The book offers insights into the scholarly debates on formal and informal finance in rural China and fills a gap in existing literature. The book provides an overview of the overall development of rural finance in China and explains the necessity of embarking on the pathway toward rural financial pluralization through "Local Knowledge Paradigm". The authors also analyze formal and informal financial development, and inclusive finance (including digital inclusive finance) in rural China in various dimensions. This book aids the understanding of the structure of the rural financial system and the operations of rural financial service providers in China. It will be a useful reference for those researching on and interested in informal economy and rural development.

When you're finished, make sure you have something to show for your efforts.

In Work Toward Reward, Chia-Li Chien, Succession Strategist at Value Growth Institute and award-winning author of "Show Me the Money," presents the results of her Business Value Drivers Study. This two-year study reveals challenges business owners face and the Mission Critical Activities crucial to building a business in value.

Chia-Li invited business owners to participate in the study, answering questions such as: $ Why are you in business? $ What have you created from your business (job, lifestyle, 3x to 5x value)? $ What gets you going in the morning? $ What keeps you up at night? $ What are the most common problems in your industry?

Using examples of business owners she interviewed in the study, she illustrates the successes and challenges of their businesses to inspire and motivate us to focus on value creation through Mission Critical Activities-and how those activities can transform not only a business, but communities and even our world as well.

Work Toward Reward helps you start building your business in value, and when you are ready, cash out with the reward you deserve after the risks you've taken and the years you've spent

(In praise of "Show Me the Money") "With empowering advice for understanding true business value, attaining financial independence and knowing when to quit. "Show Me the Money" is a fine guide to making a profit."

John Burroughs, Midwest Book Review, Oregon, WI

Using real-life examples from the banking and insurance industries, Quantitative Operational Risk Models details how internal data can be improved based on external information of various kinds. Using a simple and intuitive methodology based on classical transformation methods, the book includes real-life examples of the combination of internal data and external information. A guideline for practitioners, the book begins with the basics of managing operational risk data to more sophisticated and recent tools needed to quantify the capital requirements imposed by operational risk. The book then covers statistical theory prerequisites, and explains how to implement the new density estimation methods for analyzing the loss distribution in operational risk for banks and insurance companies. In addition, it provides: Simple, intuitive, and general methods to improve on internal operational risk assessment Univariate event loss severity distributions analyzed using semiparametric models Methods for the introduction of underreporting information A practical method to combine internal and external operational risk data, including guided examples in SAS and R Measuring operational risk requires the knowledge of the quantitative tools and the comprehension of insurance activities in a very broad sense, both technical and commercial. Presenting a nonparametric approach to modeling operational risk data, Quantitative Operational Risk Models offers a practical perspective that combines statistical analysis and management orientations.

This Palgrave Pivot reviews the history of the UK's Retail Prices Index (RPI) from its origins just after the Second World War to its controversial position today. Both the developments in the methodology of the index and the political and social context in which its development took place are closely examined. The authors explain how the RPI went from being the dominant measure of inflation for decades to its current position as an officially discredited index. Despite this status, it is still widely used and attracts much support from a range of stakeholders, including several areas of government. Important reading for anyone interested in both sides of the argument for and against RPI and the likely way forward for the measurement of inflation.

The authors present a comprehensive and timely discussion of economic capital and financial risk management for financial services firms and conglomerates.
Topics covered include:
*the different types of risks that firms collect;
*risk governance issues;
*how stress testing can be used to measure risk;
*the provision of a clear and precise definition of economic capital;
*the different types of capital that are eligible to back regulatory capital, and;
*the development of models that can be used to estimate a firms economic capital requirements.
A unique feature of the book is that, for the first time, the economic capital requirements of financial services firms across the entire risk spectrum, from the short end to the long end, are considered in one book. The authors develop models to estimate the economic capital requirements of banks, asset management firms, life and non-life insurance firms, pension funds, and the financial services conglomerates that comprise these firms.
Economic capital is compared to regulatory capital and regulatory capital arbitrage is discussed. The diversification benefit present in financial services conglomerates is quantified and the practical management of this diversification benefit is dealt with. The authors give new insights into capital management and performance measurement for financial services conglomerates and provide detailed descriptions of the main financial services firm regulatory capital changes that are ongoing at the time of writing.
This superb and original book charts new ground in the practical application of economic capital for financial services firms and conglomerates. It is requiredreading for all capital allocation and risk professionals.

