Course Description

This course provides an introduction to one of humanity’s “killer apps” – financial intermediation. Be it a bank, pension plan, insurance company, or investment fund, these organizations are all means by which the world’s savings are used to fund the world’s investments. Each of the tools and organizations studied were invented to overcome the challenges of intermediation. Studying them in historical context tells us about how cultural, geographic, and demographic constraints or endowments have affected their current design and what they might look like in the future.

In each session, a new financial “technology” will be introduced and we will spend some time considering the history of its related institutions, how they have changed over time, and what their current incarnations look like today. In doing so, students will be required to think about how design choices impact the stakeholders of various institutions, the path-dependent nature of today’s structures, and how these organizations and tools can be adapted to better suit society’s needs in the future.