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Irrational Exuberance by Shiller
Robert J. Shiller was one of the three people awarded The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2013 “for their empirical analysis of asset prices”. The other two recipients of the Nobel Prize for economics 2013 were Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen. Since reading about this award I keep noticing Shiller’s research.
Shiller, R.J. (2005) Irrational Exuberence (2nd edition) Princeton University Press is an international bestseller. It draws out the psychological origins of volatility in financial markets – the first edition concentrating on the technology bubble of the late 1990’s and the second adding the US housing market boom that precipitated the recent recession.
There is a website www.irrationalexuberance.com that provides information relating to the book, which is of course available in the University of Manchester Library (Library Search).
The Yale university site has “Online Data Robert Shiller” that gives access to data on investor attitudes, US stock market data from 1871, and historic housing market data. Robert Shiller and Karl Case are the original developers of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices that are now available from Standard & Poors (S&P).
Recently the Financial Times (FT) produced a list of business and management Moocs (Massive open online courses) that includes in its “finance and accounting” section –
“Financial markets”
Yale University, with Bob Shiller [Coursera]
(Adam Palin, Mooc matters, FT, 16 December 2013)
Finally, Robert Shiller is mentioned in the blog post A good year ends, but what’s next for stocks? (Musings on Markets, 2 January 2014) that describes a variety of approaches to estimating whether the US stock market is over valued.
‘Private Empire:…’ wins the 2012 FT Business Book of the Year award
“Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power” by Steve Coll has won the prestigious Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for 2012.
Drawing on over 400 interviews, Steve Coll investigates the notoriously mysterious ExxonMobil Corporation and the secrets of the oil industry
You may also be interested in the previous winners of the award listed below:
- 2011: “Poor Economics” – Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
- 2010: “Fault Lines” – Raghuram Rajan
- 2009: “Lords of Finance– Liaquat Ahamed
- 2008: “When Markets Collide” – Mohamed El-Erian
- 2007: “The Last Tycoons” – William Cohan
- 2006: “China Shakes the World” – James Kynge
- 2005: “The World is Flat” – Thomas Friedman
Previous posts:
‘Poor Economics’ wins the 2011 FT Business Book of the Year award
“Fault Lines” wins the 2010 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award
Essential Financial Toolkit
The book The Essential Financial Toolkit: everything you always wanted to know about finance but were afraid to ask by Javier Estrada of IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain is noteworthy because it is written with executive MBA participants in mind.
The book aims to bring those without training in finance up to speed in essential topics.
To paraphrase the book’s preface the books 10 chapters aim to be: short, engaging, easy to read, illustrated with real data, and to answer many of the questions executives would ask. The book aims to cover most essential topics: mean returns, volatility, correlation, beta, P/Es, yields, NPV (Net Present Value) and IRR (Internal Rate of Return). There is also an appendix of useful Excel Commands.
For more details:
Essential Financial Toolkit on Javier Estrada’s web pages.
University of Manchester Library location: Eddie Davies Library 658.15/EST
‘Bloomberg Visual Guide’ Books
Two new titles have been added to the MBS Eddie Davies Library book stock.
‘Bloomberg visual guide to candlestick charting’ [2012/374 pages] and ‘Bloomberg visual guide to municipal bonds’ [2012/192 pages].
Attractive and easy to use layout means information can be located quickly.
For example, use of ‘KEYPOINT’ and ‘SMART INVESTOR TIP’ sections, colour coded, with succinct, helpful information.
Extensive use of graphics (pie/bar charts, tables), bullet points combined with different sized text (headings, main body) promote ease of use.
Within Appendix B at the rear of ‘Bloomberg visual guide to municipal bonds’ there is a Bloomberg Functionality Cheat Sheet, which lists commonly used functions for this area. For example, ‘TOP MUN’ is a function to display Top Municipal Market News.
These books should prove useful when using Bloomberg Professional, in the newly opened Bloomberg Suite within the Eddie Davies Library (for use by current students and staff of the University of Manchester).
Implementing Models of Financial Derivatives – Wiley Finance Series*.
