Economic Institutions and Democratic Reform rigorously and systematically explores the political effects and consequences of economic reform in more than 20 post-communist countries. By using primary quantitative data and stringent statistical analyses, Ole Norgaard demonstrates that there is no universally applicable economic reform strategy and that popular democracy is often the foundation of a successful economy, rather than a powerful executive or president, as is popularly asserted. The book also shows that generalised models are not productive when studying the complexity of post-communist transformation. The author argues that the danger to democracy comes from the alienation of citizens and the collapse of public service and education systems instigated by individuals who, with few democratic credentials, capture the political playing field. These leaders have often been encouraged by Western governments who believe democracy can only be imposed on reluctant societies by newborn capitalist elites. This book will be essential and challenging reading for political scientists and economists as well as policymakers in NGOs, such as aid agencies and the institutions of the EU.

It is a well-known fact that conventional commercial banks provide financial intermediation services on the basis of interest rates on assets and liabilities. However, since interest is prohibited in Islam, Islamic banks have developed several other modes through which savings are mobilized and passed on to entrepreneurs, none of which involve interest.Islamic Banking and Finance discusses Islamic financial theory and practice, and focuses on the opportunities offered by Islamic finance as an alternative method of financial intermediation. Key features of profit-sharing (as opposed to debt-based) contracts are highlighted, and the ways in which they can facilitate improved efficiency and stability of a financial system are explored. The authors illustrate that in addition to some 200 Islamic banks operating in Muslim as well as non-Muslim countries, some of the biggest multinational banks are now offering Islamic financial products. This book will fascinate students, researchers and academics with a special interest in comparative banking, middle-eastern studies and international finance, and will also appeal to practitioners of banking and finance.

This volume of the International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics explores the latest economic and financial developments in Africa and Asia. Chapters cover a range of topics such as: the relationship between good stewardship, agency costs, and performance of South African firms; stock market dynamics in Thailand, including risk & mutual fund clustering and zero-investment portfolios strategies; and a special focus on financial markets in Indonesia such as fundamental indexing with Markowitz mean variance portfolios, a financial performance analysis of highway companies before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a credit risk scoring model for consumer financing. Comparative Analysis of Trade and Finance in Emerging Economies also addresses the issue of whether the West African Monetary Zone can form a Currency Union, and, examines the impact of non-tariff measures of China on the export of agricultural products of Laos. These peer-reviewed papers touch on a variety of timely, interdisciplinary subjects such as stock markets and the effects of public policy. Together, ISETE 31, is a crucial resource of current, cutting-edge research for any scholar of international finance and economics.

FinTech, an abbreviated term for financial technology, is a digital revolution changing the way banking and financial services are being used both by individuals and businesses. As these changes continue to take place, the financial industry is focused on technological innovation and feeding into this digital revolution to better serve consumers who are looking for easier ways to invest, transfer money, use banking services, and more. FinTech is increasing accessibility to financial services, automating these services, expanding financial options, and enabling online payments and banking. While the benefits are being continually seen and this technology is becoming more widely accepted, there are still challenges facing the technology that include security concerns. To understand FinTech and its role in society, both the benefits and challenges must be reviewed and discussed for a holistic view on the digital innovations changing the face of the financial industry. The Research Anthology on Concepts, Applications, and Challenges of FinTech covers the latest technologies in FinTech with a comprehensive view of the impact on the industry, where these technologies are implemented, how they are improving financial services, and the security applications and challenges being faced. The chapters cover the options FinTech has unlocked, such as mobile banking and virtual transactions, while also focusing on the workings of the technology itself and security applications, such as blockchain and cryptocurrency. This book is a valuable reference tool for accountants, bankers, financial planners, financial analysts, business managers, economists, computer scientists, academicians, researchers, financial professionals, and students.

Commenting on the quality of the contributors when opening the conference on which these books are based, the former Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Edward George, said 'I cannot remember ever before having had such a galaxy of academic economist and central banking superstars gathered together under one roof!'' Celebrating the contribution that Charles Goodhart has made to monetary economics and policy, this unique compendium of original papers draws together a highly respected group of international academics, central bankers and financial market regulators covering a broad range of issues in modern monetary economics. Topics discussed include: * central bank independence * credibility and transparency * the inflation forecast and the loss function * monetary policy experiences in the US and the UK * the implications of Goodhart's Law * the benefits of single versus multiple currencies * money, near monies and credit. Each chapter of the volume relates to subjects that have been research projects in Charles Goodhart's wide-ranging portfolio, and all are interconnected. Through these, the book offers a summary of current thinking and insights into monetary controversies. Covering recent thinking on monetary theory, central banking, financial regulation and international finance, academic and professional economists alike will find this book an invaluable source of information. The companion volume examines monetary history, exchange rates and financial markets.

