"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
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.
Jean Tirole is Scientific Director of the Institut d'Economie Industrielle at
the University of Social Sciences in Toulouse, one of Europe's leading centers for the
study of economics. He is also affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where he holds a visiting position, and Paris Sciences Economiques. He is a past president
of the Econometric Society and the European Economic Association. Tirole is the author or
coauthor of eight books, including Financial Crises, Liquidity, and the International
Monetary System (Princeton), The Theory of Industrial Organization, Game
Theory (with Drew Fudenberg), and A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and
Regulation (with Jean-Jacques Laffont).
Hardcover, 640 pages, 138 line illus. 25 tables