidemiologic study of gun violence, the policy actors that have influenced the U.S. response to date, and the underlying beliefs and behaviors that define the U.S. relationship with guns. By reviewing both new and canonical research throughout the course, students will learn to apprise how diverse study designs — including surveys, case control studies, time-series, randomized control trials, social network analyses, and quasi-experimental approaches — are well-suited to shed light on different aspects of this subject.
We are in the midst of a historic capital expenditure supercycle driven by artificial intelligence; yet, data centers—the physical “building blocks” of AI—remain comparatively opaque even as they become part of everyday life. This course provides “ground truth” on what data centers are, how they come together, and the perspectives of the developers, customers, utilities, investors, and policymakers who make them happen. This is a practitioner’s course and does not require a specific technical background; it is for students interested in real estate development and investing, energy infrastructure, public policy, and technology.
Prerequisites: the instructors permission. This course examines recent research and classic texts on the role of ethnic groups in political analysis. The class addresses three broad questions: what are ethnic groups, when do they become politically salient, and how does ethnic competition affect the distribution of resources in a society. Many of the readings utilize econometric methods. A statistical background at the level of W4710 is assumed, with familiarity through W4712 strongly recommended.
The primary objectives in this course are to gain knowledge about and to critically engage with current topics in the field of injury control and prevention, to develop research and scientific inquiry skills, and to make meaningful connections with experts in this field. In this course, we will learn from experts on four topics in the field of injury control and prevention. By the end of the semester, students will have improved their ability to interpret peer-reviewed research on current topics in injury control and prevention and will be prepared to go forward asking important scientific questions in this field, with a solid sense of what is already known and what is worthy of further inquiry and investigation. Readings will be determined by the four guest speakers based on what is relevant to their field of research.
This will be a demanding class meant for the student intent on entering the investment management
industry post-graduation. As such, only students who demonstrate a compelling interest in professional
investment management will be admitted, and admission will be limited to 12 students to ensure quality of
experience for all involved. This seminar is not open to the bidding process and no auditors will be
allowed. Please see the below for details on admittance.
The key to equity wealth creation is hiding in plain sight. Since 1926, a mere four percent of stocks have
generated all the wealth in the US stock market1. We call these unique companies “compounders.”2
With the exception of a few magic market companies (Facebook, Google), the vast majority of
compounders achieve this distinction in two acts. One product in one market, in most cases, is simply not
enough to become a durable and sustainable large-cap company. A second act is usually an adjacent
product or market. Think of Netflix transitioning from in-home DVD rental to streaming, or Grubhub
moving from marketplace to first party delivery, or Vail Mountain Resorts translating its subscription
season pass into an acquisition platform.
Compounders is a class dedicated entirely to the exploration of these companies. We will start off with an
examination of their core characteristics and life-cycle. We will then delve more deeply into four
compounder patterns, illustrated with case studies and brought to life by the executives who led these
companies to this rare distinction.
Students will be paired with experienced investors and, over the course of the class, will study six recent
compounders with the goal of extracting contemporary patterns that may help us to identify the future
drivers of equity wealth creation. The goal of the class is to understand compounder patterns: what are
the people, processes and systems that allow small companies to become durable and sustainable large
companies over time?
Corporate credit markets are a central part of U.S. capital markets, however they are generally not well understood by MBA graduates, due to a more typical classroom focus on equities. This course will enable students to develop an understanding of the corporate credit markets and build a practical skill set to evaluate and invest in individual credits using a classic Value Investing methodology.
The approach will be a pragmatic one. Throughout the course, we will focus both on learning how to interpret the market as well as on 4 to 5 different companies - all debt issuers of different credit risk profiles - and will utilize class lectures to discuss the factors that shape capital structure and pricing of various securities (debt or equity) issued by these companies. As part of the final project, students are expected to work in teams and analyze and generate a buy or sell recommendation on the securities issued by a U.S.-based corporate issuer. This assignment will provide students with an opportunity to solidify the learnings in a hands-on, experiential manner.