Private bankers have been defined as owner-managers of their bank, irrespective of their type of activity, which could be in any field of banking, sometimes in conjunction with another one, especially commerce in the earlier periods. Analysing the experiences of European private bankers from the early modern period to the early twenty-first century, this book starts by examining the slow emergence of specialist private bankers, largely from amongst those who provided commercial credit. This initial consideration culminates in a focus upon the roles that they played, both during the onset of the continent's industrialization, and in orchestrating the finances of the emerging world economy. Its second theme is private banking's waning importance with the rise of joint-stock competitors, which became increasingly apparent in Britain during the mid-nineteenth century, and elsewhere within Europe some decades later. Lastly, attention is paid to the decline of private bankers in the twentieth century -a protracted and uneven decline, combined with the persistence and even the enduring success of some segments of the profession. It concludes with the revival of private banking in the late twentieth century as a response to the development of a new market - the management of personal wealth.

Money, Coordination and Prices explains the phenomenon of nominal price rigidity as a characteristic of a monetary economy by means of an innovative combination of insights, using several strands of economic thought, to analyse the monetary economy. The work connects neoclassical and New Keynesian explanations of the use of money and nominal price rigidity and provides heterodox analyses of the two phenomena. The author integrates the mainstream approach with views from institutional and evolutionary economics, as well as post Keynesian economics. Analyses include: * theories of money and nominal price stickiness * conventions and institutions in coordination problems * trust in a monetary economy * the stability of the monetary economy * the monetary economy as an open self-organizing system. This book will appeal to institutional, monetary, post Keynesian and neoclassical/mainstream economists and academics alike.

This important and timely book examines the impact of different financial systems on investment. It considers the increasing effects of globalization on the relationship between national financial systems and investment, which is especially relevant in light of the recent Asian crisis. Marc Schaberg explores the way in which countries finance investment and the institutional arrangements which are in place for channelling finance to investment projects. He specifically examines the patterns of sources and uses of funds in non-financial enterprise sectors in the US, UK, France, Japan and Germany. Using time series data and econometric tests, he measures and categorises the financial systems of these countries. He also assesses the empirical evidence to question the commonly held assumption that financial systems are converging. Globalization and the Erosion of National Financial Systems will be welcomed by students and scholars working in the areas of money and banking as well as by financial economists.

This outstanding collection of Michael Brennan's writing spans almost thirty years and reflects the rapid development and growing importance of the field of finance over this period.The papers cover corporate finance, option pricing and derivative markets, international finance and the role of information in financial markets. The chapters on corporate finance include Brennan's seminal 1970 paper on the effects of personal taxation on financial market equilibrium, an analysis of consistency in utility rate regulation and the classic piece on the application of options analysis to natural resource investments. The chapters on option pricing range from the earliest analysis of the American put option to a synthesis of methods of valuing derivatives, portfolio insurance and the effect of derivatives on trading volume and welfare. More recent papers include empirical asset pricing studies and an innovative proposal to strip the dividends from the S&P500 portfolio. Michael Brennan has been at the forefront of recent developments in financial economics and financial management and this collection of his work will be warmly welcomed by those working in finance, monetary economics, banking and financial sector research.

A compelling look at the history of offshore banking and its current applications. Revealing. Insightful. Candid.

Offshore Banking - When initially brought up, the concept probably elicits images of the Swiss Alps or the beach in the Caribbean, yet in today's global economy these fairytale-like images are not related to offshore banking at all. Behind the Offshore Veil reveals the long, prestigious history of private banking and its current applications. Serving as a detailed introduction into the complexities of the offshore world, Behind the Offshore Veil puts to rest the mainstream misconceptions over the legality of offshore banking.

Over the past two decades, the offshore market has experienced a significant increase in popularity as more individuals have begun to see the vast benefits associated with it. Now more than ever, the need to diversify offshore has become commonplace in furthering business interests while protecting personal wealth. The Banking Crisis of 2008 further affirms the need for business owners and professionals to exert greater control of their assets by bringing critical banking functions in house.

Written by two authors with a combined 30+ years in the international banking industry, Behind the Offshore Veil is a must read for individuals in the business, financial and entrepreneurial sectors; all who seek greater profit, privacy and diversification of their assets.

