financial management continues to reflect important new developments. Strong inflationary pressures have pushed interest rates to unprecedented heights, and the resulting high cost of capital has led to profound changes in corporate financial policies and practices. Academic researchers have made significant advances, especially in the areas of capital budgeting and the cost of capital. At the same time, business practitioners are making increasing use of financial theory, and feedback from the "real world" has led to revisions in financial theory. To a large extent, these trends dictated the revisions made in this fourth edition of Essentials of managerial finance.