This book collects selected articles addressing several currently debated issues in the field of international macroeconomics. They focus on the role of the central banks in the debate on how to come to terms with the long-term decline in productivity growth, insufficient aggregate demand, high economic uncertainty and growing inequalities following the global financial crisis. Central banks are of considerable importance in this debate since understanding the sluggishness of the recovery process as well as its implications for the natural interest rate are key to assessing output gaps and the monetary policy stance. The authors argue that a more dynamic domestic and external aggregate demand helps to raise the inflation rate, easing the constraint deriving from the zero lower bound and allowing monetary policy to depart from its current ultra-accommodative position. Beyond macroeconomic factors, the book also discusses a supportive financial environment as a precondition for the rebound of global economic activity, stressing that understanding capital flows is a prerequisite for economic-policy decisions.

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest econometric methods for studying the dynamics of macroeconomic and financial time series. It examines alternative methodological approaches and concepts, including quantile spectra and co-spectra, and explores topics such as non-linear and non-stationary behavior, stochastic volatility models, and the econometrics of commodity markets and globalization. Furthermore, it demonstrates the application of recent techniques in various fields: in the frequency domain, in the analysis of persistent dynamics, in the estimation of state space models and new classes of volatility models. The book is divided into two parts: The first part applies econometrics to the field of macroeconomics, discussing trend/cycle decomposition, growth analysis, monetary policy and international trade. The second part applies econometrics to a wide range of topics in financial economics, including price dynamics in equity, commodity and foreign exchange markets and portfolio analysis. The book is essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners in government and financial institutions interested in applying recent econometric time series methods to financial and economic data.

This book addresses contemporary empirical issues in Islamic stock markets including volatility, efficiency and Sukuk defaults. The studies contained within this book consider a combination of pure Islamic stock markets and comparative studies, with reference to their conventional counterparts. The authors provide up-to-date, robust, accurate, reliable empirical enquiries addressing current issues of stock markets as well as providing up to date information and statistics to support future development and research. The book also covers a chapter on the current trends in research in Islamic capital markets, which analyses some recent and leading works to highlight and indicate the gaps in research that require further exploration. This book will be of value to all those who wish to gain a more thorough understanding of research in Islamic capital markets and the major topics in the field.

The clarity and guidance valuation analysts have been thirsting for The business appraisal community regularly names the valuation of pass-through entities as a major issue of concern. Courts, appraisers, and the IRS have long been at odds on the topic, and the contention within the appraisal community itself over methods and inputs further complicates the issue. Valuing Pass-Through Entities provides clarity for the analyst tasked with valuation, offering clear explanations of the different perspectives and approaches to the process. Valuing Pass-Through Entities cuts through the chatter to: * Explain the advantages and limitations of different types of pass-through entities * Analyze the different viewpoints currently dividing the appraisal community * Gain a fresh perspective on landmark cases * Explain how to properly utilize a court-tested model * Examine detailed sensitivity analyses of different inputs under the income and market approaches The book includes illustrative examples, templates, and a useful technical supplement, plus case studies that demonstrate the real-world effects of various pass-through entity valuation methods and inputs. Detailed analyses and an easy-to-apply model simplify the process while positively affecting outcomes. The companion website provides the text of landmark court decisions, a blog featuring industry trends and tidbits, additional articles, and the insight of the author and other industry leaders. Valuation requires the successful juggling of multiple variables, many of which can have a major impact on value. Analysts need to know how to balance each factor and apply the appropriate rates and discounts, but a lack of standard practice often leaves the issue too subjective. Valuing Pass-Through Entities clears the air, providing real-world guidelines and tools.

The Black Scholes option pricing model is the first and by far the best-known continuous-time mathematical model used in mathematical finance. Here, it provides a sufficiently complex, yet tractable, testbed for exploring the basic methodology of option pricing. The discussion of extended markets, the careful attention paid to the requirements for admissible trading strategies, the development of pricing formulae for many widely traded instruments and the additional complications offered by multi-stock models will appeal to a wide class of instructors. Students, practitioners and researchers alike will benefit from the book's rigorous, but unfussy, approach to technical issues. It highlights potential pitfalls, gives clear motivation for results and techniques and includes carefully chosen examples and exercises, all of which make it suitable for self-study.

This book focuses specifically on the key results in stochastic processes that have become essential for finance practitioners to understand. The authors study the Wiener process and Ito integrals in some detail, with a focus on results needed for the Black-Scholes option pricing model. After developing the required martingale properties of this process, the construction of the integral and the Ito formula (proved in detail) become the centrepiece, both for theory and applications, and to provide concrete examples of stochastic differential equations used in finance. Finally, proofs of the existence, uniqueness and the Markov property of solutions of (general) stochastic equations complete the book. Using careful exposition and detailed proofs, this book is a far more accessible introduction to Ito calculus than most texts. Students, practitioners and researchers will benefit from its rigorous, but unfussy, approach to technical issues. Solutions to the exercises are available online.

