财务管理会计专业英语文献翻译

财务管理会计专业英语文献翻译内容摘要：

firm and industry。 Accordingly， the prices of certain ine streams will be treated as constant and given from outside the model， just as in the standard Marshallian analysis of the firm and industry the prices of all inputs and of all other products are taken as given。 We have chosen to focus at this level rather than on the economy as a whole because it is at the level of the firm and the industry that the interests of the various specialists concerned with the costofcapital problem e most closely together。 Although the emphasis has thus been placed on partialequilibrium analysis， the results obtained also provide the essential building blocks for a general equilibrium model which shows how those prices which are here taken as given， are themselves determined。 For reasons of space， however， and because the material is of interest in its own right， the presentation of the general equilibrium model which rounds out the analysis must be deferred to a subsequent paper。 The Valuation of Securities， Leverage， and the Cost of Capital A。 The Capitalization Rate for Uncertain Streams As a starting point， consider an economy in which all physical assets are owned by corporations。 For the moment， assume that these corporations can finance their assets by issuing mon stock only； the introduction of bond issues， or their equivalent， as a source of corporate funds is postponed until the next part of this section The physical assets held by each firm will yield to the owners of the firmits stockholdersa stream of profits over time； but the elements of this series need not be constant and in any event are uncertain。 This stream of ine， and hence the stream accruing to any share of mon stock， will be regarded as extending indefinitely into the future。 We assume， however， that the mean value of the stream over time， or average profit per unit of time， is finite and represents a random variable subject to a (subjective) probability distribution。 We shall refer to the average value over time of the stream accruing to a given share as the return of that share； and to the mathematical expectation of this average as the expected return of the share。 Although individual investors may have different views as to the shape of the probability distribution of the return of any share， we shall assume for simplicity that they are at least in agreement as to the expected return。 This way of characterizing uncertain streams merits brief ment。 Notice first that the stream is a stream of profits， not dividends。 As will bee clear later， as long as management is presumed to be acting in the best interests of the stockholders， retained earnings can be regarded as equivalent to a fully subscribed， preemptive issue of mon stock。 Hence， for present purposes， the division of the stream between cash dividends and retained earnings in any period is a mere detail。 Notice also that the uncertainty attaches to the mean value over time of the stream of profits and should not be confused with variability over time of the successive elements of the stream。 That variability and uncertainty are two totally different concepts should be clear from the fact that the elements of a stream can be variable even though known with certainty。 It can be shown， furthermore， that whether the elements of a stream are sure or uncertain， the effect of variability per se on the valuation of the stream is at best a secondorder one which can safely be neglected for our purposes (and indeed most others too)。 The next assumption plays a strategic role in the rest of the analysis。 We shall assume that firms can be divided into equivalent return classes such that the return on the shares issued by any firm in any given class is proportional to (and hence perfectly correlated with) the return on the shares issued by any other firm in the same class。 This assumption implies that the various shares within the same class differ， at most， by a scale factor。 Accordingly， if we adjust for the difference in scale， by taking the ratio of the return to the expected return， the probability distribution of that ratio is identical for all shares in the class。 It follows that all relevant properties of a share are uniquely characterized by specifying (1) the class to which it belongs and (2) its expected return。 The significance of this assumption is that it permits us to classify firms into groups within which the shares of different firms are homogeneous， that is， perfect substitutes for one another。 We have， thus， an analogue to the familiar concept of the industry in which it is the modity produced by the firms that is taken as homogeneous。 To plete this analogy with Marshallian price theory， we shall assume in the analysis to follow that the shares concerned are traded in perfect m。