Implementing Models of Financial Derivatives [2011/674 pages] is a new title which has been added to the MBS Eddie Davies Library book stock.
This book is comprehensive with a summary and exercises to test comprehension at the end of each of the 31 chapters. These are in turn organised into 8 Parts with appendices at the rear [Part 1: A Procedural Monte Carlo Method in VBA. Part 2: Objects and Polymorphism. Part 3: Using Files with VBA. Part 4: Polymorphic Factories in VBA. Part 5: Performance Issues in VBA. Part 6: Variance Reduction in the Monte Carlo Method. Part 7: The Monte Carlo Method: Convergence and Bias. Part 8: Valuing American Options by Simulation].
The content is highly technical, with many formulas and references to computer programs for the models being examined.
Diagrams are primarily flow charts and screen shots of computer program listings, reflecting the complex technical nature of the subject area.
Wiley Finance Series* – other titles ordered include:
CAIA level II.
New trading systems and methods.
Expected returns.
Simulation and optimization in finance.
Market risk analysis.
Counterparty credit risk.
Excel dashboards & reports.
The handbook of convertible bonds.
Modern investment management.
Probable outcomes.
An introduction to algorithmic trading.
High-frequency trading models.
Uprising .
Technical Analysis of Stock Trends.
Books authored by MBS faculty
Updated the FAQ answer:
One recent example –
Engelen, E., Erturk, I., Froud, J., Leaver, A., Moran, M. and Williams, K. (2011) After The Great Complacence: Financial Crisis and the Politics of Reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Video – After the great complacence: predictions for the future
“All about..” New finance book series now available
We have just received delivery of a number of titles from McGraw Hill’s “All about” Finance series, which are now available to borrow from the Eddie Davies & Precinct libraries. Though targeted primarily at investors these books provide clear and easy to understand introductions to a variety of hot investment topics. As an example the book about Derivatives focuses on: The various derivative contracts (including forwards, futures, swaps and options); Pricing methods and mathematics for determining fair value and Hedging Strategies for managing and reducing investment risk.
The titles of the books now available to borrow are given below – You can click on the links provided to check current availability of the individual titles.
MBS Winner Announced: CMI Management Book of the Year
The Charted Management Institute (CMI) promotes excellence in all areas of management and leadership. The CMI Management Book of the Year prize has been created to do just that – to celebrate the very best in the field of management writing.
Held in association with the British Library, the competition aims to celebrate the best of management books published or distributed in the UK, from the most inspiring to the most useful.
MBS Library Service has added all 25 Shortlisted books to our collection.
The winner of the prize was announced yesterday evening at the British Library Conference Centre and we thought you might like to join us in congratulating MBS Professor Christopher Bones on his award with the book “The Cult of Leadership: A Manifesto for More Authentic Leadership”
The book offers a critical look at the way that business leadership has gone so badly wrong. It examines how modern business is obsessed with leaders. How we talk about leadership all the time, but how its real meaning is becoming more and more obscure. Recent corporate crises it is argued have shown that all too often, our leaders are missing in action when we need them most. In this groundbreaking and provocative new book, Chris Bones shows how we need to:
- Restore trust and confidence
- Be more realistic about what leaders can and can’t do
- Redefine talent
- Revalue experience
- Reconsider remuneration
The book is available to borrow from the MBS Library Service today.
Some of the other shortlisted books available in the Library include:
Bad Apples by Adrian Furnham and John Taylor
If you leave a rotten apple in a barrel of apples, the bacteria destroying it will gradually spread throughout the whole barrelful. In the same way, a person who causes difficulties or is dishonest may influence others in the community or organization he or she belongs to. Examples of this are a disruptive, foulmouthed and violent pupil whose behavior may render an otherwise easily
manageable class quite unteachable, and a crooked policeman who persuades his colleagues to join him on the payroll of the local mafia. Bad Apples describes the risks and negative effects and influences that destructive employees bring to the workplace. Using case studies and practical tips and tools, the authors explain how to reduce the risks and develop loyalty and commitment within an organization.
