This book concerns itself with the key question: how to improve health in a cost effective and politically acceptable way. What makes people healthy? Why are the poor less healthy than the rich? Why do some countries have a better health record than others? An Introduction to Health is divided into four parts comprising the determinants of health, health service planning, health service financing, and controlling costs and securing user-friendly services.

The globalization and the associated development of truly global product and financial markets has led to a severe change of the corporate environment. New products and markets now evolve faster than ever, and new competitors, technologies and substitution products impose additional competition. These developments have led to an increasingly uncertain and dynamic competitive situation. This book discusses the impact of this changing environment on the role and responsibilities of the CFO. To manage the consequences of this changing environment, the CFO requires a more holistic view that integrates business and financial decisions. By mastering this new role, he becomes vital for a firm's value creation. The book details this management approaches and gives examples how this new "strategic" CFO-role be implemented

In this timely book, political scientist, Mark Duckenfield explores how British and German business associations formed their political attitudes towards Economic and Monetary Union from 1988 through 1998. He makes the provocative argument that business associations are not mere transmission belts for their members' economic interests, rather, they are political entities in their own right. Consequently they act strategically in order to promote their members specific interests, and are particularly attentive to the configuration of partisan political forces in their national legislatures.

"Corporate Governance" is a new text which considers the problems surrounding governance and proposes solutions to help restore investor confidence in the corporate world. The book is intended for board members, corporate executives, regulators, auditors, creditors and analysts seeking a concise analysis of the governance issues facing financial and nonfinancial corporations round the world. The book is fully international in context and includes real life examples and cases to emphasize the practical nature of governance problems and solutions.

Your step-by-step guide to financial peace of mind! How can you become financially secure with the resources at your disposal? What is the safest way to invest and accumulate money? And why is it never too late to start planning your financial well-being? In this new, updated edition of the bestselling Become Your Own Financial Advisor, all of this, and much, much more, is explained.

Money plays a role in nearly every aspect of our lives, and yet very few of us know how to save, where to invest and how to avoid money troubles. This highly accessible book is aimed at anyone who wants to improve their financial situation, from the financial novice who needs clear basic guidelines on how to deal with money, to those who are more financially savvy but want to supplement their knowledge.

Covering a range of topics, from saving, investing, debt management and buying a house to blunders to avoid, Become Your Own Financial Advisor provides people of all ages and levels of wealth with practical information on how to improve their finances. In the process, it shows that financial freedom is possible for everyone. This, the second edition of Become Your Own Financial Advisor, has been updated with new types of investments, fresh approaches to technology, the latest tax information and further feedback on ‘Julia’, the savings rock star.

This book examines the theory and practice of performance budgeting, which aims to make the government more effective by linking the funding of government agencies to the results they deliver. In a combination of thematic studies and case studies, it clearly presents the diverse range of contemporary performance budgeting models and examines their effectiveness. Its coverage is truly international, spanning developed, developing and middle-income countries. Implementation strategy and the supporting accounting, performance measurement and other systems are systematically treated.

This book provides a new point of view on the field of financial engineering, through the application of multicriteria intelligent decision aiding systems. The aim of the book is to provide a review of the research in the area and to explore the adequacy of the tools and systems developed according to this innovative approach in addressing complex financial decision problems, encountered within the field of financial engineering. Audience: Researchers and professionals such as financial managers, financial engineers, investors, operations research specialists, computer scientists, management scientists and economists.

This book is about managing the task of forecasting profit. It builds a case for using multiple methods, providing examples of each method, and suggesting practical techniques to use in dealing with the issues and problems of accuracy in profit forecasts. All the elements that infringe on profits (costs, sales, budgeting, investment, and loan default) are examined within this framework. In addition to synthesizing the research, Professor Metcalfe has applied his own research work on forecast modeling and judgmental methods. The final result is a practical reference book for making more accurate profit forecasts.

