Courses for Bachelor Students
Finance & Decisions
- Lecturer (lecture)
- Dr. Johannes Maier
- Language
- English
- Target group
- B.Sc. Business Administration
- Link
- LSF; Moodle
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- ECTS
- 6 ECTS
- Course format
- In-person, weekly
- Course content
- This course provides an introduction to decision theory and the fundamentals of capital markets and combines theoretical approaches with practice-oriented applications. In the area of decision theory, the focus is on decisions under uncertainty, including the structure of decision problems and the analysis of individual preferences, the uncertain environment and the level of information. It is shown how changes in these factors work within the framework of expected utility theory and how these concepts can be applied to economic decision problems, particularly in the insurance industry. In addition, the module teaches basic theoretical concepts of capital markets as well as an introduction to the most important financial instruments. Students acquire skills in dealing with financial issues and learn to apply the theories they have learned to real economic contexts.
- Exam format
- One-hour written exam
Risiko und Versicherung
- Lecturer (Lecture)
- Prof. Dr. Andreas Richter
- Language
- German
- Target group
- B.Sc. Business Administration; B.Sc. Business Education; B.Sc. Economics; B.Sc. Business Mathematics; Minor in Business Administration
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter and summer semester
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- in-person
- Course content
- Risk and Insurance provides an overview of insurance markets and clarifies the special features of the insurance business. To this end, the insurability of risks (including catastrophic risks such as terrorism) as well as the underwriting structure of individual risks, in particular through insurance forms, is discussed or explained.
- Textbook
- Karten, Walter, Nell, Martin, Richter, Andreas and Schiller, Jörg (2018): Risiko und Versicherungstechnik - Eine ökonomische Einführung, Springer Gabler.
Students can download it free of charge via the University Library. - Exam format
- Two-hour written exam
Insurance Management
- Lecturer (Lecture)
- Dr. Johannes Maier
- Language
- English
- Target group
- B.Sc. Business Administration; B.Sc. Business Education; B.Sc. Business Mathematics
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- In-person, weekly lecture & tutorial
- Course content
- This course provides an introduction of the economic foundations of the insurance industry. Managerial questions along the value chain of insurance providers will be analysed. Current developments will be explained and economic interdependence will be discussed. Among the topics considered are institutional foundations, insurance regulation, insurance distribution as well as current issues like the digital transformation of the insurance sector and the handling of cyber risks.
- Exam format
- Two-hour written exam
Advanced seminar: Information and Insurance
- Language
- English
- Target group
- B.Sc. Business Administration; B.Sc. Business Mathematics
- Link
- LSF, Syllabus (PDF, 300 KB)
- Registration
- Required, important information about the application process and deadlines for Business Administration (BWL) students can be found on the .
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- In-person
- Course content
- The seminar focuses on problems that arise from asymmetric information between insurance companies and insurees, such as moral hazard, adverse selection and insurance fraud. Further topics include risk perception, insurance demand as well as topics related to the digitization in the insurance industry. The participation in the seminar includes the presentation of a written home assignment and taking part in discussions during joint sessions, where all topics will be discussed with active involvement of the participants. Scientific research and writing strategies will be conveyed to help participants learn to solve a scientific problem by reading up on relevant literature.
Each student will be required to write a seminar paper, present this seminar paper in class, and discuss a paper written by another student. All three aspects, together with the participation, will be considered when grades are determined. Further details concerning the paper, the presentation and the discussion will be given during the kick-off meeting. - Exam format
- Seminar paper + presentation
Seminar: Catastrophe Risk Management
- Lecturer
- Prof. Patricia Born
- Language
- English
- Target group
- B.Sc. Business Administration; B.Sc. Business Mathematics
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- Registration
- Required via contact form
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- In-person
- Course content
- Major catastrophic losses cause severe distortions in insurance markets and the increasing size of economic losses imposes severe challenges on both insurers and governments in disaster-prone areas. Many individuals remain uninsured as they underestimate the threat of catastrophic events due to their low frequency or rely on governmental disaster relief.
The seminar targets to familiarize the participants with the most recent developments in the area of catastrophe risk management. This includes the preparation and presentation of a home assignment as well as taking part in discussions during joint sessions, where all topics will be discussed with active involvement of the participants. Scientific research and writing strategies will be conveyed, so that students are empowered to acquaint themselves with a scientific problem and read up on relevant literature. Furthermore, as a basis for further scientific work, students should become familiar with the independent composition of a scientific piece of work. - Exam format
- Presentation + seminar paper
Praxis der PR: Communicative Leadership
- Lecturer
- Emilio Galli Zugaro
- Language
- German
- Target group
- B.Sc. Business Administration
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter and summer semester
- Registration
- Required via contact form
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- Online via Zoom, weekly, 5 dates
- Course content
- The acceptance of employees, customers, investors and society is a prerequisite for sustainable corporate success. Only managers who communicate excellently can achieve this. In the course "Communicative Leadership", management, corporate and communication strategies are explained and analysed. In particular, the development of stakeholder-oriented strategies is the content of this course. The focus is on applying the concepts learned to practical situations.