Driven by concrete computational problems in quantitative finance, this book provides aspiring quant developers with the numerical techniques and programming skills they need. The authors start from scratch, so the reader does not need any previous experience of C++. Beginning with straightforward option pricing on binomial trees, the book gradually progresses towards more advanced topics, including nonlinear solvers, Monte Carlo techniques for path-dependent derivative securities, finite difference methods for partial differential equations, and American option pricing by solving a linear complementarity problem. Further material, including solutions to all exercises and C++ code, is available online. The book is ideal preparation for work as an entry-level quant programmer and it gives readers the confidence to progress to more advanced skill sets involving C++ design patterns as applied in finance.

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.

Money is a promise with future benefits or dangers that are unknowable and incalculable. The financial sector is an attempt to beat uncertainty by speculating on whether prices will rise or fall. No matter how often the folly of this opportunism is shown through crisis after crisis of trust, efforts to defeat uncertainty persist. Yet uncertainty is unavoidable. Squeezed in one place, it emerges in another. Based on extensive interviews with leading actors in the financial sector, this book argues that the only way to cope with uncertainty is by relying on emotions and values. It presents an original explanation of how booms and busts arise from internal disputes over the emotions of trust between global financial corporations. Confidence and suspicion alternate between which strategy may beat competitors and who is cheating whom. Just as the first edition warned of continuing dangers in finance s betrayal of society s trust, this new edition provides a sociological explanation of how these irrational quests for certainty contributed to the current financial crisis in the credibility of money.

Students in various disciplines-from law and government to business and health policy-need to understand several quantitative aspects of finance (such as the capital asset pricing model or financial options) and policy analysis (e.g., assessing the weight of probabilistic evidence) but often have little quantitative background. This book illustrates those phenomena and explains how to illustrate them using the powerful visuals that computing can produce. Of particular interest to graduate students and scholars in need of sharper quantitative methods, this book introduces the reader to Mathematica, enables readers to use Mathematica to produce their own illustrations, and places specific emphasis on finance and policy as well as the foundations of probability theory.

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.

The book is a contemporary compilation of important research in the area of microfinance and financial inclusion. It explores a plurality of views and experiences from different parts of the world while linking a variety of international research backgrounds. Accordingly the book will fill a gap in providing a carefully curated cross-sectorial selection of topics relevant to the development finance research community primarily but also industry practitioners who are interested in keeping abreast of developing research. Benefits in this regard also include being able to provide a platform to less established researchers offering them a voice in published form.

Essentials of Time Series for Financial Applications serves as an agile reference for upper level students and practitioners who desire a formal, easy-to-follow introduction to the most important time series methods applied in financial applications (pricing, asset management, quant strategies, and risk management). Real-life data and examples developed with EViews illustrate the links between the formal apparatus and the applications. The examples either directly exploit the tools that EViews makes available or use programs that by employing EViews implement specific topics or techniques. The book balances a formal framework with as few proofs as possible against many examples that support its central ideas. Boxes are used throughout to remind readers of technical aspects and definitions and to present examples in a compact fashion, with full details (workout files) available in an on-line appendix. The more advanced chapters provide discussion sections that refer to more advanced textbooks or detailed proofs.

This book is the second of the two volumes featuring selected articles from the 14th Eurasia Business and Economics conference held in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2014. Peer-reviewed articles in this second volume present latest research findings and breakthroughs in the areas of General Management, Human Resource Management, Marketing, SMEs, and Entrepreneurship. The contributors are both distinguished and young scholars from different parts of the World.

Japan's current shift from a manufacturing to a consumer economy is creating unprecedented opportunities for any company with the savvy to exploit this, the world's second largest market. Certainly, as the Japanese economy continues to rebound, more and more companies will continue to stake and build their presence there and use it as a springboard to enter other growing Asian markets. In Leveraging Japan, three leading authorities on market strategy and Japan present the new rules of Japanese marketing and discuss the evolution of other emerging Asian markets. These experts then share the same strategies that they've used to help American Express, Avon, Levi Strauss, and KFC, among other multinational companies, successfully establish a presence in Japan and leverage that presence to enter other Asian markets.
To read the first chapter from this book, click here.

Industry luminary Robert Pozen offers his insights on the future of U.S. finance

The recent credit crisis and the resulting bailout program are unprecedented events in the financial industry. While it's important to understand what got us here, it's even more important to consider how we should get out. While there is little question that immediate action was required to stabilize the situation, it is now time to look for a long-term plan to reform the United States financial industry.

That is where Bob Pozen comes in. Perhaps more than anyone in the industry, Pozen commands the respect and attention of the public and private sector. In this timely guide, he outlines his vision for the new financial future and provides actionable advice along the way. To Pozen, there are four high-priority problems that must be addressed, and this book puts them in perspective
Analyzes alternative models for government stakes in banksRecommends a new board structure for large financial institutionsExamines the importance of broader Fed jurisdiction over systemic risksProposes a way to revive the securitization of loans

With "Too Big to Save," you'll learn the likely future of the finance industry and understand why changes have to be made.