The book features eight studies related to governance and risk. It provides a critical evaluation of Basel II, and questions the significance of corruption in country risk analysis and investors' decision making. It offers a reliable model of early warning credit signals that helps managers to detect default risks, and provides a risk-based analysis of alternative production systems in Pakistan. It analyzes the effects of market liberalization on volatility spill-over across the globe, and examines past and future prospects for the Iraqi stock exchange. Finally, it proposes securitization as a means to finance costs of reconstruction in Iraq.

Presenting a vision of the luxury sector and its management, this edited book describes "the new luxury" through a comprehensive view of the value chain, from concept to market. The authors argue that the main characteristics of "luxury" are linked to specific resources and competencies found throughout the value chain and that value is a result of the interaction between the brand and stakeholders, and more precisely with their clients. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, New Luxury Management encompasses both strategic and functional aspects of luxury management, providing innovative solutions to the successful creation and management of value across the organization, from leadership, human resources, financial management, marketing and economic perspectives.

This practical book is written by an internationally renowned expert, who guides the reader through the pitfalls, explaining clearly and concisely the foreign exchange consequences of trading transactions, how to cover longer-term exposures, the tax treatment of interest, the problems caused by the rapidly developing financial instruments which outplace tax legislation and the opportunities to be exploited. The United Kingdom, the United States and Canada are given special coverage highlighting their tax issues as are individual countries from continental Europe, Australasia and the Far East.

"Tax Efficient Foreign Exchange Management "will be invaluable reading for all finance directors, treasurers, corporate planners, bankers, accountants, tax practitioners, lawyers and anyone concerned with managing foreign exchange transactions tax efficiently.

Will American academic and research libraries be able to cope with the current technological, economic, and organizational issues that are bringing about rapid changes in information services or must fundamental changes first take place within these libraries? The twelve essays collected by Spyers-Duran and Mann attempt to answer this question. Section I: "Problems," contains essays on the precarious financial environment of today's academic institutions; the erosion of funding levels in British university libraries; and realistic suggestions for financial planning in academic libraries. Section II: "Changing Approaches," offers discussions on the importance of sharing scholarly resources; the discrepancy between library budgets and services offered; the growing role of the library in the information industry; a review of funding formulas in the academic library; and the changing needs, sources, and styles of financial planning. The final section of the book explores new opportunities for academic and research libraries, and includes information on current library automation; information-sharing among member libraries; external contracting for library services; and grantsmanship.

The purpose of this book is to help bankers in their task of establishing, developing, and supervising foreign exchange departments. The essays included provide insightful and explanatory comments of a general nature in an area where no two institutions are likely to have similar needs or opportunities. The scarcity of books on foreign exchange departments is largely due to this diversity. Rudi Weisweiller's edited collection will appeal to the bankers who want to collaborate closely and successfully with personnel in foreign exchange departments and also to those actually engaged in the day-to-day work of those departments.

This is partly a book for foreign exchange dealers and partly a book about them. Each contributor to this book is experienced and still active in the field of foreign exchange. Their accumulated experience has led to this knowledgeable volume, which will be useful to present and future practitioners as a general overview of the foreign exchange department in the modern financial institution.

Transport Pricing of Electricity Networks aims at providing a methodological and practical transmission tariff guide, to those who are involved in the electricity business as managers, engineers, lawyers, economists, regulators or policy-makers, but are not specialists in electricity transport, nor in tariff-setting for public utilities. It offers a synthesis of the recent economic research on the subject. The volume is divided into three major parts, each presenting a general aspect of transmission pricing: its legal and accounting background, its basic theory, and its implementation, successively.
How much does it cost to transmit electricity from a nuclear plant close to Lyon in France, to a car manufacturer located in Stuttgart in Germany? What price should a system operator in Canada charge a pulp and paper mill that uses the high-voltage grid for only a few weeks per year? Where in California is it more profitable to reinforce or build a new transmission line? What is the best place to locate a power gas station in England, in order to pay the lowest transmission cost? Such questions are novel and crucial for American and European liberalised electricity markets. Transport Pricing of Electricity Networks shows how the economics toolbox can be used to answer them.