The financial stress of 2008 propelled the world into the most severe recession since the great depression. Despite the significant risk that it poses to the real economy, the complex interaction between financial stress and economic performance is not well understood due to the crucial gaps that remain in our understanding of this critical and dynamic relationship. Dynamics of Financial Stress and Economic Performance: Insights and Analysis from the World Economy attempts to understand the complex non-linear dynamics between financial system stress and economic performance on a global level. An analytical approach is taken to examine twelve major countries, and provide a detailed understanding of the crucial financial and economic issues faced in light of financial stress; including interest rate bottoms, inflation asymmetries, financial health of households, money supply bubbles, fiscal issues, trade dynamics, over leveraging of the financial markets, behaviour of housing prices, debt problems, potential for economic growth, or a complex combination of any of the above. This book will appeal to practitioners, students and researchers in fields such as financial economics, risk management and quantitative finance who wish to expand their knowledge of these crucial and complex dynamics. It is also an appealing read for those who are generally curious about business, banking, financial markets and macro-economic issues occurring on both an individual country and global level.

This book analyzes the set of forces driving the global financial system toward a period of radical transformation and explores the transformational challenges that lie ahead for global and regional or local banks and other financial intermediaries. It is explained how these challenges derive from the newly emerging post-crisis structure of the market and from shadow and digital players across all banking operations. Detailed attention is focused on the impacts of digitalization on the main functions of the financial system, and particularly the banking sector. The author elaborates how an alternative model of banking will enable banks to predict, understand, navigate, and change the external ecosystem in which they compete. The five critical components of this model are data and information mastering; effective use of applied analytics; interconnectivity and "junction playing"; development of new business solutions; and trust and credibility assurance. The analysis is supported by a number of informative case studies. The book will be of interest especially to top and middle managers and employees of banks and financial institutions but also to FinTech players and their advisers and others.

An informative primer on the new landscape of leading prime brokers

Before the recent financial crisis, both regulators and market participants disregarded the complex and dangerous nature of the relationship between prime brokers (the banks) and their clients (the funds). In "When Prime Brokers Fail, " J. S. Aikman examines the convoluted structure of this relationship, the main participants, and the impact of the near collapse of prime brokerages on the financial world.

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, "When Prime Brokers Fail" takes a close look at the unheeded risks of prime finance and lays out the steps required for managers to protect their funds and bankers to protect their brokerages.Examines the challenges, trends, and risks within the prime brokerage spaceDiscusses the structural adjustments firms will need to make to avoid similar disastersAnalyzes the complex relationship between hedge funds and their brokerages and the risks that multiply in extraordinary marketsCovers new ways to manage an inherently risky business and the regulations that may soon be introduced into this arena

Engaging and informative, this timely book details the intricacies and interdependencies of prime brokerages and the role that these operations play in our increasingly dynamic financial system.

This book summarizes recent Chinese discussions about Internet finance-a new financial business type resulting from an innovative thinking under the new normal-in the light of the actual situation of China in transformation, especially the thirst of the grass-roots economy including medium-small and micro-sized enterprises as well as residents for financial services. The Internet finance is of great significance for optimizing and upgrading the industrial structure, improving the demand structure and reshaping the economic growth mode in China. This book will interest scholars, journalists, and businesspeople.

The progression of risk management techniques provides the crucial applications and benefits to all of society. By analyzing the current trends and techniques used to assess and mitigate risks, safer processes can be used for all professional fields, as well as society as a whole. Novel Six Sigma Approaches to Risk Assessment and Management is a vital scholarly resource that provides an in-depth examination on innovative Six Sigma methods for risk mitigation initiatives. Featuring an array of relevant topics such as project management, production scheduling, information systems security, and agricultural planning, this is an ideal reference book for professionals, academicians, students, and researchers interested in detailed research on recent advancements in the management of risk in all fields.

