IFO Learning Book · Corporate Finance

Corporate finance is the discipline of how companies allocate capital, structure their financing, and return value to shareholders. This collection covers the four major decision areas corporate finance managers face: how to evaluate whether a capital investment is worth making, whether to fund it with debt or equity, how to set dividend policy, and how to build the financial plans and models that support all three decisions.

The seven articles are compact and technically rigorous. Capital budgeting introduces NPV, IRR, payback period, and profitability index — explaining not just how to calculate them but which to trust and when. Capital structure articles address the trade-off between debt tax shields and financial distress costs. Dividend policy articles connect payout decisions to signaling theory. Financial planning covers budget construction and scenario modeling.

By the end of this collection, a student should be able to evaluate a capital project using multiple methods, explain why optimal capital structure exists as a balance rather than an extreme, and describe the signals a company sends through its dividend decisions.