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies, open banking, virtual assets, and artificial intelligence have become the buzzword of this decade. This book focuses on these 'disruptive' financial technologies that provide alternatives to the traditional financial services typically offered by regulated financial institutions. Financial technologies are characterized by the innovative ways in which they initiate, support or extend traditional financial services or offer alternative financial pathways and products. However, these financial technologies also pose money laundering and terrorist and proliferation financing as well as cyber security risks that require mitigation. This edited volume addresses a range of regulatory and enforcement challenges related to financial technology and financial crime. The book responds to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, in particular in relation to economic development, employment, national security, law enforcement and social well-being. Fostering responsible financial innovation promotes long-term economic growth, inclusion, and improved living standards. This book explores how to promote financial innovation while mitigating risks in a way that ensures financial prosperity and social inclusion.

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.

Since the 1960s, scholars and other commentators have frequently announced the imminent decline of American financial power: excessive speculation and debt are believed to have undermined the long-term basis of a stable U.S.-led financial order. But the American financial system has repeatedly shown itself to be more resilient than such assessments suggest. This book argues that there is considerable coherence to American finance: far from being a house of cards, it is a proper edifice, built on institutional foundations with points of both strength and weakness. The book examines these foundations through a historical account of their construction: it shows how institutional transformations in the late nineteenth century created a distinctive infrastructure of financial relations and proceeds to trace the contradiction-ridden expansion of this system during the twentieth century as well as its institutional consolidation during the neoliberal era. It concludes with a discussion of the forces of instability that hit at the start of the twenty-first century.

In "Understanding Islamic Finance" Muhammad Ayub introduces all the essential elements of this growing market by providing an in-depth background to the subject and clear descriptions of all the major products and processes associated with Islamic finance.

Key features include: Discussion of the principles of Islamic finance; Introduction to the key products and procedures that International Financial Institutions are using or may adopt to fund a variety of clients ensuring Sharīah compliance; Discussion of the role Islamic finance can play in the development of the financial system and of economies; Practical and operational examples that cover deposit and fund management by banks involving financing of various sectors of the economy, risk management, accounting treatment, and working of Islamic financial markets and instruments.

This book is not only an important text for all banks and financial institutions entering this particular market with a commitment to building Islamic financial solutions, but is also essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Islamic finance.

Financial economics is a fascinating topic where ideas from economics, mathematics and, most recently, psychology are combined to understand financial markets. This book gives a concise introduction into this field and includes for the first time recent results from behavioral finance that help to understand many puzzles in traditional finance. The book is tailor made for master and PhD students and includes tests and exercises that enable the students to keep track of their progress. Parts of the book can also be used on a bachelor level. Researchers will find it particularly useful as a source for recent results in behavioral finance and decision theory.

With globalisation comes an increase in the threat from systemic risk. As national economies become more globally entwined many argue that insufficient attention is being given to systemic risk; a principal contributor to recent economic crises. Focusing on the Polish financial system, this book addresses this critical issue within a global economic context. It advocates that accurate risk management practices and appropriate micro and macroeconomic policies can be created and maintained in order to manage systemic risk at both a national and international level. The book reviews current systemic risk management practices, analysing stability and existing micro- and macroprudential policies, before examining the current risks involved in investing in financial instruments and those associated with investing in stock exchanges. It offers suggestions for the effective implementation of a well-designed public policy, through well managed fiscal and monetary policies, and reflects the roles of households and companies in planning, organizing, and controlling socio-economic activity to control risk. Risk Management in the Polish Financial System aims to redefine the taxonomy of systemic risk, offering practical and regulatory socio-economic processes which can be applied to current risk management practices, as well as provide a risk map for the years to come.

This book challenges the notion that economic crises are modern phenomena through its exploration of the tumultuous 'credit-crunch' of the later Middle Ages. It illustrates clearly how influences such as the Black Death, inter-European warfare, climate change and a bullion famine occasioned severe and prolonged economic decline across fifteenth century England. Early chapters discuss trends in lending and borrowing, and the use of credit to fund domestic trade through detailed analysis of the Statute Staple and rich primary sources. The author then adopts a broad-based geographic lens to examine provincial credit before focusing on London's development as the commercial powerhouse in late medieval business. Academics and students of modern economic change and historic financial revolutions alike will see that the years from 1353 to 1532 encompassed immense upheaval and change, reminiscent of modern recessions. The author carefully guides the reader to see that these shifts are the precursors of economic change in the early modern period, laying the foundations for the financial world as we know it today.

This book explores the methodological foundation of Islamic thought premised on the cardinal principle of Tawhid, meaning the Oneness of God as the universal law. The consequential methodological worldview arising from the monotheistic unity of knowledge is explained as the theory of consilience, meaning unity of knowledge as the primal ontological reality leading to its epistemological and phenomenological essentials of reasoning and thereby configuring reality. Masudul Alam Choudhury presents a non-mathematical exposition of the theory and applications of Meta-Science of Tawhid, and brings out the essential monotheistic methodological worldview of science.