Office location: Nexus 10, Level 3, Room 3.34
Telephone:       8313 5671

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1	explain the organisation and institutional details of foreign exchange and international money markets
2	understand the significance of international flows of portfolio capital in the modern global foreign exchange market, and the world economy
3	understand and apply, at a formal level, the main neoclassical models of exchange rate determination, and assess their empirical validity
4	be familiar with insights provided by behavioural economics into expectations formation and decision making on the foreign exchange market
5	understand and apply a macroeconomic model incorporating the above as a guide to exchange rate forecasting
6	analyse the causes of historical exchange rate movements, and some of the contributory factors to a variety of financial crises, with reference to the models covered

Currencies, Capital Flows and Crises, John T. Harvey, Routledge (London and New York), 2009

There are several other texts which could have been used on this course. None are recommended here as substitutes to Harvey, since the different texts use a variety of approaches to the models to be discussed, and this can be a source of confusion. Nevertheless one supplementary text which would be of value to course participants in the early part of this course is Exchange Rates and International Finance, (4th or 5th Edition) Laurence Copeland, Prentice Hall/Financial Times (Pearson Education), 2005/8.  

MyUni - http://www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au 

Other online Resources will be provided via the above site, during the course.

The lectures will closely follow the text. The idea is that the lectures and the text should reinforce each other. You are strongly advised to keep up with the reading. You will find that the lectures are far easier to follow if you have already been exposed to the material via the text.

The tutorials will be primarily based on problem solving and discussions, in preparation for your final examination.

Lectures: 2 Hours per week
Tutorials: 1 Hour per week
Home study expectation: 6 Hours per week

Please note, the following schedule is tentative. Changes can and will be made throughout the semester as necesary, all changes will be published on MyUni.

Week	Course Plan
	TOPIC	READINGS
1	Course Overview: Introduction to Basic Concepts in International Finance and Foreign Exchange Markets	Harvey - Chapter 1 and a Reading Provided via MyUni
2	International Parity Relationships	Reading Provided via MyUni
3	Neoclassical Models 1 -The Monetary Model of Floating and Fixed Exchange Rates	Harvey - Chapter 2
4	Neoclassical Models 2 - The Dornbusch Overshooting Model of Floating Exchange Rates	Harvey - Chapter 2
5	Empirical evidence on these models and later developments	Reading provided via MyUni
6	Behavioural economics and decision making in the foreign exchange market	Harvey - Chapter 3
7	Capital Flows and Exchange Rates	Harvey - Chapter 4
8	Exchange Rate Modelling using a Keynesian Model	Harvey - Chapter 5
9	Expectations and Currency Crises	Harvey - Chapter 5
10	Real World Applications - volatility in the USD over time	Harvey - Chapter 6
11	Real World Applications - the Peso (1994) and Asian (1997) crises	Harvey - Chapter 6
12	Currency Areas and the Euro-zone Experiment	Readings provided via MyUni

Students will be assessed based on the following:

Type	Weight	Due Date	Objective
Weekly Assignments	40%	Weekly, weeks 2-11	Continuous learning, both summative and formative
Final Exam	60%	See Exam Timetable	Summative assessment

Assignment marks received prior to the final examination are equated into your final grade only if they represent improvement over your final examination grade.

For example, should you score 75/100 on the weekly assignments and 60/100 on the final, your final grade would be credit at (0.4*75+0.6*60)= 66/100. More will be explained about this throughout the semester. Should you score 60/100 on the weekly assignments and 75/100 on the final, your final grade would be distinction, as only the 75/100 will count. More will be explained about this during the first week of the semester. 

Since marks received prior to the final examination are redeemable, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by attending tutorials and doing your best on all of the weekly assignments.

 

NOTES ON ASSESSMENT
1. Legible hand-writing and the quality of English expression are considered to be integral parts of the assessment process. Marks cannot be awarded for handwriting that cannot be read.

2. Assessment marks prior to the final exam may be displayed on the course website through Myuni. Students are encouraged to check their marks and notify the lecturer-in-charge of any discrepancies.

EXAMINATIONS
It is each student's responsibility to read the examination timetable. Misreading the timetable is not accepted as grounds for granting a supplementary exam. University staff are not permitted to provide examination times to students over the telephone or in response to personal enquiries.

Students may NOT take into the examination a DICTIONARY (English or English-Foreign)
Students may NOT take into the examination a CALCULATOR.

Assignments are to be submitted during tutorials each week, except when alternative arrnagements have been approved by the Topic Co-Ordinator.

Assignments will generally be returned during tutorials/lectures the week following submission.

 

Additional Assessment
If a student receives 45-49 for their final mark for the course they will automatically be granted an additional assessment. This will most likely be in the form of a new exam (Additional Assessment) and will have the same weight as the original exam unless an alternative requirement (for example a hurdle requirement) is stated in this semester’s Course Outline. If, after replacing the original exam mark with the new exam mark, it is calculated that the student has passed the course, they will receive 50 Pass as their final result for the course (no higher) but if the calculation totals less than 50, their grade will be Fail and the higher of the original mark or the mark following the Additional Assessment will be recorded as the final result.