About a half century ago began a remarkable intellectual revolution which transformed the field of finance from a collection of anecdotes and accounting identities into a scientific discipline with general principles and rigorous empirical assessments of its hypotheses. In the ensuing decades, finance science was both shaped, and shaped by, the extraordinary transformation of the practice of finance.

Oldrich Vasicek was one of the pioneer scientists to provide foundational contributions in the pricing and risk measurement of fixed income securities–default-free bonds that form the term structure of interest rates, and credit-risky bonds and loans–and to implement them in practice. Here we have the collection of the original papers and articles of his intellectual history of thought–with the content of the models still applicable today.

Whether a master researcher, experienced finance professional or novice student of finance, you are in for a treat.

Bon appétit!

Robert C. Merton
Distinguished Professor of Finance
MIT Sloan School of Management
1997 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences