The Making of Modern Corporate Finance

Finance matters—a lot. That’s the punch line of this important book by Donald Chew, bringing together his insights as a thinker and practitioner of corporate finance to assess how financial markets drove better corporate performance, productivity, and living standards. All students and practitioners of finance should share Chew’s lens and focus on the magic of finance capitalism. -- Glenn Hubbard, Russell L. Carson Professor of Economics and Finance, Columbia University In this engaging, must-read book, Don Chew enlists the groundbreaking research of leading academic scholars to convincingly demonstrate the critical role of modern corporate finance in generating extraordinary wealth for shareholders, corporate stakeholders, and society over the past forty years. -- Alfred Rappaport, Leonard Spacek Professor Emeritus, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and coauthor of <i>Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns</i> Everyone—especially business and government leaders—should read this captivating book. With the U.S. financial sector under attack from some quarters, Donald Chew lays out the reality of corporate finance and its central role in America’s world-leading prosperity. -- Geoff Colvin, <i>Fortune</i> magazine Adam Smith was able to show that behind the groping and greedy fury of economic activity lay a logic, a beauty—nay, even a provident hand—guiding resources and promoting advancement in the wealth of nations. What Smith did for economic theory Chew has done for finance. He has told the story behind the headlines and the personalities and the punch lines. He has uncovered and explained convincingly that innovations in corporate finance have created tremendous value in ways that are largely underappreciated if not totally unrecognized. This is a story worthy of your attention. -- Bennett Stewart, cofounder of Stern Stewart & Co. (inventors of EVA) As a historian and educator, I found Don Chew's prose clear and engaging enough to invite not just understanding of, but in some cases even admiration for, the small group of finance theorists and practitioners featured in his book. -- Melinda S. Zook, Oesterle Professor of History and Director of the Cornerstone Liberal Arts Program, Purdue University Don Chew has spent a good part of the last four decades editing and contributing to pathbreaking fundamental research about the consequences for businesses' value creation of good corporate governance. This beautifully written book synthesizes and distills many of those lessons and shows that, notwithstanding the skepticism of some macroeconomists, the microeconomic logic of value creation by businesses, or its absence, matters greatly for broad economic trends and for understanding differences in the wealth of nations. -- Charles W. Calomiris, Henry Kaufman Professor Emeritus, Columbia University Innovations in corporate finance have made people’s lives better—on Main Street, not just on Wall Street. Skeptical? Donald Chew makes a slam-dunk case, bringing his experience and insights to bear. Allocating capital to more effective uses increases productivity growth and household incomes throughout the nation. Scholars of and participants in financial markets need to have this book on their shelves. -- Michael R. Strain, author of <i>The American Dream Is Not Dead</i> The theories discussed in this book are staples of the CFA curriculum, but Chew brings out an additional, vitally important dimension — the vast impact that ideas have had on financial practice and through that medium on global economic performance. After reading this book, practitioners will not merely regard the corporate finance pathbreakers as illustrious figures in textbooks but feel on a first-name basis with them. * Enterprising Investor * The Making of Modern Corporate Finance is a thoughtfully organized, thoroughly researched, and well-written treatment of a serious topic that merits far more attention than it has received. It has the potential to do for the field of corporate finance what Peter Bernstein’s classic book Capital Ideas did for the people and ideas central to the development of the investment management area... An easy book to recommend to serious scholars, seasoned practitioners, and curious lay readers alike. -- Keith C. Brown, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas, and coauthor of <i>Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management</i>