Product Description

The past twenty years have seen great theoretical and empirical advances in the field of corporate finance. Whereas once the subject addressed mainly the financing of corporations--equity, debt, and valuation--today it also embraces crucial issues of governance, liquidity, risk management, relationships between banks and corporations, and the macroeconomic impact of corporations. However, this progress has left in its wake a jumbled array of concepts and models that students are often hard put to make sense of.

Here, one of the world's leading economists offers a lucid, unified, and comprehensive introduction to modern corporate finance theory. Jean Tirole builds his landmark book around a single model, using an incentive or contract theory approach. Filling a major gap in the field, The Theory of Corporate Finance is an indispensable resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students as well as researchers of corporate finance, industrial organization, political economy, development, and macroeconomics.

Tirole conveys the organizing principles that structure the analysis of today's key management and public policy issues, such as the reform of corporate governance and auditing; the role of private equity, financial markets, and takeovers; the efficient determination of leverage, dividends, liquidity, and risk management; and the design of managerial incentive packages. He weaves empirical studies into the book's theoretical analysis. And he places the corporation in its broader environment, both microeconomic and macroeconomic, and examines the two-way interaction between the corporate environment and institutions.

Setting a new milestone in the field, The Theory of Corporate Finance will be the authoritative text for years to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #296618 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

The Economist
"A magnificent new book -- It has a plausible claim to be the first truly comprehensive overview of corporate finance".

Review
A magnificent new book. . . . This is far more than the mere textbook it purports to be; it has a plausible claim to be the first truly comprehensive overview of corporate finance by an economist.
(The Economist )

Impeccably systematized. . . . Tirole's book will have a prominent place in my library, and I am sure that I shall have plenty of occasions to refer to its authority in the future. It fully deserves a 'buy' rating.
(Rudi Bogni Times Higher Education Supplement )

Jean Tirole has provided the profession with its first comprehensive, advanced treatment of corporate finance theory. . . . [T]he overall result is far from idiosyncratic and it will have a major impact upon teaching and research in corporate finance.
(David Webb Economic Journal )

Review
Using a single elementary model Tirole brings out with refreshing ease an unsuspected unity and simplicity in a field that might otherwise be perceived as dishearteningly fragmented and complex. This masterful book will be a formidable teaching tool at the graduate level and an essential reference for research in corporate finance.
(Marco Pagano, Professor of Economics, University of Naples Federico II )

Customer Reviews

the last word
anyone familiar with finance and economics will know that jean tirole needs no intro. find the research agenda getting a bit stale? this is the perfect pick me up.

an enchiridion on corporate finance
This book is the best enchiridion for any kind of studies in finance. All students are advised to read it;they will find it useful, not only due to its deep and scrutable meanings, but also because it awakes profound questions to the reader and urge him to make his own research on a sector in finance which is still in its infancy.
This handbook helped me a lot with my dissertation, as it concentrates in its pages various and many topics on corporate finance.

Excellent Theoretical Approach
Even a few years ago the theory of corporate finance was relatively simple. To be sure, everyone knew that the models weren't perfect. The close cooperation between favorite trading partners and/or between companies and their governments, the impact of taxes, currency issues, and a whole raft of financing instruments that never existed before has forced drastic changes in the basic theories of corporate financing.

This book employs a single, elementary model in order to illustrate the main economic insights. While this approach doesn't take into account all of the various extentions that more complex models might give, it is much easier for the student to get accustomed to one model and then to modify it as circumstances warrent.

This book is aimed at the advanced undergraduate student, or more likely one at the graduate level. While not nearly as mathematically oriented as some books, this one does include enough that the student should consider calculus as a prerequisite.

All in all, this book does a supurb job of developing a theory that reflects the real world as it exists today.