The Columbia Business School and Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation are looking at ways of assessing ‘sovereign risk’ by looking at financial statements.
The Sovereign Risk Initiative will recognise the importance of analysing financial statements prepared in line with the international public sector accounting standards, as well as the best practices of a full system of public financial management, to analysis sovereign risk.
"We are honoured to team up with Columbia Business School in a visionary initiative that will change the landscape of assessing sovereign risk by smartly integrating select tools of value investing and PFM," said Paul Kazarian, chairman and CEO of the Kazarian Foundation, who will support the project as an adjunct professor in the sector of public financial management.
The project for Columbia Business School will be overseen by Shivaram Rajgopal , professor of accounting and auditing.
He said: "Columbia Business School is excited to be the pioneer in this new field of assessing sovereign risk using financial statements and to extend our core competency as an international leader in the sectors of accounting and value investing.”
The initiative has four pillars, including convening of a public meeting comprised of leaders in the area of sovereign risk and PFM.
The other three are: Development of business school case studies related to sovereign risk course content, creation of multi-disciplinary professional publications, and the launch of Master of Business Administration coursework focused on understanding sovereign risk by analysing government financial statements.