Indicative reading

MSc Finance and Economics

The following pages contain current reading lists for the core and elective courses. These are not exhaustive lists and they are reviewed and updated by course teachers each year. We don’t expect you to have read all of these before you start the programme; the intention is simply to give you an idea of the level and range of material covered in the various courses.

The MSc Finance and Economics programme covers topics in both economics and finance:

If your undergraduate degree emphasised finance or business topics, you should review microeconomics or econometrics topics before arriving. If your undergraduate degree had an economics focus then you would benefit from reviewing topics in capital markets or derivatives pricing. 

If you have an undergraduate degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths (STEM) we strongly recommend that you spend some time looking at the introductory texts for Microeconomics, Finance and Econometrics. Familiarising yourself with the principles, concepts and language in each subject area before arriving will hasten your understanding of lectures in the first few weeks

If you have further questions about the programme please contact the Programme Manager, Rhys Cadman (r.d.cadman@lse.ac.uk, tel: 020 7107 6094).

Microeconomics introductory texts

Introductory:

  • R. H. Frank, Microeconomics and Behaviour, (9th edition) McGraw-Hill (2014)
  • OR H. R. Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics, (6th edition), Norton (2003)

More advanced:

  • Snyder, C. and Nicholson, W. Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions

Econometrics introductory texts

Introductory:

  • C. Dougherty, Introduction to Econometrics, Oxford University Press, (4th edition) 2011

More advanced:

  • W. H. Greene, Econometric Analysis, (7th edition), Pearson Prentice Hall (2011)
  • OR M. Verbeek, Modern Econometrics, (3rd edition), Wiley (2008)

Finance introductory texts

Introductory:

  • R. A. Brealey, S. C. Myers, and F. Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance, McGraw-Hill (2007)

More advanced:

  • Jonathan Berk, Peter De Marzo, Corporate Finance, Pearson International Edition (2007)
  • Bodie, Kane & Marcus, Investments (Irwin)

Pre-sessional September course (EC400)

Reading lists and preparatory materials for EC400 Introductory Course in Mathematics and Statistics will be sent to students in August.

FM458 Financial Economics Preparatory Course

  • Mikosch, Elementary Stochastic Calculus (1998), World Scientific
  • Shreve, Stochastic Calculus for Finance I, II
  • Further details can be found in the course guide: FM458

FM436 Financial Economics

  • J H Cochrane, Asset Pricing, Revised Edition, Princeton University Press, 2005 
  • M Baxter & A Rennie, Financial Calculus, Cambridge University Press, 1996 
  • Thomas Mikosch, Elementary Stochastic Calculus with Finance in View, World Scientific, 1998 
  • Kerry Back, A Course in Derivative Securities: Introduction to Theory and Computation, Springer, 2005 
  • Further details can be found in the course guide: FM436

FM437 Financial Econometrics

Michaelmas Term:

  • Bruce. E. Hansen, Econometrics, 2019 (Available here
  • Joshua D. Angist and Jor-Steffen Pischke, Mostly Harmless Econometrics, Princeton University Press, 2009 

Lent Term: 

  • Journal articles of particular interest: these can be accessed via JSTOR. 
  • Fama, Eugene F. and James D. MacBeth, 1973, Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests, Journal of Political Economy 81, 607-636. 
  • Fama, Eugene F., and Kenneth R. French, 1992, The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns, Journal of Finance 47, 427-466 
  • Chen, Nai-Fu, Richard Roll, and Stephen Ross, 1986, Economic Forces and the Stock Market, Journal of Business, 59 (3) 383–403. 
  • Fama, Eugene F., and Kenneth R. French, 1993, Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds, Journal of Financial Economics 33,3-56 
  • Liew, Jimmy, and Maria Vassalou, 2000, Can Book-to-Market, Size, and Momentum Be Risk Factors That Predict Economic Growth? Journal of Financial Economics, 57, 221–245. 
  • Kirby and Ostdiek, 2001, “The Economic Value of Volatility Timing”, Journal of Finance, 66(1), 329-352.
  • Further details can be found in the course guide: FM437

EC411 Microeconomics 

  • J G Riley, Essential Microeconomics, Cambridge University Press, 2012 
  • J R Green, A Mas-Colell & M D Whinston, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford.
  • Further details can be found in the course guide: EC411

Elective Course Readings