Competition and Finance: A New Interpretation of Financial and Monetary Economics

Author: Dodd
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: The book Competition and Finance offers a fresh perspective on the field of finance and monetary economics. The first part begins by elaborating on financial economics with a coherent new analysis of contract design and capital structure, integrating agency theory, information economics, and recent developments in related fields into a unified theory of corporate finance. It then shifts to financial intermediaries, explaining why they emerged and why they adopted such forms. Each chapter introduces two simple forms of financial intermediaries—brokers and mutual funds. The next three chapters present a new view of banking economics, offering a new theory of banking surpluses, but they also address various other banking issues—such as banking structure, a new analysis of domestic banking, a review of new theories of banking stability, and the pivotal role of central banking, among others. Subsequently, it discusses issues related to transaction media and payment systems, as well as the content of monetary economics. Each chapter examines the following topics: monetary competition; the mechanisms of convertible currency systems; the gold standard and bimetallic standard; the basket-of-commodities standard; and inflationary economies. These discussions combine theoretical analysis with empirical evidence, and the appendix covers many topics, such as the real monetary system, the structure of price indices, and a monetary system determined by price indices. The final chapter utilizes the framework constructed in the book to analyze the current central banking system and inconvertible currencies, offering some suggestions for financial and monetary reforms.