Over the past decade there have been a number of significant developments in financial economics, and major contributions have been made both by individuals who could be classified as conventional financial economists and by others who do not fit easily into this category - theoretical microeconomists, public and industrial economists. This volume contains a selection from the papers presented at a conference in Oxford in September 1985 which aimed to bring together a number of the leading participants in this field. The papers in the volume cover a wide range of topics - Summers on the efficiency of financial markets; Heinkel and Schwartz, and Asquith and Mullins on new equity issues; Green and Talmor on asymmetric corporate taxation and investment; Stiglitz and Weiss on credit rationing; Anderlini on the foundations of banking theory; and Alworth, and Cooper and Kaplanis on aspects of international investment - but they clearly reflect the main themes in financial economics at present: the importance of informational asymmetries and of taxation.