This book attempts to deal with financing and investment decision making, with particular focus on the private sector of the UK economy. Its approach is to set out the theories that surround each area of financial decision making and relate these to what appears to happen in practice. Where theory and practice diverge, the book tries to reconcile and explain the differences. It also attempts to assess the practical usefulness of some of the theories that do not seem to be applied widely in practice. Although the focus of the book is on the UK private sector, the theories and practices examined are, for the main part, equally valid in the context of the private sector of all the world’s countries. Also, much of the content of the book is relevant to many parts of the public sector, both in the UK and overseas.

这本书试图处理融资和投资决策，特别侧重于英国经济的私营部门。它的方法是阐述围绕财务决策各个领域的理论，并将这些理论与实际发生的事情联系起来。在理论和实践有分歧的地方，这本书试图调和和解释分歧。它还试图评估一些在实践中似乎没有得到广泛应用的理论的实用性。虽然这本书的重点是英国私营部门，但所审查的理论和实践在世界各国私营部门的背景下同样有效。此外，这本书的大部分内容都与英国和海外公共部门的许多部门有关。