Skip navigation
Investment Banking
Book

Investment Banking

Institutions, Politics, and Law

Oxford UP, 2007 more...


Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

This history recounts the development of investment banking from its 17th-century origins to the present. Along the way, professors Alan D. Morrison and William J. Wilhelm Jr. offer readers an introduction to institutional theory and hazard a guess at the future evolution of what is essentially an information business. This is not a how-to, nor is it a survey of the present competitive landscape, but getAbstract believes that readers interested in a concise presentation of the historical, economic and institutional forces that shaped the investment banking industry will find this book fits the bill. The authors have organized their presentation remarkably well, a noteworthy achievement given the breadth of philosophical, legal, financial and commercial information on which they draw.

Take-Aways

  • One of the most important functions of investment banks is to produce, transmit and profit from information.
  • Investment banks rarely put their own capital at risk.
  • The development of property rights in England after the 1688 revolution led to the birth of the London Stock Exchange and the evolution of capital markets.

About the Authors

Alan D. Morrison is a lecturer at the Saïd Business School and a fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. William J. Wilhelm Jr. was chair of Management Studies at the Saïd Business School before joining the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia in 2002.