Three approaches toward the determination of fixed swap rates are presented in this article: a swap as a portfolio of bonds with a fixed and floating coupon, a swap as a portfolio of forwards, and a swap as the difference between the cap and the floor (zero-collar). Later in the paper, credit...

The aim of the paper is to set the agency problem into a broad context of New Institutional Economics with an emphasis on historical connections. In the first section, I explain the historical evolution of basic theoretical concepts like the theory of firm, the theory of market process and the...