- Textbook
- Galli Zugaro, E.; Galli Zugaro, C. (2017): The listening leader. How to drive performance by using communicative leadership.
There are 20 copies of this book available for you to borrow in the library of the Institute of Risk Management and Insurance (Schackstr. 4, 80539 Munich, 3rd floor). - Exam format
- Presentation + one-hour written exam
Foundations in Finance and Insurance (Advanced Risk Management)
- Lecturer (Lecture)
- Prof. Dr. Andreas Richter ; Prof. Ralf Elsas; Prof. Markus Glaser; Prof. Dr. Ryan Riordan
- Language
- English
- Target group
- M.Sc. Business Administration; M.Sc. Financial and Insurance Mathematics
- Link
- LSF-Link Lecture; LSF-Link Exercise
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- ECTS
- 9 ECTS
- Course format
- In-person, weekly lecture & tutorial
- Course content
- The Masters level class "Advanced Risk Management" is offered in cooperation with the Institute for Capital Markets and Corporate Finance, the Institute for Finance and Banking, and the Institute for Financial Innovation and Technology.
The first part will be offered by the Institute for Risk Management and Insurance and seeks to deepen the understanding of why risk management is beneficial. Starting with categorizing different sources of risk for financial and non-financial firms, important aspects of expected utility theory and its connection to financial models are analysed. Based on the theory of optimal risk sharing and related concepts, the relevance of risk management will be examined. Tutorials will provide a deeper understanding of some theoretical concepts presented in the lecture. Additionally, exercises and case studies will improve the participants' skills for analysing and solving risk management problems.
The second, third, and fourth part of the course will be offered by the Institute for Capital Markets and Corporate Finance, the Institute for Finance and Banking, and the Institute for Financial Innovation and Technology. Topically, it will deal with specific types of risk faced by financial institutions, focusing on market risk and credit risk. Students will learn about concepts and techniques to model and manage these risks. This includes topics such as modelling volatilities and dependence, value-at-risk estimation and hedging using financial derivatives. Portfolio models of credit risk will also be discussed. In hands-on exercises, students will learn how to apply these concepts using MS-Excel. - Exam format
- 150-minute written exam
Behavioral Decision Making
- Lecturer
- Dr. Johannes Maier
- Language
- Englisch
- Target group
- M.Sc. Business Administration; Master of Business Research (MBR)
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- ECTS
- 6 ECTS
- Course format
- In-person, weekly
- Course content
- Behavioral economics emerged out of a number of empirical and experimental puzzles which are difficult toexplain with the standard economic paradigm. It studies models of human decision making and the interactionamong such decision makers in games and markets. Why do people demand insurance and, at thesame time, buy lottery tickets? Why do default decisions matter even if transaction costs are low? Why dopeople borrow on credit cards and, at the same time, hold substantial illiquid wealth? Why do people engagein charitable giving? Behavioral economics is the attempt to shed light on these and other observationsby enriching standard theory with psychological realism, i.e., creating models about behavior thatbring more accurate predictions. As behavioral economists typically aspire to construct more "realistic"models, many of the models are inspired by psychological and experimental studies.
- Exam format
- Presentation + seminar paper
Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Altersvorsorge
- Lecturer
- Dr. Stefan Graf; Prof. Dr. Alexander Kling
- Language
- German
- Target group
- M.Sc. Business Administration; M.Sc. Financial and Insurance Mathematics
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- Registration
- Required via contact form
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- In-person
- Course content
- Demographic changes alongside a constant improvement in life expectancy means that in the future, statutory old-age provision will no longer be sufficient for many people to secure their standard of living. Private old-age provision will therefore continue to gain in importance. This is one of the reasons why a large number of innovative old-age provision products have been developed in recent years. In the lecture, Dr. Graf and Dr. Kling will give an insight into the current demographic development and its effects on statutory and private old-age provision. In particular, they will go into detail about the product innovations of recent years and explain what changes have occurred and what changes will occur as a result of the demographic and regulatory framework conditions. In addition, they explain why common comparisons of pension products are often misleading and lead to false incentives in product development and sales. Finally, the lecturers present a current, scientifically based comparison methodology that is already being used by large sales organisations.
- Exam format
- Oral exam
Asset Liability Management
- Lecturer
- PD Dr. Günter Schwarz
- Language
- German
- Target group
- M.Sc. Business Administration;
M.Sc. Financial and Insurance Mathematics and other majors after prior consultation with the respective study coordinator - Registration
- required via contact form
- Link
- LSF
- Cycle
- Winter semester
- ECTS & SWS
- 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
- Course format
- In-person
- Course content
- The course aims to 1) give an overview of the main investment methods used by insurers, 2) introduce some key techniques of asset liability management and 3) relate them to the practical application of ALM in insurance companies.
In the first part, the course will focus on providing an introduction to the main valuation and estimation methods for fixed income and non-fixed income investments, based on qualitative and legal aspects of insurance companies' investment decisions.
The second part bridges the gap between relevant underwriting cash flows and the use of appropriate investment strategies with a view to current practice in the insurance industry.
The third part is devoted to elementary aspects of economic theory on financial derivatives relevant to insurers. - Exam format
- Presentation