In this short expository note I provide an overview of leveraged buy-out transactions (“LBOs”). I show in detail how an LBO transaction is structured and financed, as well as the typical return profile. I also provide a sample transaction accompanied by financial projections, debt repayment...

'Market failure' is a term widely used by politicians, journalists and university and A-level economics teacher and students. However, those who use the term often lack any sense of proportion about the ability of government to correct market failures. This arises partly from the lack of general...

Hedging of illiquid financial instruments is carried out with liquid instruments that, as a rule, have simpler payoff functions. For example, hedging of Asian or long-dated put options is carried out with vanilla puts, hedging of Bermuda swaptions is done with vanilla swaptions, etc. This kind...

All too often, the concept of risk-neutral probabilities in mathematical finance is poorly explained, and misleading statements are made. The aim of this paper is to provide an intuitive understanding of risk-neutral probabilities, and to explain in an easily accessible manner how they can be...

Breaking Bad is currently ranked fifth by the Internet Movie Database's (IMDB) Top 250 television shows based on user rankings and second among 100 shows reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter. Despise the series ending in 2013, Al-Bahrani et al. (2016) find that current students still rank the show...

The concept of public goods is confusing because it confounds three analytically distinct concepts: excludability, rivalry, and public finance. Pure public goods are of limited relevance as an explanation of government spending. To make matters worse, the broader policy community uses the term...

The commonly used method for representing macroeconomics as a social system is by assuming the existence of a number of agencies (or entities) and of their various connecting links. In practice this is achieved and illustrated by the use of a block-and-flow diagram. For the case being considered...

We describe our experience with integrating a semester-long economic analysis project into an intermediate macroeconomic theory course. Students work in teams of "economic advisors" to write a series of nested reports for a decision-maker that analyze the current state of the economy, and...

This educational resource utilizes the Essential Scholars series published by the Fraser Institute and combines it with the Kahoot! learning platform to promote deeper learning. The nine Essential Scholars (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, David Hume, John Locke, Joseph Schumpeter, James Buchanan,...

The education and application of skills in it is an essential prerequisite for the growth and development of each national economy in the future. Investing in education and skills development are essential incentive for raising the growth and competitiveness of each country and its participation...