Investment Banking

Alan Morrison's research is largely concerned with commercial and investment banking. His work has been published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Business, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, the Scottish Journal of Political Economy, the Geneva Papers and Economics Letters. He worked for six years in management consultancy and investment banking before taking his doctorate in Oxford. Since 2000, he has been a University Lecturer at the Saïd Business School and a fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford.Professor Wilhelm's research focuses on investment banks and securities offerings. He has written extensively on initial public offerings and his work has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance; Journal of Financial Economics; The Review of Financial Studies; Journal of Financial Intermediation; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Oxford Review of Economic Policy; and Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. Professor Wilhelm began his academic career in 1988 at the Wallace E. Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Before joining the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia in 2002, Professor Wilhelm held the American Standard Companies Chair in Management Studies at the Saïd Business School and was a Professorial Fellow of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, where he began serving as a visiting fellow in 1998.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Institutional Theory ; 3. An Institutional Theory of Investment Banking ; 4. Investment Banking Origins ; 5. The Rise of the Investment Bank ; 6. Investment Banking in the Age of Laissez-Faire ; 7. Leviathan and the Investment Banks ; 8. The Modern Industrial Revolution ; 9. Inside the Investment Bank ; 10. What Next?

Anyone hoping to understand investment banking must read Morrison and Wilhelm's book. Drawing up centuries of rich history, they advance a theory of investment banking that is relevant today for business people, regulators and scholars. Peter Tufano, Sylvan C. Coleman Professor of Financial Management, Harvard Business School This book fills an important gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive coverage of the investment banking industry. It is an outstanding contribution by two experts in the field. Franklin Allen, Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Economics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania A fascinating look at the investment banking industry from an historical and legal perspective. It provides the reader with countless insights into the workings of one of the most powerful forces in the global economy today. James Harris, Founder, Seneca Financial Group Morrison & Wilhelm offer the most compelling explanation yet of the investment banking industry, from its unlikely emergence from the commodities market in the seventeenth century to the investment banks' recent shift from the partnership to the corporate form. Drawing on the insights of institutional economics, they show how investment banks function as information intermediaries in a wide range of market transactions. Vivid and meticulously researched, the book takes us inside the mysterious world of investment banking and shows what makes it tick. It is an intellectual masterpiece, destined to become a classic. David Skeel, S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law, University of Pennsylvania