It is not uncommon on occasions such as this to talk about the shortcomings in the theory of Finance, and to emphasize how little progress has been made in answering the basic questions in Finance, despite enormous research efforts. Indeed, it is not uncommon on such occasions to attack our basic "mythodology, " particularly the "Ivory Tower " nature of our assumptions, as the major reasons for our lack of progress. Like a Sunday morning sermon, such talks serve many useful functions. For one, they serve to deflate our professional egos. For another, they serve to remind us that the importance of a contribution as judged by our professional peers (the gold we really work for) is often not closely aligned with its operational importance in the outside world. Also, such talks serve to comfort those just entering the field, by letting them know that there is much left to do because so little has been done. While such talks are not uncommon, this is not what my talk is about. Rather, my discussion centers on the positive progress made in the development of a theory of Finance using the continuous-time mode of analysis. Hearing this in.1975, amidst an economic recession with a baffling new disease called "stagflation " and with our financial markets only beginning to recover from the worst

The financial experiences of the last two years impel a careful and wide-ranging review of the stability of our major types of financial institutions. That review ought to be followed by actions to redress weaknesses or proclivities that, upon analysis, are judged to contribute an undesirable degree of instability within the financial system.

Richard C. Aspinwall, Discussion: Implications of Recent Banking Developments for Financial Stability, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1975 Proceedings (Nov., 1975), pp. 611-613

Journal Article An Asymptotic Theory of Growth Under Uncertainty Get access Robert C. Merton Robert C. Merton Massachusetts Institute of Technology Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 42, Issue 3, July 1975, Pages 375–393, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296851 Published: 01 July 1975

Journal Article A Probabilistic Model of Social Choice: Comment Get access Peter C. Fishburn Peter C. Fishburn The Pennsylvania State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 42, Issue 2, April 1975, Pages 297–301, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296538 Published: 01 April 1975

Journal Article Axioms for Lexicographic Preferences Get access Peter C. Fishburn Peter C. Fishburn Pennsylvania State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 42, Issue 3, July 1975, Pages 415–419, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296854 Published: 01 July 1975

Journal Article The Core when Strategies are Restricted by Law Get access Theodore C. Bergstrom Theodore C. Bergstrom Washington University, St Louis Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 42, Issue 2, April 1975, Pages 249–257, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296532 Published: 01 April 1975

The problems associated with interpersonal comparisons are particularly intractable. This paper presents a procedure whereby the relative importance of any particular individual varies over the set of social states. In one sense, the stronger (relative to some norm) a person feels about any particular pairwise decision, the larger his say in that outcome. This procedure leads to a nested sequence of aggregate partial orderings which reflects this strength of preference. Under the assumptions presented it is also possible, given any two social states, to characterize the minimal amount of interpersonal comparison which is necessary in order to arrive at an aggregate ordering.