Union State financial relations and finance commissions

This book is based on lecture notes prepared for students in the M.B.A. program at York University and at the University of Toronto. The notes were originally intended to serve as a supplement to textbooks and journal articles read by the students in the introductory finance course. They were circulated in class so that students could actively participate in class discus sions instead of taking notes. The notes were received with great enthusi asm. Moreover, udents offered favourable and constructive criticisms which were instrumental in subsequent revisions. Gradually, then, these notes became the primary learning tool used by the students in the intro ductory finance course, and with this development it was decided to bring the notes into a book format.

The book emphasizes the conceptual background of finance in order to provide students with a solid understanding of the major issues which are related to financial decision making. This focus on concepts rather than on detailed discussions of techniques and normative prescription-type models is consistent with the structure and the clientele of most business school programs: many students who attend the program intend to major in finance and plan career paths leading to treasury positions or to posi tions in the investment field. These students will naturally take additional finance courses such as financial management, investments, capital mar kets and international finance. They therefore require solid conceptual preparation in the introductory finance course in order to grasp more ad vanced concepts and handle cases, problems and decisional situations both in these advanced courses and later on in their business careers. On the other hand, the nonfinancial majors study finance as part of the core pro gram because future business decisions they will be involved with will inev itably have financial implications. Therefore, while they need a solid con ceptual grasp of the field of finance, they do not require detailed exposure to such topics as financial forecasting or the valuation of convertible de bentures, which instructors sometimes include in the introductory finance course.