Dividends are not only a signal about a firm's prospects under asymmetric information, but they can also act as a corporate governance device to align the management's interests with those of the shareholders. Dividend Policy and Corporate Governance is the first comprehensive volume on the relationship between dividend policy and corporate governance, and examines in detail empirical studies and current theories. Reviewing the interactions between dividend policy and other corporate governance mechanisms, it compares results for the UK and the US with those for other countries such as France, Germany, and Japan, and provides new empirical evidence on corporate governance in continental Europe and its impact on dividends. Focusing on one of the main representatives of this system, Germany, it highlights major differences between the dividend policies of German firms and those of UK or US firms. Conventional wisdom states that German dividends are lower than UK or US dividends, yet on a published-profits basis, the exact converse is true. In addition, the authors demonstrate a link between corporate control structures and dividend payouts, report evidence that the existence of a loss is an additional determinant of dividend changes, and demonstrate that the tax status of the controlling shareholder and the firm's dividend payout are not linked. The conclusions reached in this book have important implications for the current debate on corporate governance, making it invaluable for academics, finance professionals, regulators and legal advisors.

The bulk of this volume deals with the four main aspects of risk management: market risk, credit risk, risk management - in macro-economy as well as within companies. It presents a number of approaches and case studies directed at applying risk management to diverse business environments. Included are traditional market and credit risk management models such as the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model, the Vasicek Model, Factor models, CAPM models, GARCH models, KMV models and credit scoring models.

Management literature is full of examinations of so-called managerial excellence: firms such as GM, IBM, and DuPont have been managed in an exemplary fashion which others might emulate. Works such as Peters & Waterman's "In Search of Excellence" have extolled these firms as models for the future. In his new book, Ghosh responds to the hyberbole in this literature by taking a hard, analytical look at the real financial performance of such firms. His study of the financial performance of these well-known firms during the last twenty-five years (1960-1984), brings out significant findings that are invaluable to the investing public as well as to finance and management analysts.

Taking a list of these best-run companies and a control sample from the Fortune 500, the author applies sophisticated statistical and econometric tools to analyze their performance, comparing the excellent firms with the control group. By using these analytical techniques, Ghosh is able to determine whether these firms were indeed excellent from both the management's and stockholders' point of view. Over the period studied here, Ghosh discovers that the excellence of these firms has been transitory at best, that in most respects the control group has surpassed the excellent group in financial performance and market valuation in the long run, and that the excellent group has not exceeded the performance or the market generally. Given these results, Ghosh has called into question the whole 1980s notion of excellence (what it is and what it is not) and which firms are to be emulated for the long-term good of the U.S. economy. This book will have wide public appeal and be of special interest to scholars in management, finance, and economic history, as well as to financial and management analysts.

A comprehensive handbook for advertising and marketing managers, this volume shows how advertisers can effectively control agency costs without sacrificing creativity. Ron Harding profiles companies that have effectively enforced accountability on their agencies and demonstrates proven internal systems for controlling the advertising process--and its associated costs--from the initial spending plan through the final examination of actual expenditures. He also offers a pragmatic discussion of the procedures, timetables, and contracts managers need to put in place to ensure that all sectors of the agency--account, creative, legal, production, and business affairs--act in the best interest of their client and at the highest levels of their capability. All major categories of spending receive thorough coverage: television, print, talent, and media.

After an introduction which highlights the problems of runaway costs and mismanagement that plague many advertisers today, Harding presents a step-by-step guide to controlling advertising expenditures. Among the topics addressed are: how to create realistic spending plans and make them strict buying guides for the agency; how to spot successful advertising; how to make creative groups accountable; how to run a successful copy meeting; how to stop cost overruns in television and print; and how to streamline and strengthen the brand management system. Harding fully reviews how to cut costs at each stage--from the project initiation form, through copy and storyboards, to editing and final production. Written in clear, conversational style, the book focuses throughout on a pragmatic approach to advertising management while recognizing the central importance of creativity. In fact, Harding argues, by understanding the creative-cost equation and how to manipulate its variables, advertisers will necessarily reap the benefits of better advertising.