Walter Bagehot noticed once that "John Bull can stand many things, but he cannot stand two per cent." Well, for several years, he has had to stand interest rates well below that, in some countries even below zero. However, despite this sacrifice, the economic recovery from the Great Recession has been disappointingly weak. This book's aim is to answer this question. The central thesis of the book is that the standard understanding of the monetary transmission mechanism is flawed. That understanding adopts erroneous assumptions-such as, that low interest rates always stimulate economic growth by boosting the credit supply, investment, and consumption-and does not fully take into account several unintended channels of monetary policy, such as risk-taking, high level of debt, or zombification of the economy. In other words, the effectiveness of monetary policy is limited during economic downturns accompanied by the debt overhang and the balance sheet recession, and generates negative effects, which can make the policy counterproductive. The author provides a thorough analysis of the issues related to the interest rates in the conduct of monetary policy, such as the risk-taking channel of monetary policy, the portfolio-balance channel and the wealth effect, zombie firms in the economy, the misallocation of resources, as well as the neutral interest rate targeting and the difference between the neutral and natural interest rate and the negative interest rate policy. The book is written in an accessible and engaging manner and will be a valuable resource for scholars of monetary economics as well as readers interested in (unconventional) monetary policy.

The growth of financial intermediation research has yielded a host of questions that have pushed "design" issues to the fore even as the boundary between financial intermediation and corporate finance has blurred. This volume presents review articles on six major topics that are connected by information-theoretic tools and characterized by valuable perspectives and important questions for future research. Touching upon a wide range of issues pertaining to the designs of securities, institutions, trading mechanisms and markets, industry structure, and regulation, this volume will encourage bold new efforts to shape financial intermediaries in the future.
* Original review articles offer valuable perspectives on research issues appearing in top journals
* Twenty articles are grouped by six major topics, together defining the leading research edge of financial intermediation
* Corporate finance researchers will find affinities in the tools, methods, and conclusions featured in these articles

Reverse stress testing was introduced in risk management as a regulatory tool for financial institutions more than a decade ago. The recent Covid-19 crisis illustrates its relevance and highlights the need for a systematic re-thinking of tail risks in the banking sector. This book addresses the need for practical guidance describing the entire reverse stress testing process. Reverse Stress Testing in Banking features contributions from a diverse range of established practitioners and academics. Organized in six parts, the book presents a series of contributions providing an in-depth understanding of: Regulatory requirements and ways to address them Quantitative and qualitative approaches to apply reverse stress testing at different levels - from investment portfolios and individual banks to the entire banking system The use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and quantum computing to gain insights into and address banks' structural weaknesses Opportunities to co-integrate reverse stress testing with recovery and resolution planning Governance and processes for board members and C-suite executives Readers will benefit from the case studies, use cases from practitioners, discussion questions, recommendations and innovative practices provided in this insightful and pioneering book.

While the highly technical measurement techniques and methodologies of Value at Risk have attracted huge interest, much less attention has been focused on how Value at Risk and the risk-adjusted performance measures such as RAROC or economic profit/EVA . can be effectively used to improve a bank s decision making processes. Academic books are typically concerned primarily with measurement techniques, and devote only a small section to describing the applications, usually without discussing the problems that changing organizational processes in banks may have on business units behaviour. Practitioners books are often based on a single experience, presenting the approach that has been pursued by a single bank, but often do not adequately evaluate that approach. In actual practice, the choice of how to use Value at Risk and risk-adjusted performance measures has no single optimal solution, but requires effective decision making that can identify the solution that is consistent with the bank s style of management and coordination mechanisms, and often with characteristics of individual business units as well. In this book, Francesco Saita of Bocconi University argues that even though risk measurement techniques have greatly improved in recent years for market, credit and now also operational risk, capital management and capital allocation decisions are far from becoming purely technical and mechanical. On one hand, decisions about capital management must consider handling different capital constraints (e.g. regulatory vs. economic capital ) and face remarkable difficulties in providing a measure of aggregated ] Value at Risk (i.e. a measure that considers the overall value at risk of the bank after diversification across risk types). On the other hand, the aim of using capital more efficiently through capital allocation cannot be achieved only through a sort of centralized asset allocation process, but rather by designing a Value at Risk limit system and a risk-adjusted performance measurement system that are designed to provide the right incentives to individual business units. This connection between sophisticated and cutting edge risk measurement techniques and practical bank decision making about capital management and capital allocation make this book unique and provide readers with a depth of academic and theoretical expertise combined with practical and real-world understanding of bank structure, organizational constraints, and decisionmaking processes.
*Contains concise, expert analysis of the latest technical VaR measures but without the highly mathematical component of other books
*Discusses practical applications of these measures in the real world of banking, focusing on effective decision making for capital management and allocation
*Author is based at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, one of the foremost institutions for banking in Europe"

