There has been an increasing interest in financial markets across sociology, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and related disciplines over the past decades, with particular intensity since the 2007-2008 crisis which prompted new analyses of the workings of financial markets and how "scandals of Wall Street" might have huge societal ramifications. The sociologically inclined landscape of finance studies is characterized by different more or less well- established homogeneous camps, with more micro-empirical, social studies of finance approaches on the one end of the spectrum and more theoretical, often neo-Marxist approaches, on the other. Yet alternative approaches are also gaining traction, including work that emphasizes the cultural homologies and interconnections with finance as well as work that, more broadly, is both empirically rigorous and theoretically ambitious. Importantly, across these various approaches to finance, a growing body of literature is taking shape which engages finance in a critical manner. The term "critical finance studies" nonetheless remains largely unfocused and undefined. Against this backdrop, the key rationales of The Routledge Handbook of Critical Finance Studies are firstly to provide a coherent notion of this emergent field and secondly to demonstrate its analytical usefulness across a wide range of central aspects of contemporary finance. As such, the volume will offer a comprehensive guide to students and academics on the field of Finance and Critical Finance Studies, Heterodox Economics, Accounting, and related Management disciplines. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license at https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138079816_oachapter14.pdf

This book tells the story of how the convergence between corporate sustainability and sustainable investing is now becoming a major force driving systemic market changes. The idea and practice of corporate sustainability is no longer a niche movement. Investors are increasingly paying attention to sustainability factors in their analysis and decision-making, thus reinforcing market transformation. In this book, high-level practitioners and academic thought leaders, including contributions from John Ruggie, Fiona Reynolds, Johan Rockstroem, and Paul Polman, explain the forces behind these developments. The contributors highlight (a) that systemic market change is influenced by various contextual factors that impact how sustainable investing is perceived and practiced; (b) that the integration of ESG factors in investment decisions is impacting markets on a large scale and hence changes practices of major market players (e.g. pension funds); and (c) that technology and the increasing datafication of sustainability act as further accelerators of such change. The book goes beyond standard economic theory approaches to sustainable investing and emphasizes that capitalism founded on more real-world (complex) economics and cooperation can strengthen ESG integration. Aimed at both investment professionals and academics, this book gives the reader access to more practitioner-relevant information and it also discusses implementation issues. The reader will gain insights into how "mainstream" financial actors relate to sustainable investing.

Computational finance is increasingly important in the financial industry, as a necessary instrument for applying theoretical models to real-world challenges. Indeed, many models used in practice involve complex mathematical problems, for which an exact or a closed-form solution is not available. Consequently, we need to rely on computational techniques and specific numerical algorithms. This book combines theoretical concepts with practical implementation. Furthermore, the numerical solution of models is exploited, both to enhance the understanding of some mathematical and statistical notions, and to acquire sound programming skills in MATLAB (R), which is useful for several other programming languages also. The material assumes the reader has a relatively limited knowledge of mathematics, probability, and statistics. Hence, the book contains a short description of the fundamental tools needed to address the two main fields of quantitative finance: portfolio selection and derivatives pricing. Both fields are developed here, with a particular emphasis on portfolio selection, where the author includes an overview of recent approaches. The book gradually takes the reader from a basic to medium level of expertise by using examples and exercises to simplify the understanding of complex models in finance, giving them the ability to place financial models in a computational setting. The book is ideal for courses focusing on quantitative finance, asset management, mathematical methods for economics and finance, investment banking, and corporate finance.

Financial reporting is a strategic means of communication: management has an opportunity to interpret, and the power to deliver, what is materially important to the organization's stakeholders. Understanding materiality means steering the company in the right direction, and many internal management battles regarding what and how to disclose in external financial reporting run on the verge of materiality. This book offers an integrated perspective of materiality from the angles of accounting (IFRS, US GAAP and SEC Rules and Regulations), auditing, internal control over financial reporting, management commentary, financial analysis, management control, forensic analysis, sustainability reporting, corporate responsibility, assurance standards, integrated reporting, and limited legal considerations. In Materiality in Financial Reporting: An Integrative Perspective, the author adopts a practical, operational approach to show how strategy, processes, and communication can be used to devise a consistent corporate governance system of materiality.

Islamic Macroeconomics proposes an Islamic model that offers significant prospects for economic growth and durable macroeconomic stability, and which is immune to the defects of the economic models prevailing both in developed and developing countries. An Islamic model advocates a limited government confined to its natural duties of defence, justice, education, health, infrastructure, regulation, and welfare of the vulnerable population. It prohibits interest-based debt and money, and requires full liberalization of all markets including labor, financial, commodity, trade, and foreign exchange markets. The government should be Sharia-compliant in its taxation power and regulatory intervention; it ought to reduce unproductive spending in favor of productive spending. This book is essential reading for students and academics of Islamic economics and finance, economists, practitioners, and researchers.