Pricing or benchmarking is a process of evaluating the performance of a financial company's products and services or systems, against other businesses, considered to be at the top of their field, by applying a measurement of "best in performance." This book includes contributions from the leading global experts in the field who tackle topics such as whether the Islamic financial system has been dependent on the LIBOR / EURIBOR in its benchmarking exercises to date, and thus, whether it will be affected negatively by the predicted non-existence of the LIBOR / EURIBOR from 2021 onwards. They also address the question of whether the Islamic financial system requires benchmarking of its products and services and consider the emergence of Shari ah-justified benchmarking in today's Islamic financial system. Additionally, they look at how benchmarking formulas should be adapted to ensure the satisfaction of customers within the principles of Maqasid al-Shari ah. It takes a legal and institutional approach to the subject, which readers will find particularly valuable, as there are various forms of Islamic finance institutions that do not conform to established models in the finance industry. Furthermore, there are emerging business models that will benefit from this line of investigation. This book offers a timely analysis of these issues and redresses the existing misconceptions and misinterpretations pertaining to benchmarking, in an Islamic finance context, and, as such, provides guidance and strategies for future directions. It will appeal to researchers of Islamic banking, finance, and insurance, as well as, practitioners, particularly standard setting bodies, regulators, and policy makers.

This contributed volume provides academic insights into the digital financial world. It illustrates the state-of-the-art research on financial technology and innovation with special focus on the impact in society. Technologies are not only door openers for the digital world, but they are also key drivers of change. These key drivers of digitalization, accelerating the pace, are literally forcing individuals to adapt. The authors discuss these dynamics and reflect on society's adaptability. The first part of the book focuses on cryptocurrencies as disruptive technology. It discusses the status quo, future trends and legal frameworks for virtual money. The second part of the book sheds light on value creation in a digitalized world. The authors discuss digital platforms and economic networks and the impact of digital dominance.

Wealth inequality has been not only rising at unsustainable pace but also dissociated from income inequality because of the fact that wealth is increasing without concomitant increase in savings and productive capital. Compelling evidence indicates that capital gains and other economic rents are mainly responsible for wealth inequality and its divergence from income inequality. The main argument of the book is that interest-based debt contracts are one of the drivers of wealth inequality through creating disproportional economic rents for the asset-rich. The book also introduces the idea of risk-sharing asset-based redistribution, which is a novel and viable policy proposal, as an effective redistribution tool to address the wealth inequality problem. Furthermore, a large-scale stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model, which is step by step constructed in the book, sheds light on the formation of wealth inequality in a debt-based economy and on the prospective benefits of implementing risk-sharing asset-based redistribution policy tools compared to traditional redistribution policy options. The research presented in this book is novel in many respects and first of its kind in the Islamic economics and finance literature.

This book is in honor of Yasuhiko Takahara, a first-class researcher who has been active for some 50 years at the global level in systems research. Researchers and practitioners from Japan and other countries who have been influenced by Takahara have come together from far and wide to contribute their major research masterpieces in the field of systems research in the broadest sense. While the roots of Takahara's systems research are in general systems theory and systems control theory, he developed his research and teaching in diverse directions such as management information science, engineering, social simulation, and systems thinking. As a result, many of the researchers and practitioners he supervised or influenced have established their own positions and are now active around the world in a wide range of systems research. Volume I is a collection of their masterpieces or representative works in the field of systems theory and modeling.

This volume presents the proceedings of the ZAFIN Finance and Sustainability conference, organized by the Wroclaw University of Economics in cooperation with Corvinus University of Budapest and the University of Economics in Prague. The contributing authors analyze a variety of issues concerning recent finance problems, including corporate finance, public finance, monetary and fiscal policy issues, and risk management. The book also addresses topics connected to sustainable finance, the transition to green economies, corporate sustainability and sustainable development. The target audience for this book includes researchers at universities and research and policy institutions, graduate students, and practitioners in economics and finance working for private or government institutions.

This book revolves around the concept of financial risk tolerance and its role in financial markets. Bridging different literatures and reviewing in detail the impact of European regulation on the evolution of risk tolerance assessment, this book discusses the intersection of scholarly research, practitioner experience and current and likely normative developments. In particular, the book focuses on the evolution of the debate on the suitability questionnaire - a key tool introduced with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and further developed with MiFID's successor - comparing it with empirical evidence on financial risk tolerance determinants, spanning from sociodemographic to behavioral components and life events. The book also looks at the future evolution of the normative framework post MiFID2 addressing in detail two key trends that are already affecting the way in which risk tolerance is dealt with in European financial markets - sustainable development and fintech and roboadvisory. The book includes an original survey run with financial market experts to assess the perceptions regarding these two trends and includes commentaries by a professional financial advisor on the key topics discussed.