In addition to lectures and student presentations, students will also hear from representatives of private equity, credit and distressed investment management, and investment banking firms. These speaker sessions will enable students to gain access to multiple viewpoints to credit markets and various investing techniques and styles.
Given the importance of credit to companies, we believe that the skill set and knowledge obtained from this class will be valuable whether one becomes an equity (public or private) investor, a credit investor, or an investment banker. We want this course to prepare students for an internship or full-time role in credit research; while we welcome anyone with an interest in the class, the material is targeted towards those with limited corporate credit experience.
As a basic science of public health, epidemiology is responsible for the identification of causes of disease that can guide the development of rational public health policies. The accuracy of the information provided by epidemiologic studies is therefore of central concern. Epidemiologic methods are the tools we use to make valid causal arguments. This course builds upon the methods introduced in P6400 Principles of Epidemiology or the Quant core module. The primary objective is to provide students with the basic tools necessary to design, carry out, and interpret the results from observational epidemiologic studies.
The course is very experiential. Learnings will be applied to companies that are currently fundraising and you will assess each company as if you were considering investing. There will be 2-3 guest lecturers (in addition to the startup pitches) from experts in the ecosystem so students get a varied perspective. Real company info will be shared in this class. As a result, class slides will be handed out in class but not shared electronically and class sessions will not be recorded.
Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Students will make presentations of original research.
The course will provide an introduction to substantive cardiovascular disease epidemiology as well as important methodological concepts pertaining to risk factor epidemiology. It will also cover new directions and some controversies. Because pathophysiology understanding is important to public health, some necessary aspects will also be covered.
P8442 offers students an in-depth look at the epidemiology and control of tuberculosis (TB). Students are lectured by specialists and leaders in the field on topics including TB epidemiology in the US and abroad, clinical aspects of TB disease and latent TB infection, TB/HIV, molecular epidemiology of TB, TB control from the perspective of health departments and hospitals, TB drug and vaccine development, social aspects of TB and TB advocacy. Students are expected to master the field of infectious disease epidemiology and control as it applies to TB. Course readings cover state-of-the-art and historical articles.
The course will provide an introduction to the microbiome and will discuss the role of microbiome in human health. Microbiome refers to the collective community of microbes (e.g. bacteria, archaea, viruses and fungi) and the function of their genomes. The number of studies related to microbiome has grown recently, coinciding with interest from the public and media in the potential of the microbiome to affect human health. The goal of this course is to provide background on important concepts related to microbiome and methodological issues common in epidemiological studies of microbiome. Concepts related to microbial ecology, gut biogeography, relationship with nutrition and metabolism, and how various factors including life stages affect the microbiome will be covered. The course will also focus on epidemiologic methods for gut microbiome studies including a focus on study design, implementation, and analysis along with a discussion on potential threats to causal inference. The concepts and methods learned will then be applied to various topics of microbiome and health (gastrointestinal diseases, infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity and environmental health).
This 1.5 credit course will introduce students to current and emerging issues in injury and violence and provide a conceptual approach from which to view injury and violence within a public health framework. The multifaceted, multidisciplinary nature of injury and violence prevention will be illustrated using principles and applications of epidemiology, health policy, behavioral science, law, medicine and engineering. A combination of lecture, discussion and structured interactive group exercises will be used to illustrate key concepts, including common risk factors and injury-related health disparities, across intentional and unintentional injury mechanisms in vulnerable populations. The contribution of injury and violence to the total health burden and a systems approach to prevention will be woven into class sessions covering cutting edge and cross cutting issues related to specific mechanisms of injury such as motor vehicle, poisonings and overdoses, drowning, fire/burns, falls and violence including issues and trends in firearm injuries. Issues in surveillance, measurement and evaluation will be illustrated as the class examines current approaches to translating injury science into effective population-level prevention.