Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. How can financial services, such as credit, deposit accounts, financial transfers, and insurance be provided to people in need? This challenging and complex issue has been a topic of interest for the international aid community for decades. Drawing on renowned experts in microfinance and financial inclusion, this Research Agenda sheds much-needed light on this multifaceted challenge and points the way ahead for future research. Providing a critical and multidisciplinary approach to research in microfinance and financial inclusion, the authors provide a state-of-the-art overview of current scholarly knowledge on the provision of financial services to disadvantaged populations worldwide. Reviewing the literature on the subject from the fields of economics, management science and development studies, they discuss the limitations and challenges of current research and chart avenues for future developments. With its fascinating insights, this Research Agenda will be of interest to students of finance and economics, development, and business and management, as well as researchers with a specific interest in microfinance and financial inclusion. Contributors include: J. Bastiaensen, A. Cozarenco, B. D'espallier, K.O. Djan, M. Duvendack, A. Garcia, J. Goedecke, I. Guerin, V. Hartarska, B. Hathaway, N. Hermes, F. Huybrechs, R. Lensink, R. Mersland, J. Morduch, S. Morvant, D. Nadolnyak, T. Ogden, J.-M. Servet, T.W. Sommeno, A. Szafarz, G. Van Hecken, B. Venet, L. Weill, T. Wry, S. Zamore

This unique book examines how sports betting markets function. Charting recent international developments, expert contributors consider how both bookmakers and stakeholders view these changes, their prime areas of concern and the potential methods for addressing them. Providing a rigorous economic analysis throughout, this book examines the informational efficiency of betting markets and the prevalence of corruption and illegal betting in sports. Against this background, chapters explore pertinent questions such as: should gambling markets be privatized? Is the `hot hand' hypothesis real or a myth? Are the `many' smarter than the `few' in estimating betting odds? How are prices set in fixed odds betting markets? Chapters also review important policy concerns such as the health implications posed by the potential link between the accelerating popularity of sports betting and the decline in sports participation. Academics and students studying economics, sports economics and, more specifically, sports betting will find this book an engaging companion. Contemporary and up to date, it will also appeal to stakeholders looking to widen their professional insight. Contributors include: B. Buraimo, X. Che, S. Dobson, A. Feddersen, D. Forrest, J. Garcia, J. Goddard, K. Grote, B. Humphreys, V. Matheson, R. Paul, D. Peel, L. Perez, P. Rodriguez, J. Ruseski, R. Simmons, P. Westmoreland, A. Weinbach, R. Wheeler, J. Yang

Comparing Income Distributions brings together John Creedy's recent original research and analyses of income distribution. The book is concerned with both static, or cross-sectional, comparisons, and dynamic aspects of income mobility. The author presents new methods of depicting and measuring income mobility and poverty persistence. Income mobility is explored in terms of individuals' relative income changes and their positional changes within the distribution. The first half of the book covers a range of technical aspects of inequality measurement, including less well-known properties of inequality indices, and the decomposition of inequality changes into component contributions. The second half explores various aspects of the graphical display and measurement of income mobility. While the focus of the book is on methods, illustrative examples are provided using New Zealand data. Graduate students, public sector economists, and researchers interested in income distribution will welcome this important work.

With the rise of information and communication technologies in today's world, many regions have begun to adapt into more resource-efficient communities. Integrating technology into a region's use of resources, also known as smart territories, is becoming a trending topic of research. Understanding the relationship between these innovative techniques and how they impact social innovation is vital when analyzing the sustainable growth of highly populated regions. The Handbook of Research on Smart Territories and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Social Innovation and Sustainable Growth is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the global practices and initiatives of smart territories as well as their impact on sustainable development in different communities. While highlighting topics such as waste management, social innovation, and digital optimization, this publication is ideally designed for civil engineers, urban planners, policymakers, economists, administrators, social scientists, business executives, researchers, educators, and students seeking current research on the development of smart territories and entrepreneurship in various environments.

Tucked into the files of Iowa State University's Cooperative Extension Service is a small, innocuous looking pamphlet with the title Lenders: Working through the Farmer-Lender Crisis. Cooperative Extension Service intended this publication to improve bankers' empathy and communication skills, especially when facing farmers showing "Suicide Warning Signs." After all, they were working with individuals experiencing extreme economic distress, and each banker needed to learn to "be a good listener." What was important, too, was what was left unsaid. Iowa State published this pamphlet in April of 1986. Just four months earlier, farmer Dale Burr of Lone Tree, Iowa, had killed his wife, and then walked into the Hills Bank and Trust company and shot a banker to death in the lobby before taking shots at neighbors, killing one of them, and then killing himself. The unwritten subtext of this little pamphlet was "beware." If bankers failed to adapt to changing circumstances, the next desperate farmer might be shooting.This was Iowa in the 1980s. The state was at the epicenter of a nationwide agricultural collapse unmatched since the Great Depression. In When a Dream Dies, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg examines the lives of ordinary Iowa farmers during this period, as the Midwest experienced the worst of the crisis. While farms failed and banks foreclosed, rural and small-town Iowans watched and suffered, struggling to find effective ways to cope with the crisis. If families and communities were to endure, they would have to think about themselves, their farms, and their futures in new ways. For many Iowan families, this meant restructuring their lives or moving away from agriculture completely. This book helps to explain how this disaster changed children, families, communities, and the development of the nation's heartland in the late twentieth century. Agricultural crises are not just events that affect farms. When a Dream Dies explores the Farm Crisis of the 1980s from the perspective of the two-thirds of the state's agricultural population seriously affected by a farm debt crisis that rapidly spiraled out of their control. Riney-Kehrberg treats the Farm Crisis as a family event while examining the impact of the crisis on mental health and food insecurity and discussing the long-term implications of the crisis for the shape and function of agriculture.

