This second edition provides a rigorous yet accessible graduate-level introduction to financial economics. Since students often find the link between financial economics and equilibrium theory hard to grasp, less attention is given to purely financial topics, such as valuation of derivatives, and more emphasis is placed on making the connection with equilibrium theory explicit and clear. This book also provides a detailed study of two-date models because almost all of the key ideas in financial economics can be developed in the two-date setting. Substantial discussions and examples are included to make the ideas readily understandable. Several chapters in this new edition have been reordered and revised to deal with portfolio restrictions sequentially and more clearly, and an extended discussion on portfolio choice and optimal allocation of risk is available. The most important additions are new chapters on infinite-time security markets, exploring, among other topics, the possibility of price bubbles.

"Comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in financial economics, appropriate for graduate-level research"--

Financial Economics, by Frank Fabozzi, Ted Neave, and Gaofu Zhou, presents an introduction to basic financial ideas through a strong grounding in microeconomic theory. This calculus based text explores the theoretical framework for analyzing the decisions by individuals and managers of firms, an area which is coming to both financial economics and microeconomics. It also explores the interplay of these decisions on the prices of financial assets. The authors provide rigorous coverage aimed at assisting the undergraduate and masters-level students to better understand the principles and practical application of financial economic theory. In addition, the book serves as a supplemental reference for doctoral students in economics and finance, as well as for practitioners who are interested in knowing more about the theory and intuition behind many coming practices in finance. In short, the book focuses on economic principles and on putting these principles to work in the various fields of finance - financial management, investment management, risk management, and asset and derivatives pricing.

“An Outline of Financial Economics” presents a systematic treatment of the theory and methodology of finance and economics. The book follows an analytical and geometric methodology, explaining technical terms and mathematical operations in clear, non-technical language, and providing intuitive explanations of the mathematical results. The text begins with a discussion of financial instruments, which form the basis of finance theory, and goes on to analyze bonds – which are regarded as fixed income securities – in a simple framework, and to discuss the valuation of stocks and cash flows in detail. Highly relevant topics such as attitudes toward risk, uncertainty, the financial structure of a firm, stochastic dominance, portfolio management, option pricing and conditions for non-arbitrage are analyzed explicitly. Because of its wide coverage and analytical, articulate and authoritative presentation, “An Outline of Financial Economics” will be an indispensable book for finance researchers and undergraduate and graduate students in fields such as economics, finance, econometrics, statistics and mathematics.

Financial economics is a fascinating topic where ideas from economics, mathematics and, most recently, psychology are combined to understand financial markets. This book gives a concise introduction into this field and includes for the first time recent results from behavioral finance that help to understand many puzzles in traditional finance. The book is tailor made for master and PhD students and includes tests and exercises that enable the students to keep track of their progress. Parts of the book can also be used on a bachelor level. Researchers will find it particularly useful as a source for recent results in behavioral finance and decision theory.

Based on formal derivations of financial theory, this volume provides a rigorous exploration of individual's consumption and portfolio decisions under uncertainty. Features in-depth coverage of such topics as: concepts of risk aversion and stochastic dominance; mathematical properties of a portfolio frontier; distributional conditions for mutual fund separation; capital asset pricing models and arbitrage pricing models; general pricing rules for securities that pay off in more than one state of nature; the pricing of options; rational expectation models of risky asset prices; signaling models; how multiperiod dynamic economies can be modeled; a multiperiod economy with emphasis on valuation by arbitrage; econometric issues associated with testing capital asset pricing models.

There are many textbooks for business students that provide a systematic, introductory development of the economics of financial markets. However, there are as yet no introductory textbooks aimed at more easily daunted undergraduate liberal arts students. Introduction to the Economics of Financial Markets fills this gap by providing an extremely accessible introductory exposition of how economists analyze both how, and how well, financial markets organize the intertemporal allocation of scarce resources. The central theme is that the function of a system of financial markets is to enable consumers, investors, and managers of firms to effect mutually beneficial intertemporal exchanges. James Bradfield uses the standard concept of economic efficiency (Pareto Optimality) to assess the efficacy of the financial markets. He presents an intuitive, and introductory, understanding of the primary theoretical and empirical models that economists use to analyze financial markets, and then uses these models to discuss implications for public policy. Students who use this text will acquire an understanding of the economics of financial markets that will enable them to read, with some sophistication, articles in the public press about financial markets and about public policy toward those markets. The book is addressed to undergraduate students in the liberal arts, but will also be useful for undergraduate and beginning graduate students in programs of business administration who want an understanding of how economists assess financial markets against the criteria of allocative and informational efficiency.