LATROBE, PA – Dr. Nicholas Racculia, C’00, professor of finance and chair of the Finance and Accounting Department within the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government at Saint Vincent College, was recently credited as co-author of two premier finance textbooks.
Following a fall 2025 sabbatical to tackle the projects, the 14th edition of “Investments,” co-authored by Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, Alan J. Marcus and Racculia, and the 12th edition of “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance,” co-authored by Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers, Marcus and Racculia, both published by McGraw Hill, were recently released.
“I hope it will convey to our students that the faculty at Saint Vincent really care about the material, and we really want to graduate the strongest students possible,” Racculia said. “To me, these are demonstrations of how much we care about our material, and, as a result, how much we care about our students and how strong they are leaving.”
After earning his Bachelor of Science in economics and mathematics and his PhD in economics at Princeton University under Burton Malkiel, Racculia joined the faculty of his undergraduate alma mater in 2007.
“Our students truly benefit from Dr. Racculia,” said Dr. Michael Urick, C’04, dean of the McKenna School. “At Saint Vincent, students are able to learn directly from an author of two of the most highly regarded textbooks in finance while students at other institutions might just be reading his books. Having Dr. Racculia here and impacting our students directly is one way that students experience an exceptional education at Saint Vincent.”
Over a decade ago, Racculia was first invited to review a previous edition of “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance,” drafting a report that was both positive and critical. He was then invited to provide supplemental work in both textbooks and has been doing so since 2010. First introduced to “Investments” while he was enrolled in graduate school at Princeton University, Racculia found the textbook to be phenomenal.
“I really thought it was the best distillation of financial theory that I had ever seen,” he said. “It was logical, it flowed well. It was rigorous but also accessible.
“While ‘Investments’ is positioned as a grad-level textbook, I feel that our students are strong enough that they can handle the additional rigor,” Racculia added. He uses the textbook in Investments I: Securities; Investments II: Derivatives; Investments III: Alternative Assets; and Portfolio Theory. Racculia uses “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance” for his Corporate Finance class.
“I've always kind of returned to these two textbooks simply because I've loved them and I thought they were the best ones,” Racculia said.
In 2019-2020, the Saint Vincent College professor pitched an idea to Marcus about writing a private equity chapter for “Investments.” The chapter, titled “Alternative Assets,” was included in the 13th edition, and Racculia was invited to join the co-authors for the 12th edition of “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance.”
He was later invited to co-author the “Investments” textbook, something Racculia calls a “lifelong goal.”
“It is, to me, the best textbook out there,” he said, pointing to the approximately 75-80% market share of all investment textbooks. “This book is used across the country and worldwide, and it is well established as the gold standard when it comes to textbooks.”
In addition to the “Alternative Assets” chapter in “Investments,” Racculia’s primary focuses in both textbooks included implementing “Python in Finance” boxes. Python is a programming language with applications in financial software and data analysis.
“Finance students should have a working knowledge of Python,” Racculia said. “We are interested in creating finance students who understand the logic and structure of Python. We built out through both textbooks ‘Python in Finance’ boxes that help students understand, plus we built some supplemental material for them to aid them in their understanding of coding.”
He credited Dr. Justin Petrovich, C’14, associate professor of statistics and business analytics and chair of the Marketing, Analytics and Global Commerce Department at the College, with building the Python test bank in “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance.”
Racculia also helped to implement “Integrated Excel,” mapped to the content and style of each textbook. The component is a series of questions that teach students how to use the formulae in Excel to solve problems.
“It's not simply just getting the right answer. It's getting the right answer using best practices. I focused on making sure that these questions and these problems were built with the language of the textbook,” Racculia said. “When a student works through these problems in Python and in Excel, the student recognizes the style and variables that are used in the textbook, which sometimes you don't see in some of the other textbooks.”
“Investments” also addresses how to effectively and ethically use artificial intelligence in the finance world. “Whether we like it or not, it’s here, and it’s doing amazing things,” Racculia said. The certifications section has also been enhanced in the newest “Investments” edition, Racculia added, noting he feels the textbook is one of the best resources for students seeking to earn their chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation.
“The CFA is considered the gold standard when it comes to financial analysis,” he said, adding that Saint Vincent students tend to pass CFA testing at a rate much higher than the national average. Racculia also added an expanded list of certifications and licensures for students to explore and provided general proofing for both textbooks.
“I knew it was going to be a lot of work,” he said. “It was significantly more than I imagined.”
Racculia has since been asked to join a third textbook, “Essentials of Investments,” as a co-author.
“I'm back to teaching, but I’m currently working on ‘Essentials of Investments,’ which presents the core concepts of the larger ‘Investments’ textbook but in a more streamlined format,” Racculia said of the 2027 release. “It has been an absolute pleasure working with Alan (Marcus) and Richard (Brealey) on these books as they're the two [who] I work with most closely.”
Racculia thanked his McKenna colleagues for their efforts during his sabbatical, including Dr. Christian Kalhöfer, Christina Gibson and Urick.
“They've been phenomenal in helping me get through this,” Racculia said. “My family has been super supportive. I am especially grateful to my son, Domenic. His steady presence and love kept me grounded and sane throughout the process.”
