Business Articles: Finance
Financial management is based on the idea that companies must answer two fundament questions:
(1) What investments should the firm make? And
(2) How should it pay for those investments? The first question involves
spending money, while the second involves raising it.
There are
lots of theories on how that can be done, in the most effective and
efficient way. And most of these theories are concerned with the financial decisions that
corporations have to make.
Finding articles that focus on these situations for your research is both easy and
difficult. It's easy because there are LOTS of articles, on the other hand it's hard,
because many of those articles you will not be able to understand...unless you're a
finance major.
Therefore, it will save a LOT of aggravation and time if you know at what level of
understanding you are capable of, in other words, if you a puzzled by "Risk-neutral
method of option valuation" you will not enjoy skimming through the Journal of
Political Economy. There is no easy way to deal with dilemma, except go to the journals
and test them for your needs.
If you are looking for personal financial information, for example, a
reader
friendly magazine is Money at
www.money.com This web site offers a lot of information about
money: markets, stocks, funds, retirement, planning, real estate, etc.
Also, a
nice little primer called: Money 101 is
included where you can test your knowledge and learn more about the subject of money.
There are lots of articles on the site, but although interesting and free, they are brief
and not particularly academic.
Another
excellent publication to keep you up with the times is: The
Financial Times at: www.ft.com It has a broad focus in the international financial
area covering: News and Analysis, Industry Surveys, and Companies (e.g. Business Europe).
Areas of the world are covered in depth in different issues of the newspaper: for example:
Russia 2001, which provides an Overview, Domestic Issues, Industries (case studies are
shown at times), and Foreign Policy.
Another advantage is their Business Education section which provides career information,
and a page called: The Works. which is News, View, and Statistics on the World of Work.
Finally there is a useful page called: Management Library
which reviews recent books. (See also: Chapter 39 in theOnline Book)
Toward the more academic side, you might start with: Financial Management, published by the Financial
Management Association at: www.fma.org
This web site provides special services for students, but costs $30 per year for
subscription, which includes Financial Management. It also offers other publications, at
reduced prices, for example, Financial Practice and Education, The Contemporary Financial
Digest, The Financial Management Forum (which has the latest information on careers in
finance), and a special publication for students called: Careers in Finance which is free.
While tradition dictates that we continue to refer to the subject matter of international
finance as a different subject than "domestic finance", in a real sense the
modifer "international" is redundant. According to Maurice D. Levi (International Finance), with few
remaining barriers to international trade and financial flows, and with important
financial events impacting immediately around the globe, all finance is
"international." Indeed, not only are domestic financial markets linked and
internationally integrated, but the problems faced by companies and individuals in
different lands are remarkably similar. Nevertheless there are special problems (e.g.rates
of exchange) that arise from economic relations between nations.
Probably a
good
place
to start looking for
perspective on international sources of financial information, besides the sites above, is
the Economist at: www.economist.com The articles are free, analytical and useful for
academic research.
One other site that is particularly useful
is the Institute for International Finance, Inc. the world's only global
association of financial institutions at: www.iif.com
Additional sites are:
A quality site with
perspectives on future corporate financial management is offered (some parts free) by the Graduate
School of Businss at the University of Chicago: http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/news/capideas/
Also
see:
Journal of Accounting; Journal of Business; Journal of Labor Economics and Journal of
Political Economics all available at this site. Yearly subscription $28, student rates
available. Single copies $7.
FinanceNet www.financenet.gov is the Internet's home for public financial
management worldwide. It is sponsored by the U.S. CHief Financial Officers Council with
operations at the National Science Foundation.
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