This book examines the case of nominal income targeting as a monetary policy rule. In recent years the most well-known nominal income targeting rule has been NGDP (level) Targeting, associated with a group of economists referred to as market monetarists (Scott Sumner, David Beckworth, and Lars Christensen among others). Nominal income targeting, though not new in monetary theory, was relegated in economic theory following the Keynesian revolution, up until the financial crisis of 2008, when it began to receive renewed attention. This book fills a gap in the literature available to researchers, academics, and policy makers on the benefits of nominal income targeting against alternative monetary rules. It starts with the theoretical foundations of monetary equilibrium. With this foundation laid, it then deals with nominal income targeting as a monetary policy rule. What are the differences between NGDP Targeting and Hayek's rule? How do these rules stand up against other monetary rules like inflation targeting, the Taylor rule, or Friedman's k-percent? Nominal income targeting is a rule which is better equipped to avoid monetary disequilibrium when there is no inflation. Therefore, a book that explores the theoretical foundation of nominal income targeting, comparing it with other monetary rules, using the 2008 crisis to assess it and laying out monetary policy reforms towards a nominal income targeting rule will be timely and of interest to both academics and policy makers.

Scholars and practitioners have known for a long time that risk plays an important, indeed central, role in determining the appropriate discount rate to be used in a sophisticated valuation model. In today's world, however, the very risk of survival, especially for financial institutions, is essential to the health of the world's capital markets and their impact on the global economy.Risk, Value and Default is a vital text for understanding the interaction between enterprise risk management with corporate valuation and corporate default. The book seeks to explore the interaction between the risk of default and enterprise risk, and their joint impact on firm valuation. It aims to address the problem of how corporations should deal with risk and how they can maximize shareholder value. It also examines various conceptual ways to measure risk, thereby bridging the gap between theoretical concepts and pragmatic application.The book combines sound conceptual analytics and empirical tools to provide useful information and tangible guidelines for firms, risk managers and financial analysts and advisors. Scholars and professionals with an interest in risk management, and managers, owners, creditors and potential investors in enterprises will find Risk, Value and Default a particularly useful guide to understanding the relationship between risk generation, risk management and corporate value and default from an interdisciplinary perspective.

This revised and fully expanded edition of Understanding Investments continues to incorporate the elements of traditional textbooks on investments, but goes further in that the material is presented from an intuitive, practical point of view, and the supplementary material included in each chapter lends itself to both class discussion and further reading by students. It provides the essential tools to navigate complex, global financial markets and instruments including relevant (and classic) academic research and market perspectives. The author has developed a number of key innovative features. One unique feature is its economic angle, whereby each chapter includes a section dedicated to the economic analysis of that chapter's material. Additionally, all chapters contain sections on strategies that investors can apply in specific situations and the pros and cons of each are also discussed. The book provides further clarification of some of the concepts discussed in the previous edition, thereby offering a more detailed analysis and discussion, with more real-world examples. The author has added new, shorter text boxes, labeled "Market Flash" to highlight the use of, or changes in current practices in the field; updates on strategies as applied by professionals; provision of useful information for an investor; updates on regulations; and anything else that might be relevant in discussing and applying a concept. This second edition also includes new sections on core issues in the field of investments, such as alternative investments, disruptive technologies, and future trends in investment management. This textbook is intended for undergraduate students majoring or minoring in finance and also for students in economics and related disciplines who wish to take an elective course in finance or investments.

In a context of growing social and environmental concerns, the role of large enterprises and corporations in encouraging sustainability has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Both academic debates and public-opinion research have called into question the extended responsibilities of firms in our increasingly inter-connected world. By studying issues associated with the greatest challenges mankind is currently facing - from climate change to social exclusion - the scientific community is aware of the need to account for the actions and agendas of companies, especially large ones. They are becoming important global political actors with great power, but also unprecedented responsibilities. With this in mind, the authors believe that it is more important than ever that large enterprises, on the one hand, take into account the opinion of their stakeholder while defining their strategies and, on the other hand, disclose material and relevant information on their ability to contribute to sustainability while delivering value for all of their stakeholders. A consensus is being reached on the responsibility of large enterprises to report in a triple bottom perspective - not only on their financial performances, but also on their social and environmental outcomes. Consequently, it is important to understand what elements organizations need to report on in order to provide stakeholders with relevant and comprehensive sustainability reports. Against this background, this book presents a significant and original contribution, both empirically and theoretically, to the social and environmental accounting literature by studying the various features of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting.