This book follows on from Natural Computing in Computational Finance Volumes I, II and III.As in the previous volumes of this series, thebook consists of a series of chapters each of

which was selected following a rigorous, peer-reviewed, selection process. The chapters illustrate the application of a range of cutting-edge natural computing and agent-based methodologies in computational finance and economics.

The applications explored include option model calibration, financial trend reversal detection, enhanced indexation, algorithmic trading, corporate payout determination and agent-based modeling of liquidity costs, and trade strategy adaptation. While describing cutting edge applications, the chapters are

written so that they are accessible to a wide audience. Hence, they should be of interestto academics, students and practitioners in the fields of computational finance and economics.

which was selected following a rigorous, peer-reviewed, selection process. The chapters illustrate the application of a range of cutting-edge natural computing and agent-based methodologies in computational finance and economics.

The applications explored include option model calibration, financial trend reversal detection, enhanced indexation, algorithmic trading, corporate payout determination and agent-based modeling of liquidity costs, and trade strategy adaptation. While describing cutting edge applications, the chapters are

written so that they are accessible to a wide audience. Hence, they should be of interestto academics, students and practitioners in the fields of computational finance and economics.

The applications explored include option model calibration, financial trend reversal detection, enhanced indexation, algorithmic trading, corporate payout determination and agent-based modeling of liquidity costs, and trade strategy adaptation. While describing cutting edge applications, the chapters are

written so that they are accessible to a wide audience. Hence, they should be of interestto academics, students and practitioners in the fields of computational finance and economics.

written so that they are accessible to a wide audience. Hence, they should be of interestto academics, students and practitioners in the fields of computational finance and economics."

This book is a sequel to the author's earlier Thinking About Credit (also published by Macmillan). Once again, he applies his undoubted experience to a number of topics in the area of credit evaluation and management. Of Thinking About Credit:

Updated and revised, this second edition applies advanced financial analytics within a strategic framework that recognizes an environment where sustainable competitive advantage is a progressively more difficult task. Real options offer the link to value and the strategic opportunities that lie in an increasingly dynamic landscape.

This book approaches the question of the relation between financial crises and earnings management from two philosophical perspectives: positivism and critical realism. The results obtained using the positivist approach indicate that financial crises tend to have no consistent effect on earnings quality since managers' earnings behavior does not differ from the pre-crisis to the crisis period. The author accordingly argues against the existence of a causal law based on a constant conjunction model (i.e., whenever a financial crisis happens, earnings management occurs) and concludes that financial crises cannot be seen as the cause of earnings management. The critical realism perspective, on the other hand, casts light on managers' reasons for acting like an earnings manager; in conjunction with the more traditional positivist approach, it assists in refuting the idea of financial crises as a generative mechanism for earnings management. The author concludes by exploring other structures at work that might be responsible for earnings management. This book will be of interest to both academics and a wide range of professionals.

Riahi-Belkaoui examines the crucial issues involved in the determination and uses of earnings as a measure of financial performance. He points out that the nature and measurement of earnings are subject to various interpretations, that determination of earnings follows determination of net value added, and that earnings is subject to management manipulation (earnings can be smoothed, for example.) A succinct, penetrating, illuminating treatment of earnings in general as well as its particulars, the book will be especially useful to upper management and accounting professionals, and to their colleagues in the academic community.

Riahi-Belkaoui argues that the interest in earnings and its related issues of measurement, determination, management, and usefulness stems from three factors: 1) the crucial importance of earnings as the shareholders' share of the corporation's wealth; 2) the reliance of investors and users on earnings and the transformation of earnings for resource allocation decision making; and 3), the direct association between the efficiency of the capital markets and timely provision of earnings data. Each chapter identifies the nature of the issues surrounding the concept of earnings and presents empirical evidence that can be used to make enlightened corporate decisions or to aid in the development of public policy.

Addressed to the management of financial institutions and computer and communications technologists, this book aims to prvide information on the four generations of on-line financial networks which have evolved over the past twenty years in Japan.;The background to the book is electronic banking, and the forward- looking financial industries and the benefits they have achieved.;The author has also recently written "Membership Of The Board Of Directors".