Simple Introductions

Economics: A Simple Introduction offers an accessible guide to the principles and methods of economics, with calculations and over 25 diagrams to support the analysis.Understand the four dimensional nature of economics, and how its learning process differs from other subjects.Use data points, read graphs, and learn to create your own graphs and how to plot a trend curve. Evaluate the laws of diminishing marginal utility and diminishing returns exhibited by these trend curves, and assess the impact on consumers and producers. Turn curves into lines to find the relationship between two variables using an intercept and slope.Find the equilibrium outcome where all sides are balanced and understand its importance for consumers and producers. Examine the factors which facilitate or prevent an equilibrium outcome, and which may lead to a range of possible outcomes.Explore the impact of time as static analysis becomes dynamic analysis. Look into short-run shifts in demand or supply, and the affect which they may have on prices and consumption or production levels. Look at changes which can occur over the long-run, specifically the end of the law of diminishing returns.Microeconomics overview explains how consumer preferences and budget constraint decide demand, and firm productivity and costs against revenue decide supply. Macroeconomics overview explains how the IS-LM model where goods and money markets balance decides aggregate demand, and the Phillips curve and growth models determine aggregate supply.Econometrics is introduced as a method is presented to create value estimates, and economic theory becomes practice. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Financial Risk Management: A Simple Introduction presents a detailed guide to some of the central ideas and tools of financial risk management, with theory, examples, formulas, and calculations to illustrate the analysis.Calculate leverage, duration, modified duration, and convexity to find the risk exposure and interest rate risk sensitivity of an asset. Understand bond immunization to manage risk, and assess non-vanilla bond risk using both effective duration and effective convexity.Use value at risk to forecast maximum losses over a period, with detailed step by step instructions provided to using the variance-covariance, historical simulation, and Monte Carlo methods. Learn how to perform autocorrelation and unit root tests to test the square root of time rule.Conduct time-varying volatility analysis, using detailed steps to create an exponentially weighted moving average and then backtest it for robustness.Apply financial risk management tools to the empirical 1994 bankruptcy of Orange County, California to determine if it could have been avoided, and assess a number of financial derivative hedge instruments. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Applied Econometrics: A Simple Introduction offers a detailed guide to some of the central methods and applications of applied econometrics, with theory, models, calculations, and graphs to support analysis.S&P 500 equities, GSCI commodities, and US Treasury Bill risk-free rate datasets are assessed for their data distributions, autocorrelation, and stationarity. The Engle-Granger 2 step method, Johansen test and the Vector Error Correction Model test for and correct cointegration.ARMA models determine the optimal AR and MA processes to model returns data, and GARCH models assess the optimal p and q number of lags to model variance, using the Akaike Information Criterion. Alternative GARCH versions are examined.Dynamic portfolio strategies are evaluated using Sharpe Ratio portfolio performance evaluation tools, with a focus on the 2007-8 global financial crisis period. Static portfolio strategies are assessed using ARMA return and GARCH variance forecasting. Results are used alongside established financial literature to assess the optimal portfolio strategy. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Financial Economics: A Simple Introduction offers an accessible guide to the central ideas and methods of financial economics, with examples and calculations, empirical evidence, and over 20 diagrams to support the analysis.Understand consumption and investment decisions, intertemporal choice, indifference curves and the marginal rate of substitution, production possibilities and the marginal rate of transformation, rates of return, the financial market line, borrowing and lending, and the Fisher Separation Theorem.Portfolio theory examines expected returns, standard deviation and variance risk, covariance, correlation, asset diversification, market portfolio, a risk-free asset, the capital market line, and the Tobin Separation Theorem.The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) explores diversifiable and non-diversifiable risk, the beta risk factor, calculation of an asset's expected return, the security market line, asset evaluation, and empirical evidence on the CAPM.Market efficiency looks at the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), weak, semi-strong, and strong form efficiency, and the literature on technical and fundamental analysis strategies to beat the market. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Accounting and Finance Formulas: A Simple Introduction includes over 75 formulas in the field of accounting and finance, alongside relevant definitions and explanations. The formulas cover the fields of financial accounting, management accounting and financial management. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Econometrics: A Simple Introduction offers an accessible guide to the principles and methods of econometrics, with data samples, regressions, equations and diagrams to illustrate the analysis.Examine a linear and multiple regression model, ordinary least squares method, and the Gauss-Markov conditions for a best linear unbiased estimator.Understand hypothesis testing, with a null hypothesis, t, F or chi-square test statistics and distributions, and interpret regression results. Dummy variables model qualitative data and Chow tests assess regression equivalence.Explore heteroscedasticity with the White method and with generalized least squares, Goldfeld-Quandt, Breusch-Pagan, and White tests. Assess autocorrelation with Durbin-Watson, Durbin h, and Breusch-Godfrey tests, lagged variables and auxiliary regressions.Assess the impact of omitted variables, incorrect variables or functional form, and a non-normal distribution with Ramsey RESET and Jarque-Bera tests. Model random variables with the Method of Moments' estimators, instrumental variables and Hausman test. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Corporate Finance Formulas: A Simple Introduction includes over 75 formulas in the field of corporate finance, alongside relevant definitions and explanations. The formulas cover the topics of return and risk, cost of equity, cost of capital, capital structure, payout policy, valuation, and mergers. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Environmental Economics: A Simple Introduction offers an accessible guide to the central theories and methods of environmental economics, with examples, equations, and diagrams to support the analysis.Understand the problem of environmental degradation, and why environmental externalities and market failure cause pollution to spiral out of control.Examine the effectiveness of the polluters pay principle and a range of pollution control instruments, including bargaining, Pigovian taxation, tradable emissions permits, and command and control policy. Compare how each of the methods fare on cost efficiency, dynamic efficiency, equity, and performance under uncertainty.Explore efficient environmental management, and see how renewable natural resources can be harvested efficiently, and how a tragedy of the commons scenario can be avoided. Understand the conditions of the Hotelling rule for optimal extraction of non-renewable natural resources.Look at the stages of cost-benefit analysis and environmental policy valuation, and how the impacts of projects are valued using stated preference, revealed preference, or production function approaches. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.

Corporate Finance: A Simple Introduction provides an accessible guide to the principles and methods of corporate finance, with equations and examples, empirical evidence, and diagrams to illustrate the analysis.Examine the traditional theory of optimal debt and equity financing, how Modigliani and Miller's theory on capital structure differs, and the impact corporate and personal taxes or market imperfections may have on the optimal capital structure.Understand dividend irrelevance theory, the factors driving the dividend decision, and why companies may prefer share repurchases to paying dividends.Explore option theory with long and short calls and puts explained, and the Black-Scholes option pricing model and the factors affecting it detailed. See the variety of ways traders may use options, as speculators make profits betting on price movements, hedgers eliminate risk, and arbitrageurs may make risk-free profits exploiting undervalued options.Look at why companies seek mergers & acquisitions, the merger process they undertake, how a firm can improve its chances of making an acquisition, and some takeover defences for resistant firms. Empirical evidence on merger performance is presented, and alternative explanations examined. Learn about a range of economic, business, financial, social and political fields with these short and detailed introductions.