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RRE 101: Ethics, Economics & Financial Systems
Course Code RRE 101
Course Name Ethics, Economics & Financial Systems
Department Finance
Semester Offered Odd (Term 1)
Tuition Hours 20 hours
Course Level Foundational
Pre-requisite -
Co-requisite FTM 101, CFS 101, TFS 101
Course Objective Finance is not just about money. It is about trust at scale. Markets exist because strangers are willing to transact, lend, invest, and take risks together. But history shows that when incentives are misaligned, finance can concentrate power, amplify inequality, and occasionally collapse entire economies.

This course asks a simple but uncomfortable question: what is finance supposed to do, and what happens when it forgets?

Students will explore the economic logic behind markets, the ethical responsibilities of financial actors, and the regulatory structures designed to keep the system from breaking. Using India's financial evolution as a live case, from scams to inclusion revolutions, students will learn to evaluate financial systems not just on efficiency, but on fairness, resilience, and long-term impact.

By the end, finance should stop feeling like a neutral tool and start feeling like a system you are accountable for shaping.
Course Philosophy This course emphasizes
  • Reality over theory: we study what actually happened, not what textbooks claim should happen
  • Incentives over intentions: systems behave based on incentives, not moral statements
  • Judgment over memorization: there are no clean answers, only better decisions
Ethics is not taught as philosophy alone. It is treated as a practical skill for operating in high-stakes environments where decisions affect millions of people.
Course Learning Outcomes Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
  • Explain why financial markets exist and the economic functions they serve in society.
  • Analyze financial crises by identifying structural weaknesses, incentives, and behavioral failures.
  • Evaluate ethical dilemmas in finance using structured reasoning rather than opinion.
  • Understand the role of regulation and assess when it protects versus when it distorts markets.
  • Identify systemic risks in financial systems and propose practical safeguards.
  • Develop a personal ethical framework for making decisions as a financial practitioner.
Course Author Sagar Udasi
MSc Statistics and Data Science with Computational Finance from The University of Edinburgh.
Contact: sagar.l.udasi@gmail.com
Course Organiser TBD
Details to be announced.
No. Lecture Title Concepts Covered Lecture Objective
01 Why Does Finance Even Exist? Role of financial systems, capital allocation, intermediation Build first-principles understanding of why finance exists so students don’t treat it as just markets and money.
02 Trust: The Invisible Currency Trust, contracts, institutions, enforcement Connect finance to trust so students understand why systems collapse when trust breaks.
03 When Markets Work Beautifully Efficient allocation, price discovery, liquidity Show what “good” looks like so students can recognize when markets are functioning properly.
04 When Markets Fail Spectacularly Market failures, externalities, inequality Help students identify failure modes that will show up in real-world systems they build or invest in.
05 The Incentives That Broke the System Moral hazard, adverse selection, principal-agent problem Train students to think in incentives, critical for capstone decisions involving users, partners, and capital.
06 The Harsh Lessons of Financial Crises 2008 crisis, Harshad Mehta scam, IL&FS collapse Teach pattern recognition so students can spot early warning signals in markets and businesses.
07 Who Is Responsible When Everything Breaks? Accountability, systemic vs individual failure Push students to think about responsibility when operating financial products at scale.
08 Regulation: Protection or Constraint? RBI, SEBI, regulatory frameworks, compliance Help students understand the constraints they must operate within while building fintech products.
09 Financial Inclusion: Idealism Meets Reality Inclusion vs exploitation, microfinance, UPI ecosystem Ground students in real-world tradeoffs when designing products for underserved populations (directly tied to capstone).
10 Ethics in Product Design Dark patterns, nudging, behavioral manipulation Ensure students don’t build harmful fintech products while chasing growth.
11 Data, Privacy, and Financial Power Data ownership, surveillance, consent in finance Critical for students building fintech tools using user data in Term 1 capstone.
12 Can Finance Be Fair? Inequality, access, systemic bias Challenge students to think beyond profit into system design.
13 Building Systems That Don’t Collapse Risk, resilience, safeguards Connect ethics with system design so students build robust, not fragile, financial tools.
14 Your Ethical Playbook Personal frameworks, decision-making under ambiguity Help students define how they will act when faced with real tradeoffs in their capstone and careers.
Component Weightage
Case Study Analysis (2 total) 30%
Applied Ethics Assignment (Capstone-linked) 30%
Reflective Essay (Personal Ethical Framework) 20%
Class Participation & Discussions 20%
Type Resource Provider
Book Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
Book The Big Short Michael Lewis
Lecture Financial Markets Prof. Robert Shiller (Yale)
Article RBI Financial Stability Reports Reserve Bank of India
Case Study Harshad Mehta Scam Analysis Various Public Sources