Spending on M&A has, in aggregate, grown so fast that it has even overtaken capital expenditure on increasing and maintaining physical assets. Yet McKinsey, the leading management consultancy, reports that "Anyone who has researched merger success rates knows that roughly 70% fail". The idea that businesses might be using huge and increasing sums of shareholders' money for an activity that more often than not leads to failure calls into question the information on which M&A decisions are based. This book presents statistical studies, case material, and standard-setters' opinions on company accounting before, during, and after M&A. It documents the manipulation of annual accounts by acquirers ahead of share for share bids, biased forecasts of post-merger earnings by bidders, and devices to flatter earnings when recording the deal. It explores the challenges for standard-setters in regulating information flows during and after M&A, and for account-users wishing to learn from financial statements how a deal has affected performance. Drawing on a wide range of international examples, this readable book is targeted not just at accounting specialists but at anyone who is comfortable reading the serious financial press, is intrigued by what is going on in the massive M&A market, and is concerned with achieving better-informed M&A. As such it might be of particular interest to business executives, lawyers, bankers, and investors involved in M&A as well as graduate students interested in researching or learning about the role of accounting in M&A.

In a globalized financial market, the success of an organization in one country is often inextricably linked to the economic viability of an array of other nations and governments. As such, global concerns the simultaneous consideration of global and local aspects of business often take precedence. Global Strategies in Banking and Finance explores the concept of a glocal industry through case studies, emerging research, and interdisciplinary perspectives applicable to a variety of fields in banking and finance. Within these pages, researchers and practitioners will discover tips, strategies, and best practices towards maintaining a competitive advantage and positioning their respective organizations in the global marketplace."

This volume presents lecture notes for a course in behavioral finance, most suitable for MBA students, but also adaptable for a PhD class. These lecture notes are based on the author's experience in teaching behavioral finance classes at Bocconi University (at the PhD level) and at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo (MBA).Written in a way that is user-friendly for both teachers and students, this book is the first of its kind and consolidates all the material necessary for a course on behavioral finance, balancing psychological concepts with financial applications. Material formerly presented only in academic papers has been transformed to a format more suitable for students, while the most important issues have been highlighted in boxes that can form the basis of a lecturer's teaching slides.In addition to corralling all the currently scattered materials into one book, a neat logical order is introduced to the subject matter. Behavioral finance is put in a context relative to the other disciplines of finance, its history is outlined and the way it evolved - from an eclectic collection of counter examples to market efficiency into a bona fide discipline of finance - is reviewed and explained.The 17 topic-based chapters in this book are each intended for a 90-minute lecture. The first five chapters (Part 1) provide the psychological and financial foundations of behavioral finance. The next 12 chapters (Part 2) are applications: Chapters 6-13 cover the essentials while Chapters 14-17 are special, elective topics.

The objective of this textbook is to introduce students to basic principles of international corporate finance. This book stresses practical applications in a user-friendly format. It is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate level courses in international finance, and can be used in any part of the world as it does take a nationalistic viewpoint. This self-contained book and combines theory and applications. Students will be exposed to key tools and techniques of global corporate finance without a complex treatment of theoretical financial concepts.

European venture capital (VC) funds have historically underperformed their US counterparts. This has resulted in reduced investment into European VC by the traditional institutional investors. This book investigates the factors that give rise to the performance difference. It is based on the author's research at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow which involved a qualitative study of some 64 VC firms in the UK, continental Europe and the US, supplemented by 40 interviews with other stakeholders, including limited partner investors, corporate venturers, entrepreneurs and advisors. Readers will gain an in-depth understanding of the various structural, operational and wider environmental factors that impact on the performance difference between UK/European and US VC funds. The study is unique in that it provides, for the first time, a holistic and extensive analysis of the entire investment process from sourcing deals to exiting deals specifically contrasting Europe and the US in terms of the variables pertaining to the investment process and the impact on the fund performance. Factors impacting on the performance differential are structural, resulting from characteristics of the funds themselves, operational such as the investment practices of the VC firms which manage the funds and environmental such as culture and attitude to risk and the wider ecosystem in which the funds operate. These factors are set out clearly for the reader. The characteristics of the better performing funds in Europe and the US are also investigated. The book is aimed at academics who are researching venture capital fund performance and investment practices and also at practitioners, advisors and policymakers who want to learn about best VC investment practices. Whilst the book is focused on European and US VC investing, the best practices are also pertinent for VC firms and funds setting up in other geographies, particularly in emerging markets. To this end, best practice guidelines based on the research are included.

Credit rating agencies play an essential role in the modern financial system and are relied on by creditors and investors on the market. In the recent financial crisis, their power and reliability were often questioned, yet a simple rating downgrade could threaten to bankrupt a whole country. This book examines the governance of credit rating agencies, as expressed by their ability to fairly, ethically and consistently assign higher rates to issuers having lesser default risks. However, factors such as the drive for increased revenue and market share, the inadequate business model, the inadequate methodology of assessing risk, opacity and inadequate internal monitoring have all been identified as critical governance failures for credit agencies. This book explores these issues, and proposes some potential solutions and improvements. This will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of corporate finance, finance, financial economics, risk management, investment management, and banking.