This official ICSA study text has been specially designed to support students taking the Fund Administration module of ICSA's Level 5 qualifications in International Finance and Administration.The text covers the syllabus for each module and is structured to help in planning a programme of study. Learning outcomes linked to the syllabus are highlighted to help students focus on the examination requirements for each module.The text follows a standard format and includes a range of features to encourage active learning and to help students apply principles and theory to real-life business situations, including: case law and case examples stop and think scenarios worked examples test yourself review questions and answers glossaries of key termsThe text provides an excellent guide for students, but also serves as a useful reference for anyone who needs an accessible and practical introduction to the subject.

In the neoliberal world, rising individualism has frequently been linked to rising inequality. Drawing on social theory, philosophy, history, institutional research and a wealth of contemporary empirical data, this innovative book analyzes the tangled relationship between individualism and inequality and explores the possibilities of rediscovering individualism's revolutionary potential. Ralph Fevre demonstrates that a belief in individual self-determination powered the development of human rights and inspired social movements from anti-slavery to socialism, feminism and anti-racism. At the same time, every attempt to embed individualism in systems of education and employment has eventually led to increased social inequality. The book discusses influential thinkers, from Adam Smith to Herbert Spencer and John Dewey, as well as the persistence of discrimination despite equality laws, management and the transformation of individualism, individualism in work and mental illness, work insecurity and intensification. This multi-disciplinary book will be essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, economics, philosophy, political science, management science and public policy studies, among other subjects. It will also be of use to policymakers and those who want to know how the culture and politics of the neoliberal world are unfolding.

Open innovation has revolutionized the way businesses adapt to situations, handle problems, and interact with other corporations. Establishing these collaborative business practices has the potential to support and improve business operations across fields, which makes further study vital in order to properly implement the best practices and techniques. As open innovation continues to develop and provide businesses with numerous opportunities for growth, it is crucial to understand and address the trends and challenges of innovation for business and countries' economic and social development. Impact of Open Innovation on the World Economy is an essential reference source that provides examinations on issues of open innovation in the context of organizations and its links to entrepreneurship, strategy, and marketing. The book further provides necessary resources to adopt and implement new business and social solutions. Covering a range of topics such as firm performance and business collaborations, this reference work is ideal for entrepreneurs, managers, technology developers, policymakers, researchers, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This Handbook discusses theoretical approaches to migration studies in general, as well as confronting various issues in international migration from a distinctive and unique international political economy perspective. With a focus on the relation between globalization and migration, the international political economy (IPE) theories of migration are systematically addressed. Original new contributions from leading migration scholars offer a complete overview of international migration. They examine migration as part of a global political economy whilst addressing the theoretical debates relating to the capacity of the state to control international migration and the so called 'policy gap' or 'gap hypothesis' between migration policies and their outcomes. An examination of the relationship between regional integration and migration, with examples from Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as South-East Asia - is also included. Aimed at political scientists and political economists with an interest in globalization and EU policymaking this collection will be accessible to students, academic and policymakers alike. Contributors: R.G. Anghel, A. Balch, M. Fauser, C. Finotelli, A. Geddes, W.J. Haller, F. Jurje, O. Korneev, S. Lavenex, A.I. Leon, S. McMahon, E. Nadalutti, H. Overbeek, F. Pasetti, H. Pellerin, M. Piracha, T. Randazzo, R. Roccu, M. Samers, G. Sciortino, K. Surak, L.S. Talani, R. Zapata-Barrero

"Makes a reader feel like a time traveler plopped down among men who were by turns vicious and visionary."--"The Christian Science Monitor"""
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet.
Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings the men and their times to life. The ruthlessly competitive Carnegie, the imperial Rockefeller, and the provocateur Gould were obsessed with progress, experiment, and speed. They were balanced by Morgan, the gentleman businessman, who fought, instead, for a global trust in American business. Through their antagonism and their verve, they built an industrial behemoth--and a country of middle-class consumers. "The Tycoons" tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined only a few decades earlier.

The Church and the Market is a vigorous and lively defense of the market economy and a withering attack on all forms of state intervention. It covers labor unions, monopoly, money and banking, business cycles, interest, usury, and much more. Although it makes a particular point of noting the moral arguments of the market economy and that Catholics are of course perfectly at liberty to support it, its audience is much broader than Catholics alone. Readers of all religious traditions and none at all have praised The Church and the Market, first-place winner in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards, as one of the most compelling and persuasive defenses of capitalism against its critics ever written.

The legal, regulatory and ethical frameworks guiding governance decisions are highly politicised and subject to intense debate. This book discusses governance theory in relation to corporations, universities and markets. Confronting the challenges of governing these three core areas, Alexander Styhre explores the connections between governance and the production of economic value, shareholder value and economic equality. An in-depth overview of recent governance literature in management studies, economics, legal theory and economic sociology, exposes how governance theory affects securities markets, commodities trade, university ranking and credit scoring cases. The author examines how changes in competitive capitalism and the wider social organization of society are recursively both determined by, and actively shaping the underlying governance ideals and practices. Identifying the difficulties involved in balancing freedom and control in governance policy, he highlights the key concerns confronting governments, regulatory agencies and transnational agencies: how to ensure the efficient use of economic resources to avoid economic inequality without undermining the legitimacy of the current market-based economic model. Essential reading for academics and graduates in management and the social sciences, as well as policy makers and management consultants, The Unfinished Business of Governance gives exceptional insight into the challenges facing governance within free markets.