This book builds on research in translation studies of change in organizations and demonstrates the implications and application of these findings for managing innovation and change. When implementing ideas into practice in order to carry out innovative change, translation is key. From strategic and leadership changes to policy and health management decisions, abstract ideas such as 'LEAN', 'CSR', 'Sustainability', 'Public-Private Partnerships', 'Clinical Pathways' and 'AI' are introduced to improve organizational processes. However, in any company and organization, miscommunication and misinterpretation can lead to these ideas being modified, added to and appropriated in ways that make them unsuccessful. This book presents a case for change ideas in organizations being translated rather than "implemented" and offers a profound understanding of the translation processes needed in order for this to succeed. This vital study is a must-read for researchers, students and practitioners including change agents, general and health care managers, public servants as well as strategic managers and policy decision-makers.

Following the British referendum held on June 23, 2016, voters supported the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (EU) (Brexit), a starting point for the third round of European crisis, following the eurozone debt crisis and the migration crisis. This volume provides an overview of the process and consequences of Brexit for EU member states, with an emphasis on possible future EU-UK relations, and a particular focus on countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The authors assess the extent to which firms in CEE states have already put in place strategies to counter the new economic reality post-Brexit and identify the strategies that firms are exploiting to better cope with the anticipated implications of Brexit. The book includes a ranking of countries most and least likely to be affected by Brexit; identification of the main determinants of the expansion of companies on the British market and the creation of a typology of strategies used by these companies in the face of Brexit. The book stands out as a complex and multidimensional research work that draws its roots from distinct yet simultaneously interlinked research areas. It will find a broad audience among academics and students across diverse fields of study, as well as practitioners and policy makers. It is a key reference for all those who want to better understand the complex nature of Brexit and its implications, not only for EU member states but, first and foremost, the business environment.

Antitrust economics is a field that draws extensively on the economic theory of industrial organization, and the field's frontier is at the cutting edge of economic research. This book bridges the gap between introductory texts and advanced research volumes by presenting select themes in antitrust economics and modeling. All from a neoclassical perspective, the author begins by discussing classic monopoly, continues to add more markets to the mix-via spillover effects and horizontal/vertical mergers-and then explores logical ties to international trade and regulated industries. While brief and selective, the method provides a basic analytical reference point for approaching special antitrust topics not covered here, such as tying, bundling, and exclusive dealing. Such analytics are sometimes likened to a rational defense of monopoly and related anti-competitive behavior, but are essential to explicating antitrust economics from a mainstream Western economic vantage.

This reference work provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the legal status of swap agreements and swap-based products under US, UK and international and EC law, covering such wide-ranging fields as contract law, banking and financial regulation, taxation and accounting. The author thoroughly analyzes the economic substance and economic rationale of swap transactions, which increasingly present the most important determining factors in resolving the complex legal issues concerning swaps and engineered swap structures. Swaps are examined in the context of their broader transactional structure, highlighting the need for legal solutions to be economically efficient. The original nature of this work, together with its comprehensive coverage of this highly technical subject, makes it suitable for both academic lawyers and practitioners active in the field of swap finance.

Financial Technology (Fintech) has revolutionized the financial world as one of the fastest-growing segments in both the technology and financial sectors. With the usage of underlying principles of Blockchain technology, Fintech is bringing the financial community together and making financial services accessible to everyone. Fintech has far-reaching implications for Islamic finance such as banking, investment, insurance (takaful) and wealth management, which are benefitting from this usage. This book provides a comprehensive review of how Fintech is shaping the Islamic finance industry through three key aspects: Digitalization, Development and Disruption. The book will provide insight on the Shariahtech (Fintech in line with Shariah principle) and its application in the Islamic finance industry. The book also gives an overview of Blockchain and Fintech evolution and how they act as the building blocks of the digital financial landscape. Readers of the book will also get a detailed discernment on the Islamic viewpoint on cryptocurrency as well as the application of the smart contract in different Islamic financial services. The book provides students, academics and researchers with a detailed description of the Blockchain and Fintech application in Islamic finance.