Bruno Biais - Böcker

In recent years, European financial economists have been brought together, via research projects and conferences, by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). These fruitful interactions have contributed to the development of financial economics in Europe, and have generated a strong flow of interesting writing---both theoretical and empirical---in the fields of financial markets and corporate finance.The chapters in this volume and its companion volume, "Corporate Finance and Baking: A Reader", reflect the depth and breadth of the research interests of European scholars in financial economics. The analysis of financial markets presented in this collection enhances our understanding of asset pricing, both in the context of perfect markets and in the context of market imperfections, such as asymmetric information. Those chapters that appear in "Corporate Finance and Banking" further our understanding of the interaction between business cycle and financial imperfections, IPOs, takeover bids, and the interplay between banks and financial markets. Together, these two volumes comprise an authoritative and invaluable reference tool for scholars and others working in the fields of finance, corporate finance, and monetary economics.

In recent years, European financial economists have been brought together, via research projects and conferences, by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). These fruitful interactions have contributed to the development of financial economics in Europe, and have generated a strong flow of interesting writing---both theoretical and empirical. The chapters in this volume reflect the depth and breadth of the research interests of European scholars in financial economics.The first section uses empirical analysis of financial market data to test the robustness of the pricing kernel model. The second section is on market microstructure, which is based on the observation of high frequency data. It explores the implications of asymmetric information and market imperfections. The third section points to how the study of speculation may link both the pricing kernel and the microstructure approaches. The final section on corporate finance suggests that contractual and agency problems have a significant impact on the pricing of financial assets.

In recent years, European financial economists have been brought together, via research projects and bubble01ces, by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). These fruitful interactions have contributed to the development of financial economics in Europe, and have generated a strong flow of interesting writing---both theoretical and empirical---in the fields of financial markets and corporate finance.The chapters in this volume and its companion volume, "Financial Markets: A Reader", reflect the depth and breadth of the research interests of European scholars in financial economics. The chapters that appear in this volume further our understanding of the interaction between business cycle and financial imperfections, IPOs, takeover bids, and the interplay between banks and financial markets. The analysis presented in "Financial Markets" enhances our understanding of asset pricing, both in the context of perfect markets and in the context of market imperfections, such as asymmetric information. Together, these two volumes comprise an authoritative and invaluable reference tool for scholars and others working in the fields of finance, corporate finance, and monetary economics.

In recent years, European financial economists have been brought together, via research projects and bubble01ces, by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). These fruitful interactions have contributed to the development of financial economics in Europe, and have generated a strong flow of interesting writing---both theoretical and empirical---in the fields of financial markets and corporate finance.One of the common questions posed by researchers in this field is why security markets have such different roles and importance relative to banks in different countries. A related issue is whether these different financial arrangements matter for the functioning of the real economy. The first section of this volume approaches these issues by focusing on the functioning of the primary equity market, or the process by which companies 'go public', which marks the transition from complete reliance on bank financing to partial reliance on security markets. The second section approaches these issues at a 'systemic' level, attempting to identify the comparative advantages of banks and security markets in solving the information problems involved in financing companies. The third section explores the variety in the design of credit contracts and institutions, asking questions like: Why do some companies borrow from a single bank and others from several banks? Why do some banks share information about their customers? The final section illustrates that the same informational frictions that explain the design of credit contracts and institutions can also affect real economic activity.