The course introduces students to how firms prepare their financial statements (their accounting information) and to the tools needed to analyze and understand this information. By using these financial tools, analysts and other agents interested in the firm are able to assess and evaluate the past performance of a company, compare the firm performance across time, and compare it to its peers. The main objective of this part of the course is that students are able to: - Understand the content of financial statements - Understand firms accounting choices (and don´t be fooled by them) Overall, students are expected to become sophisticated users of accounting and financial information interactions between corporate financial decisions and the other managerial decisions.

1. Introduction to accounting and to the financial statements 2. Accounting information and capital markets 3. Strategy analysis 4. Accounting analysis: Overview and pitfalls of accounting analysis 4.1. Challenges for sophisticated users of financial statements 4.2. Pitfalls of accounting numbers 4.2.1. Assets 4.2.2. Liabilities 4.2.3. Equity 4.2.4. Revenues and Expenses 4.2.5. Consolidation / Business combinations 5. Financial statements analysis through ratios 6. Assessing accounting quality 7. Firm valuation using accounting numbers