Stephan Dieckmann

Stephan Dieckmann
  • Senior Lecturer of Finance
  • Deputy Director of the Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Master of Science in Quantitative Finance

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    2252 Steinberg-Dietrich Hall
    3620 Locust Walk
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: dynamic asset pricing, financial econometrics, fixed income markets, insurance economics, risk management, in particular rare event risk and credit risk

Links: CV

Overview

Dr. Stephan Dieckmann has taught in Wharton’s MBA, Undergraduate, and Executive Education programs since 2008. His teaching portfolio includes the corporate finance core course as well as electives in capital markets and investments. He received the MBA Core Curriculum Teaching Award in 2014 and 2018 and has earned Wharton’s Teaching Excellence Award every year since 2018.

Stephan served as Deputy Vice Dean for Wharton’s MBA Program from 2013 to 2022, where he led the program’s academic administration, including curriculum innovation, concentrations, dual-degree offerings, and the advancement of Wharton’s data-driven approach to learning. He currently serves as Deputy Director of the Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Master of Science in Quantitative Finance, established in 2025 to extend Penn’s undergraduate experience into a graduate degree that prepares students for careers at the forefront of quantitative finance.

Stephan’s research interests include questions at the intersection of asset pricing and insurance economics. He has published in leading scholarly journals and has been recognized for his contributions to understanding rare event risks. Prior to joining Wharton, he was on the finance faculty at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and worked in the financial industry in bond markets and treasury management. Stephan received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.

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Teaching

Current Courses

  • FNCE6110 - Corporate Finance

    This course serves as an introduction to business finance (corporate financial management and investments) for both non-majors and majors preparing for upper-level course work. The primary objective is to provide the framework, concepts, and tools for analyzing financial decisions based on fundamental principles of modern financial theory. The approach is rigorous and analytical. Topics covered include discounted cash flow techniques; corporate capital budgeting and valuation; investment decisions under uncertainty; capital asset pricing; options; and market efficiency. The course will also analyze corporate financial policy, including capital structure, cost of capital, dividend policy, and related issues. Additional topics will differ according to individual instructors.

    FNCE6110001 ( Syllabus )

    FNCE6110002 ( Syllabus )

    FNCE6110003 ( Syllabus )

    FNCE6110004 ( Syllabus )

Past Courses

  • FNCE2250 - Fixed Income Securities

    This course covers fixed income securities (including fixed income derivatives) and provides an introduction to the markets in which they are traded, as well as to the tools that are used to value these securities and to assess and manage their risk. Quantitative models play a key role in the valuation and risk management of these securities. As a result, although every effort will be made to introduce the various pricing models and techniques as intuitively as possible and the technical requirements are limited to basic calculus and statistics, the class is by its nature quantitative and will require a steady amount of work. In addition, some computer proficiency will be required for the assignments, although familiarity with a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel) will suffice. In addition to course prerequisites, FNCE 1010 is recommended.

  • FNCE6110 - Corporate Finance

    This course serves as an introduction to business finance (corporate financial management and investments) for both non-majors and majors preparing for upper-level course work. The primary objective is to provide the framework, concepts, and tools for analyzing financial decisions based on fundamental principles of modern financial theory. The approach is rigorous and analytical. Topics covered include discounted cash flow techniques; corporate capital budgeting and valuation; investment decisions under uncertainty; capital asset pricing; options; and market efficiency. The course will also analyze corporate financial policy, including capital structure, cost of capital, dividend policy, and related issues. Additional topics will differ according to individual instructors.

  • FNCE6210 - Corporate Finance (Half CU)

    This half-semester course serves as an introduction to corporate investments for non-majors. The primary objective is to provide a framework, concepts, and tools for analyzing financial decisions based on fundamental principles of modern financial theory. Topics covered include discounted cash flow techniques, corporate capital budgeting and valuation, investment decisions under uncertainty, and capital asset pricing. The approach is rigorous and analytical but the course will not cover several topics included in the full semester Corporate Finance course, including: market efficiency, corporate financial policy (including capital structure, cost of capital, dividend policy, and related issues), and options.

  • FNCE7250 - Fixed Income Securities

    This course covers fixed income securities (including fixed income derivatives) and provides an introduction to the markets in which they are traded, as well as to the tools that are used to value these securities and to assess and manage their risk. Quantitative models play a key role in the valuation and risk management of these securities. In addition to course prerequisites, FNCE 6130 is recommended but not required.

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