Great Minds in Finance – serie

Read addresses the contributions of significant individuals to our understanding of financial decisions and markets. Great financial theorists created the basis for what we now know as personal finance and this volume describes four great minds in finance that forever established the role of the rate of return and life cycle decision-making.

Read examines probability, risk, and uncertainty through the contributions of John von Neumann, Leonard Jimmie Savage, Kenneth Arrow and Harry Markowitz. These Portfolio Theorists provided us with a dramatic leap forward in our understanding of and insights into financial rewards under risk and uncertainty.

The third book in the Great Minds in Finance series examines the pricing of securities and the risk/reward trade off through the legends, contribution, and legacies of Jacob Marschak, William Sharpe, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton, influencing both theory and practice, answering the question 'how do we measure risk?'

Describes the lives, theories, and legacies of six great minds in finance who changed the way we look at financial markets and equilibrium. Bachelier, Samuelson, Fama, Ross, Tobin, and Shiller; proponents and critics of the market efficiency theories who redefined modern finance, creating the foundation on which all financial analysis rests.

The Corporate Financiers is the fifth book in aseries of discussions about the great minds in the history and theory offinance. While the series addresses the contributions of scholars in ourunderstanding of modern finance, this volume presents the ways in which acorporation creates value.Morethan two centuries ago, Adam Smith explained the concept of division of laborand the efficiencies of specialization as the mechanism in which a firm createsvalue. However, corporations now find themselves outsourcing some processes toother firms as an alternative way to create value. There must be other economicforces at work than simply the internal efficiencies of a firm. We begin bydescribing the work of a rather obscure scholar named John Burr Williams who demonstratedin 1938 how the earnings of a firm are capitalized into corporate value throughits stock price. We then delve into the inner workings of the moderncorporation by describing the contributions of Nobel Memorial Prize winnersRonald Coase and Oliver Williamson. More than any others, these scholarscreated a renewed appreciation for our understanding of the institutionaldetail of the modern corporation in reducing costs and increasing efficiency.WhileCoase and Williamson provided meaningful descriptions of the advantage of acorporation, they did not offer prescriptions for the avenues the corporationcan create more value in an era when new technologies make outsourcing andtelecommuting increasingly possible. Michael Jensen and William Mecklingdescribe in greater detail the nature of the implicit contracts a corporationemploys, and recommend remedies to various problems that arise when the goalsof the corporation are not aligned with the incentives of its agents. We alsodescribe the further nuances to these relationships as offered by Armen Alchianand Harold Demsetz. We treat the lives of these extraordinary individuals wholooked at a very familiar problem in a sufficiently novel light to change theway all look at corporations ever since. That is the test of genius.

To follow.

This is the seventh book in a series of discussions about the great minds in the history and theory of finance.

Read addresses the contributions of significant individuals to our understanding of financial decisions and markets. Great financial theorists created the basis for what we now know as personal finance and this volume describes four great minds in finance that forever established the role of the rate of return and life cycle decision-making.

Read examines probability, risk, and uncertainty through the contributions of John von Neumann, Leonard Jimmie Savage, Kenneth Arrow and Harry Markowitz. These Portfolio Theorists provided us with a dramatic leap forward in our understanding of and insights into financial rewards under risk and uncertainty.

The third book in the Great Minds in Finance series examines the pricing of securities and the risk/reward trade off through the legends, contribution, and legacies of Jacob Marschak, William Sharpe, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton, influencing both theory and practice, answering the question 'how do we measure risk?'

Describes the lives, theories, and legacies of six great minds in finance who changed the way we look at financial markets and equilibrium. Bachelier, Samuelson, Fama, Ross, Tobin, and Shiller; proponents and critics of the market efficiency theories who redefined modern finance, creating the foundation on which all financial analysis rests.

The Corporate Financiers is the fifth book in aseries of discussions about the great minds in the history and theory offinance. While the series addresses the contributions of scholars in ourunderstanding of modern finance, this volume presents the ways in which acorporation creates value.Morethan two centuries ago, Adam Smith explained the concept of division of laborand the efficiencies of specialization as the mechanism in which a firm createsvalue. However, corporations now find themselves outsourcing some processes toother firms as an alternative way to create value. There must be other economicforces at work than simply the internal efficiencies of a firm. We begin bydescribing the work of a rather obscure scholar named John Burr Williams who demonstratedin 1938 how the earnings of a firm are capitalized into corporate value throughits stock price. We then delve into the inner workings of the moderncorporation by describing the contributions of Nobel Memorial Prize winnersRonald Coase and Oliver Williamson. More than any others, these scholarscreated a renewed appreciation for our understanding of the institutionaldetail of the modern corporation in reducing costs and increasing efficiency.WhileCoase and Williamson provided meaningful descriptions of the advantage of acorporation, they did not offer prescriptions for the avenues the corporationcan create more value in an era when new technologies make outsourcing andtelecommuting increasingly possible. Michael Jensen and William Mecklingdescribe in greater detail the nature of the implicit contracts a corporationemploys, and recommend remedies to various problems that arise when the goalsof the corporation are not aligned with the incentives of its agents. We alsodescribe the further nuances to these relationships as offered by Armen Alchianand Harold Demsetz. We treat the lives of these extraordinary individuals wholooked at a very familiar problem in a sufficiently novel light to change theway all look at corporations ever since. That is the test of genius.