Fundamental Problems and Solutions in Finance

Zhiqiang Zhang, MBA (focusing on finance) of K. U. Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium); Ph.D. in management, associate professor of Business School, Renmin University of China. Visiting professor at St. John's University (New York, one year); Visiting professor at New York University (one year). He has adhered to the original and innovative research on financial theory, especially on the tough financial problems. He got many fundamental discoveries, such as a real Growth model for equity valuation (Gordon Growth model is actually cannot value “growth” and invalid although widely spread and used); a new CAPM series for debt, equity and total asset based on total risk rather than the single CAPM for equity discovered by Sharpe based only on systematic risk; a bankruptcy cost model and an optimal capital structure model based on the quantitatively trading-off between tax-shield and bankruptcy cost, as well as their variants in various application scenarios, such as optimal capital structure models in case of debt guarantee, outside investment, abnormal growth, and optimal capital structure model on book value basis; the overall solution to discount rate, i.e., the discount rate models for equity, debt and total assets that matches their total risks respectively. Those innovative models solve most of the unsolved or poor-solved fundamental financial problems, and provide more efficient theories and quantitative tools for the practical investment and financing decision-makings. As a consequence, most of the puzzles in finance can be explained more simply and thoroughly, such as the decreasing discount rate over long run as well as various puzzles about capital structure.

Asset Valuation.- Finance and its Fundamental Problems.- Discounting and Bond Valuation.- Stock and Equity Valuation: Where Discounting Does Not Work.- Asset Pricing.- Option Pricing and Valuation of Contingent Cash Flow.- Certainty Equivalent, Risk Premium and Asset Pricing.- Debt/Loan Risk, Bankruptcy Cost and Debt/Loan Pricing.- Capital Asset Pricing: An Easy and Unified Solution.- Leverage and Risks.- Tax Shield, Bankruptcy Cost and Optimal Capital Structure.- Some Extensive Discussions of ZZ Leverage Model.- Bankruptcy Probability and Firm Life Expectancy.