Inefficient Markets
Inefficient Markets

Author: Andrei Shleifer

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2000-03-09

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0191606898

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The efficient markets hypothesis has been the central proposition in finance for nearly thirty years. It states that securities prices in financial markets must equal fundamental values, either because all investors are rational or because arbitrage eliminates pricing anomalies. This book describes an alternative approach to the study of financial markets: behavioral finance. This approach starts with an observation that the assumptions of investor rationality and perfect arbitrage are overwhelmingly contradicted by both psychological and institutional evidence. In actual financial markets, less than fully rational investors trade against arbitrageurs whose resources are limited by risk aversion, short horizons, and agency problems. The book presents and empirically evaluates models of such inefficient markets. Behavioral finance models both explain the available financial data better than does the efficient markets hypothesis and generate new empirical predictions. These models can account for such anomalies as the superior performance of value stocks, the closed end fund puzzle, the high returns on stocks included in market indices, the persistence of stock price bubbles, and even the collapse of several well-known hedge funds in 1998. By summarizing and expanding the research in behavioral finance, the book builds a new theoretical and empirical foundation for the economic analysis of real-world markets.

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics
The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics

Author: Célestin Monga

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-07-02

Total Pages: 1125

ISBN-13: 0191510742

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A popular myth about the travails of Africa holds that the continent's long history of poor economic performance reflects the inability of its leaders and policymakers to fulfill the long list of preconditions to be met before sustained growth can be achieved. These conditions are said to vary from the necessary quantity and quality of physical and human capital to the appropriate institutions and business environments. While intellectually charming and often elegantly formulated, that conventional wisdom is actually contradicted by historical evidence and common sense. It also suggests a form of intellectual mimicry that posits a unique path to prosperity for all countries regardless of their level of development and economic structure. In fact, the argument underlining that reasoning is tautological, and the policy prescriptions derived from it are fatally teleological: low-income countries are by definition those where such ingredients are missing. None of today's high-income countries started its growth process with the "required" and complete list of growth ingredients. Unless one truly believes that the continent of Africa-and most developing countries-are ruled predominantly if not exclusively by plutocrats with a high propensity for sadomasochism, the conventional view must be re-examined, debated, and questioned. This volume-the second of the ^lOxford Handbook of Africa and Economics-reassesses the economic policies and practices observed across the continent since independence. It offers a collection of analyses by some of the leading economists and development thinkers of our time, and reflects a wide range of perspectives and viewpoints. Africa's emergence as a potential economic powerhouse in the years and decades ahead amply justifies the scope and ambition of the book.

Putting Auction Theory to Work
Putting Auction Theory to Work

Author: Paul Milgrom

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-01-12

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1139449168

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This book provides a comprehensive introduction to modern auction theory and its important new applications. It is written by a leading economic theorist whose suggestions guided the creation of the new spectrum auction designs. Aimed at graduate students and professionals in economics, the book gives the most up-to-date treatments of both traditional theories of 'optimal auctions' and newer theories of multi-unit auctions and package auctions, and shows by example how these theories are used. The analysis explores the limitations of prominent older designs, such as the Vickrey auction design, and evaluates the practical responses to those limitations. It explores the tension between the traditional theory of auctions with a fixed set of bidders, in which the seller seeks to squeeze as much revenue as possible from the fixed set, and the theory of auctions with endogenous entry, in which bidder profits must be respected to encourage participation.

Principles of Private Firm Valuation
Principles of Private Firm Valuation

Author: Stanley J. Feldman

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2005-04-06

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 047148721X

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A complete explanation of the issues that determine private firm value Principles of Private Firm Valuation combines recent academic research and practical real-world experience to help readers better understand the multitude of factors that determine private firm value. For the financial professional serving private firms-who are increasingly being called upon to give advice on issues related to firm valuation and deal structure-this comprehensive guide discusses critical topics, including how firms create value and how to measure it, valuing control, determining the size of the marketability discount, creating transparency and the implications for value, the value of tax pass-through entities versus a C corporation, determining transaction value, and the valuation implications of FASB 141 (purchase price accounting) and 142 (goodwill impairment). Dr. Stanley J. Feldman (Lowell, MA) is Associate Professor of Finance at Bentley College, where he currently teaches courses in corporate finance with a focus on business valuation and business strategy at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He is a member of the FASB Valuation Resource Group and is Chairman and cofounder of Axiom Valuation Solutions.

The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation
The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation

Author: Niamh Moloney

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 817

ISBN-13: 019968720X

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The financial system and its regulation have undergone exponential growth and dramatic reform over the last thirty years. This period has witnessed major developments in the nature and intensity of financial markets, as well as repeated cycles of regulatory reform and development, often linked to crisis conditions. The recent financial crisis has led to unparalleled interest in financial regulation from policymakers, economists, legal practitioners, and the academic community, and has prompted large-scale regulatory reform. The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation is the first comprehensive, authoritative, and state of the art account of the nature of financial regulation. Written by an international team of leading scholars in the field, it takes a contextual and comparative approach to examine scholarly, policy, and regulatory developments in the past three decades. The first three parts of the Handbook address the underpinning horizontal themes which arise in financial regulation: financial systems and regulation; the organization of financial system regulation, including regional examples from the EU and the US; and the delivery of outcomes and regulatory techniques. The final three Parts address the perennial objectives of financial regulation, widely regarded as the anchors of financial regulation internationally: financial stability, market efficiency, integrity, and transparency; and consumer protection. The Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of financial regulation, economists, policy-makers and regulators.

Government Failure Versus Market Failure
Government Failure Versus Market Failure

Author: Clifford Winston

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press and AEI

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13:

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When should government intervene in market activity? When is it best to let market forces simply take their natural course? How does existing empirical evidence about government performance inform those decisions? Brookings economist Clifford Winston uses these questions to frame a frank empirical assessment of government economic intervention in Government Failure vs.

Alphanomics
Alphanomics

Author: Charles Lee

Publisher: Now Publishers

Published: 2015-12-16

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781601988928

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Alphanomics: The Informational Underpinnings of Market Efficiency is intended to be a compact introduction to academic research on market efficiency, behavioral finance, and fundamental analysis and is dedicated to the kind of decision-driven and prospectively-focused research that is much needed in a market constantly seeking to become more efficient. The authors refer to this type of research as Alphanomics, the informational economics behind market efficiency. Alpha refers to the abnormal returns, which provide the incentive for some subpopulation of investors to engage in information acquisition and costly arbitrage activities. Nomics refers to the economics of alpha extraction, which encompasses the costs and incentives of informational arbitrage as a sustainable business proposition. Some of the questions that are addressed include: why do we believe markets are efficient?; what problems have this belief engendered?; what factors can impede and/or facilitate market efficiency?; what roles do investor sentiment and costly arbitrage play in determining an equilibrium level of informational efficiency?; what is the essence of value investing?; how is it related to fundamental analysis (the study of historical financial data)?; and how might we distinguish between risk and mispricing based explanations for predictability patterns in returns? The first two sections review the evolution of academic thinking on market efficiency and introduce the noise trader model as a rational alternative. Section 3 surveys the literature on investor sentiment and its role as a source of both risks and returns. Section 4 discusses the role of fundamental analysis in value investing. Section 5 reviews the literature on limits to arbitrage, and section 6 discusses research methodology issues associated with the need to distinguish mispricing from risk.