This volume invites young scientists and doctoral students in the fields of capital market theory, informational economics, and mana gement science to visualize the many different ways to arrive at a thorough understanding of risk and capital. Rather than focusing on one subject only, the sample of papers collected may be viewed as a representative choice of various aspects. Some contributions have more the character of surveys on the state of the art while others stress original research. We fou~d it proper to group the papers under two main themes. Part I covers information, risk aversion, and capital market theory. Part II is devoted to management, policy, and empirical evidence. Two contributions, we think, deserved to break this allocation and to be placed in a prologue. The ideas expressed by Jost B. Walther, although meant as opening address, draw interesting parallels for risk and capital in genetics and evolution. An old, fundamental pro blem was asked and solved by Martin J. Beckmann: how does risk affect saving? The wise answer (Martin's 60th birthday is in July 1984) is both smart and simple, although the proof requires sophisticated dynamic programming. As always, such a work must be the result of a special occasion.
