Thomas E. Copeland

ABSTRACT An individual who chooses to serve as a market‐maker is assumed to optimize his position by setting a bid‐ask spread which maximizes the difference between expected revenues received from liquidity‐motivated traders and expected losses to information‐motivated traders. By characterizing the cost of supplying quotes, as writing a put and a call option to an information‐motivated trader, it is shown that the bid‐ask spread is a positive function of the price level and return variance, a negative function of measures of market activity, depth, and continuity, and negatively correlated with the degree of competition. Thus, the theory of information effects on the bid‐ask spread proposed in this paper is consistent with the empirical literature.

I. FINANCIAL THEORY. 1. Introduction to Capital Markets, Consumption and Investment. 2. Investment Decisions: The Certainty Case. 3. Theory of Choice Under Uncertainty: Utility Theory. 4. State-Preference Theory. 5. Objects of Choice. 6. Market Equilibrium: CAPM and APT. 7. Pricing Contingent Claims: Option Price Theory and Evidence. 8. Futures Contracts and Markets - Term Structure - Cox, Ingersoll, Ross. 9. Multiperiod Aspects of Financial Theory - Real Options - Investment. 10. Efficient Capital Markets: Theory. 11. Efficient Capital Market: Evidence. 12. Information Asymmetry: Agency Cost Theory and Signaling. II. CORPORATE POLICY. 13. The Role of the CFO and Performance Measurement. 14. Valuation and Tax Policy. 15. Capital Structure. 16. Dividend Policy. 17. Applied Issues in Corporate Finance. 18. External Investment Decisions. 19. International Finance: Theory and Evidence. 20. Open-Ended Issues for Research.

Part I 1. Getting started 2. The change process 3. Net present value 4. Comparing net present value, decision trees and real options Part II 5. Numerical methods for simple options 6. Compound and switching options 7. Going from one step per time period to many 8. A four-step process for valuing real options 9. Estimating volatility: Consolidated approach 10. Keeping uncertainties separate 11. Case examples 12. Final thoughts and unfinished business

Journal Article Financial Theory and Corporate Policy Get access Financial Theory and Corporate Policy. By Thomas E. COPELAND and J. FRED WESTON. (Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1979. Pp. xvi + 618. £9.95.) David J. Mayston David J. Mayston University of Essex Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 92, Issue 366, 1 June 1982, Pages 426–428, https://doi.org/10.2307/2232461 Published: 01 June 1982