The financial crisis, which originated in developed country financial markets, quickly spread to developing countries. Governments and central banksthough taking many and costly measures were powerless to stop the global economic meltdown, as economies across the globe went into recession. The depth of the financial crisis means that the world economy is in unchartered territory. How do we restore robust growth and prevent another crisis? This book aims to systematically understand current major problems in the financial system, its governance, and in its links to global economic imbalances. It explains how both market actors and regulators behavior, and the prevailing ideology of extreme financial liberalization and deregulation, contributed to the financial crisis. This highly topical book focuses on the transparency and regulatory measures that are necessary to restore confidence in the financial system, to ensure that the financial system performs the roles that it should perform within both developing and developed countries, and to make a recurrence less likely. The book also describes reforms in the global financial architecture that might make the global financial system more stable and more equitable. The book presents sometimes radical, but specific, pragmatic, and politically feasible proposals to try to ensure a more stable, equitable, and growing world economy. Contributions come from both developed and developing countries and are written by leading authorities in their field, including senior nationalas well as internationalpolicy makers, practitioners from the private sector, and leading academics.

The financial crisis shows that the banking industry requires a transformation, as its business model and practices are no longer sustainable. Even so, such transformation cannot be made without "Clearing the Bull"-moving beyond old and tired orthodoxies in order to properly diagnose the problem.

Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in banking, author Jonathan Ledwidge shows how the financial crisis exposed the industry's poor system of values, leaving it mired in conflict with its human environment. Specifically, this includes how poor leadership, virtually unmanageable organizations, dysfunctional suppliers, infuriated customers, alienated employees, and dissatisfied communities all arise from the inability of banks to understand that values are more important than valuations.

As a result there is now a total disconnect between banks and their human environment. That disconnect cannot be fully addressed by conventional solutions involving more regulations, more governance, and more controls. Banks have a very human problem, and thus by definition what they require is a human transformation.

"Clearing the Bull" provides both a clear diagnosis as well as a detailed and comprehensive roadmap for the banking industry's human transformation-and while doing so it remains totally engaging and accessible to bankers and non-bankers alike.

Central banking independence is a crucial factor for sustainable economic development of multiple countries. The multiple components for such systems, however, makes it difficult to evaluate how the success of such a system may be determined. Monetary Policies and Independence of the Central Banks in E7 Countries is an essential reference source that evaluates the effectiveness of monetary policies and the independence of central banks to contribute to economic development within seven emerging economies (E7): Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, and Turkey. Featuring research on topics such as global economics, independent banking, and foreign investing, this book is ideally designed for financial analysts, economists, government officials, policymakers, researchers, academicians, industry professionals, and students seeking coverage on improved econometric methods for effective financial systems.

The Economist magazine recently called him "a Robin Hood of the law": American lawyer LOUIS DEMBITZ BRANDEIS (1856-1941) developed the concept of the "right to privacy" in an 1890 law journal article, and-in this classic 1914 work-he denounced investment banking, corporatism, monopolies, and the consolidation of American wealth in the hands of a privileged few. In this collection of essays first published the year before in Harper's Weekly, Brandeis championed the progressive economic ideals of Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom," explained how entrepreneurial efforts and small businesses were being stifled and innovation and competition smothered in the fiscal environment he saw, and offered suggestions for reversing the trend. Hugely influential at the time, Other People's Money and How The Bankers Use It may have contributed to Brandeis's ascension to the United States Supreme Court Justice in 1916 (he would serve until 1939). Today, it serves another purpose: to remind us how the great experiment of American capitalism went astray... again, even in the wake of this powerful and important warning about the same dangers a century ago.

This book presents an eclectic mix of interesting new areas in the domain of economics, management and sustainability. Written by leading experts, it provides valuable food for thought, with essays introducing new lines of research and empirical research papers offering sound research methodology. The book not only provides answers, but also raises numerous interesting questions concerning the areas covered to whet readers' appetites to learn more. Professor Anup Sinha is a respected teacher and is a great mind with wide-ranging academic interests spanning from economics and sustainability to management. As well as in various other places in India and the US, he has taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and Presidency College (now a University) Calcutta for almost three decades. To commemorate his contributions, this festschrift presents a collection of essays that are broadly subdivided into four sections: Economic Development; Vulnerabilities and Inclusive Growth; Sustainability and Corporate Governance; and Innovation and Management.

Although little noticed, the face of central banking has changed significantly over the past ten to fifteen years, says the author of this enlightening book. Alan S. Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve System and member of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, shows that the changes, though quiet, have been sufficiently profound to constitute a revolution in central banking. Blinder considers three of the most significant aspects of the revolution. The first is the shift toward transparency: whereas central bankers once believed in secrecy and even mystery, greater openness is now considered a virtue. The second is the transition from monetary policy decisions made by single individuals to decisions made by committees. The third change is a profoundly different attitude toward the markets, from that of stern schoolmarm to one of listener. With keenness and balance, the author examines the origins of these changes and their pros and cons.