The objective of this course is to provide a deeper understanding of corporate finance and the finance function. This includes corporate investment and financing decisions from both theoretical and empirical viewpoints. The course will proceed by first analysing corporate financial policy and investment decisions in perfect capital markets under conditions of certainty and then introducing uncertainty and applications of mean/variance analysis and the CAPM. Various market imperfections will then be introduced; such as taxation, agency costs and information asymmetries. The basic decision areas will then be re-evaluated in the light of the above considerations. Course participants will be encouraged to utilise the original papers as well as prescribed texts. This should build an awareness of both the strengths and limitations of the models and methods used currently in this branch of financial economics. The controversies, schisms, and contradictions in viewpoints should be evident. Nevertheless the tremendous advances in the scope of financial economics and the close marriage between theory and empirical work should become apparent.