This essential research review discusses the most important articles on executive compensation published in the twenty-first century. Beginning with an overview of executive compensation, this comprehensive review includes analyses of the growth and magnitude of executive compensation, its relationship with corporate governance, pay and performance, managing assets, and managing liabilities.

First published in 1992, The Efficiency of New Issue Markets provides a comprehensive overview of under-pricing and through this assess the efficiency of new issue markets. The book provides a further theoretical development of the adverse selection model of the new issue market and addresses the hypothesis that the method of distribution of new issues has an important bearing on the efficiency of these markets. In doing this, the book tests the efficiency of the Offer for Sale new issue market, which demonstrates the validity of the adverse selection model and contradicts the monopsony power hypothesis. This examines the relative efficiency of the new issue markets which demonstrates the importance of distribution in determining relative efficiency.

Drawing on the principles of welfare economics and public finance, this second edition of Cost-Benefit Analysis: Theory and Application provides the theoretical foundation for a general framework within which costs and benefits are identified and assessed from a societal perspective. With a thorough coverage of cost-benefit concepts and their underlying theory, the volume carries the reader through the steps of a typical evaluation process, including the identification, measurement, and comparison of costs and benefits, and project selection. Topics include alternative measures of welfare change, such as the concepts of consumer surplus and compensating and equivalent variation measures, shadow pricing, nonmarket valuation techniques of contingent valuation and discrete choice experiment, perspectives on what constitutes a theoretically acceptable discount rate, the social rate of time preference, income distribution, and much more. The book also focuses on real-world applications of cost-benefit analysis in two closely related areas-environment and health care-followed by an examination of the current state of the art in cost-benefit analysis as practiced by international agencies.

A clear and accessible guide to finance, which provides the ideal introduction for the non-specialist. Packed with examples and case studies, the book features numerous real-world demonstrations of key concepts and ideas. This new edition includes coverage of ESG investing, a brand new chapter on digital currencies and electronic payments, and new case studies on sustainability versus profit maximization, environmental financing, socially responsible investing, the rise of fintech, the perils of cryptocurrency, global debt pressures and 'the rise of the South' in finance. The fourth edition will be supplemented by useful digital resources in the form of instructor PowerPoint slides and a testbank of questions for students.

Women-owned firms represent an increasingly important segment of the small business sector. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 7.8 million women-owned firms in the United States in 2007, generating $1.2 trillion in revenues and providing employment for 7.6 million people. "A Rising Tide" presents the financial strategies that have helped today's bold and creative women entrepreneurs to succeed.
The authors take a lifecycle approach in discussing the issues and strategies for different types of women-owned firms, from nascent and home-based firms to growth-oriented and technology-based enterprises. Each chapter includes real-world cases studies featuring women entrepreneurs as a way to bring the book's lessons to life.
Uniquely, this book ties together the latest research on financing women-owned businesses and its implications for actual or potential entrepreneurs. Drawing on the Kauffman Firm Survey, a longitudinal survey of over 4,000 new firms, the authors are able to provide particularly useful conclusions, making this a must read for the thousands of women who are starting or may start businesses in the next few years.
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This book addresses the impact of the vast international debt on the position and volatility of the Eurodollar and provides a unique insight into the economics surrounding the Eurodollar. It is intended for those working or studying in the fields of business and economics.

First published in 1992, The New York Stock Exchange is an informative library resource. The book begins with a history of the stock exchange, and offers a series of annotated bibliographies devoted to dictionaries and general guides, directories, bibliographies, general histories, and statistical sources. The book provides important coverage of the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 and the appendices offer a useful collection of data, including a directory of serial publications, listings of abstracts and indexes, online databases, and CD-ROM products. This book will be of interest to libraries and to researchers working in the field of economics and business.

Finance is key to every business organisation as well as outside. This book makes sense of the finance world from a non-finance perspective. It introduces, explains and demystifies essential ideas of business finance to those who do not have financial background or training. Lucid, accessible, yet comprehensive, the book delineates the financial workings of businesses and offers an overview of corporate finance in the global context. The volume: Contains effective tools for financial communication, monitoring, analysis and resource allocation; Provides important learning aids such as figures, tables, illustrations and case studies; Highlights fundamental concepts and applications of finance; Surveys global corporate practices, recent trends and current data. This updated second edition contains new sections on Tax Planning, including Income Tax and Goods and Services Tax in India. A guide to building financial acumen, this book will be a useful resource for executive and management development programmes (EDPs & MDPs) oriented towards business managers, including MBA programmes. It will benefit business executives, corporate heads, entrepreneurs, government officials, teachers, researchers, and students of management and business, as well as those who deal with finance or financial matters in their daily lives.