The Leader’s Guide to Influence by Mike Brent and Fiona Dent
A Leader’s Guide to Influence will show you how to step up your people skills and improve working relationships so you can get the business results you want. Combing the hugely popular areas of influence and leadership, this book will show you how to step up your interpersonal effectiveness by learning how to work more successfully with those around you, be they people you manage, colleagues, client or business partners. Through a combination of practical exercises, case studies and no-nonsense advice, this book shows you how it can be done.
Identifying Hidden Needs by Keith Goffin, Fred Lemke and Ursula Koners
Many new products fail because they are based on ideas generated in focus groups and surveys – methods that only scratch the surface of the customer’s imagination. This book describes an approach to market research that uses new, probing methods to identify customers’ hidden needs – requirements that customers have not even recognized themselves. New products and services which satisfy customer’s hidden needs can be clearly differentiated from existing products and lead to real competitive advantage. Written by experts in the field, this book takes a practical approach to explaining how to generate real customer insights and contains a wealth of international case studies demonstrating how breakthrough product development can be achieved.
From Brainwave to Business by Celia Gates
You have a great idea and are inspired to start up a business on the back of it. But what should you do first and what are the most important things to know and do to get your business off the ground? From Brainwave to Business is the book you need to get you moving and get you making money from your ideas. Wherever you are on your start-up journey, from creative brainstorming, to patenting and prototyping your ideas, to bringing them to market, this is your definitive guide to the actions you should take in order to be successful.
For Catalogue details of the books listed please click on the title of each item.
Further details about the CMI and this year’s shortlisted books can be found by visiting the CMI web-site.
‘Poor Economics’ wins the 2011 FT Business Book of the Year award
“Poor Economics” by MIT professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo has won the prestigious Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for 2011.
The authors are part of a group of economists known as “randomistas”, and have used controlled trials across five continents to test the impact of policies aimed at beating poverty, from the provision of free anti-malaria bed-nets to education subsidies. “Poor Economics” maps out a third way between those who believe aid does more harm than good and those such as Jeffrey Sachs who believe the reverse.
The book beat off stiff competition to take home the £30,000 prize. See below for details of the other short-listed books which are also available to borrow from the library:
- Exorbitant Privilege: Barry Eichengreen
Raises the question of whether the US dollar’s dominance is threatened by the rise of new economic blocs or the weakness of the domestic economy. - Triumph of the City: Edward Glaeser
Looks at how cities think, why they behave in the manners that they do and what wisdom they share with the people who inhabit them. - Wilful Blindness: Margaret Heffernan
An investigation into why people turn a blind eye to obvious warning signals. - Good Strategy/ Bad Strategy: Richard Rumelt
Clears out the mumbo jumbo and muddled thinking and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. - The Quest: Daniel Yergin
The follow-up to The Prize (Yergin’s 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the history of the oil industry) takes the energy story forward into the 21st century.
MBS Library has followed this award closely since it’s establishment in 2005, as it aims to identify books that provide compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.
This year we have again purchased every book which appeared on the long list published earlier this year. You can Search for books from this list using the Library catalogue
Long list for FT Business Book of the Year 2011
You may also be interested in the previous winners of the award listed below:
Academy of International Business
We have recently purchased all 15 volumes of the book series produced by the UK and Ireland Chapter of the Academy of International Business (AIB – UKI). This is the leading association of scholars and specialists (in the field of international business) in the UK & Ireland.
The AIB-UKI promotes the teaching and research of all areas of international business, within the framework of the worldwide AIB, and acts as a forum for the development and exchange of views on issues in international business, mainly by means of the AIB-UKI Annual Conference.
The book series comprises the best papers from the annual conferences, with each title focusing on a particular theme. The latest entry in the series concentrates on “Firm-Level Internationalization, Regionalism and Globalization” and features contributions from Manchester Business School’s own Rudolf Sinkovics.
Full details of the books and themes covered can be found on the AIB – UKI website.
To check availability in the Eddie Davies Library access the Library Catalogue and type the title of the volume you need into the search box.
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