Contemporary Finance

"Contemporary Finance: Money, Risk, and Public Policy is a textbook on finance for finance professionals, undergraduates and graduate students. It covers the basic finance theory required to understand the contemporary financial world and builds on that theory to present finance in a detailed yet comprehensible way. Contemporary Finance introduces readers to markets and institutions as well as to the government policy framework within which these markets operate. Contemporary Finance is designed to be used as a sole or supplementary textbook for introductory and specialized finance courses, as well as for practitioners in several fields in or related to finance. The financial world has been changing rapidly for over half a century, and even faster amid the crises of recent decades. Those changes have put risk and uncertainty in the center of our understanding of finance, and have given regulatory and central bank policies a more central role in shaping the financial system. Contemporary Finance emphasizes risk and uncertainty in its presentation of financial theory and practice. The book begins with an overview of the markets, institutions and actors in the financial system, and of the questions the study of finance tries to answer. It then covers basic finance theory in a highly applied way, presenting concrete examples and case studies for each concept. The theory covered includes investor behavior, the role of uncertainty, how prices are set in financial markets, and risk models and measurement. Contemporary Finance discusses credit and liquidity risk comprehensively, including discussion of legal aspects, firm capital structure, and leverage"--