Cesare Fracassi

Cesare Fracassi

All things Fintech and Crypto

Teaching

Financial Technology

Undergraduate and graduate course, UT-Austin/edX, 2025

This course offers an in-depth examination of the most recent technological advancements reshaping the financial services industry. Students will explore how financial institutions leverage emerging technologies to create value, gain competitive advantage, and transform traditional financial services. The course critically evaluates the role of blockchain technology, distributed ledgers, and cryptocurrencies in modern financial markets. Furthermore, it introduces students to the principles of machine learning, analyzing its applications in credit scoring, algorithmic trading, and financial advising. The course also delves into the transformative impact of APIs, Banking as a Service (BaaS), and open banking on payment systems and financial services. This course is also offered to the general public as a MOOC on edX

Empirical Corporate Finance for PhDs

PhD-Level course, UT-Austin, 2025

This course surveys the common methodologies used in empirical corporate finance research, with an emphasis on practical issues. It also examines many of the important topics in corporate finance, including both seminal papers and working papers on the cutting edge of the field. The course is designed to help you learn how to do empirical research in corporate finance via a two-pronged approach: (1) Lectures, readings, and course assignments will help you understand the intuition behind each econometric method. (2) Student presentations, referee reports, and literature reviews will help you become familiar with the most important papers in the literature.

Corporate Valuation

Graduate course, UT-Austin, 2025

This course covers business valuation and equity valuation. The goal of the course is to provide students with a deep understanding of the core corporate finance concepts, and with practical tools and methods to value a broad range of assets. While the course is designed first and foremost to be very practical, the tools and methods covered in this course are presented in the framework of generally accepted financial theory. The course starts with a broad overview and discussion of valuation techniques. Following the overview of valuation techniques, we start with methods for calculating the discount rate used in cash flow valuation methods and the valuation effects of a firm’s capital structure. We then cover cash flow valuation techniques used to value businesses and equity. We start with the discounted cash flow method (DCF), which is the most widely used cash flow valuation method. Cash flow valuation methods include many uncertain inputs, and sensitivity analysis help reveal the effects of varying the major inputs of the valuation. Following the DCF work, we will cover the use of relative valuation multiples (e.g., EV/EBITDA, P/E) and work through an HBS case on the use of valuation multiples in determining firm and equity value. We conclude the course with a discussion of other valuation techniques, control premiums and liquidity discounts, and a look at valuation in both LBO and M&A contexts.