A History of Corporate Finance

In this summary you will learn

• How risk and information have influenced corporate finance over the centuries
• What circumstances drove financial innovation through history
• How the rise of railroads fueled the development of modern corporate financing and management structures

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Why you should read A History of Corporate Finance

This thorough, scholarly study balances broad concepts with specific details of the history of finance from the 15th through 20th centuries. Though authors Jonathan Barron Baskin and Paul J. Miranti Jr. assume that the reader has some knowledge of finance and relevant terms, they avoid mathematical models and jargon in favor of plain language. Their book is accessible and valuable to lay readers as well as trained economists, historians, students of finance and anyone coping with an emerging market. The issues they examine remain surprisingly relevant, because - as they soon make clear - the problems that historical markets once confronted are the same issues of risk and information that markets face today, particularly emerging markets. As a historical study, this book presents no particular prescriptions for success or future action. However getAbstract recommends its explanation of why some structures succeeded and others failed, because those forces have clear implications today.

About the Authors

Barron Baskin was associate professor of Finance at Baruch College from 1985 until his death in 1989. Paul J. Miranti  is the associate dean in the faculty of management at Rutgers University.