The goal of the volume is to provide some background on the various financial market segments of the Asian Pacific region. An understanding of institutional detail (size and scope) of the relevant markets affords a view that lends or detracts from the credibility of intermarket comparisons. An exposure and understanding of institutional detail supplies information that may bear on the statistical results of the empirical analysis. The vital roles played bycapital markets of pricing capital, issuing new shares, providing a liquidity-creating secondary feature, serving as a vehicle for asset transfer, and providing a linkage to international capital markets are as important to emerging markets as to developed countries.

This second edition - completely up to date with new exercises - provides a comprehensive and self-contained treatment of the probabilistic theory behind the risk-neutral valuation principle and its application to the pricing and hedging of financial derivatives. On the probabilistic side, both discrete- and continuous-time stochastic processes are treated, with special emphasis on martingale theory, stochastic integration and change-of-measure techniques. Based on firm probabilistic foundations, general properties of discrete- and continuous-time financial market models are discussed.

Financial reforms in the former command economies of Central and Eastern Europe have given birth to institutions that further the links between these economies and the world economy. This book studies in a comparative framework financial developments in Central and Eastern Europe and highlights aspects that are unique to these developments.The book begins with country profiles of Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and FR Yugoslavia. The transition process in eleven countries is tracked by means of a review of the role of monetary policy in macroeconomic stabilization, the characteristics of the banking systems, the transfer of corporate ownership through privatization schemes, the dynamics of exchange-related trading, and the role of international funding. The book turns then to an in-depth analysis of specific issues including central bank independence, the design of promotional banks, privatization processes, the efficiency of emerging capital markets, financial risk, and foreign debt settlement. The book will appeal especially to policymakers interested in the evolution and operation of financial institutions in transitional economies, and to academics and researchers who are keen to learn more about the economics of transition, financial and monetary economics, and comparative economic systems.

This book and the underlying research address the questions: "How successful are U.S. retirees at sustaining assets from retirement to death?" and "What retirement strategies will enhance their ability to live a successful retirement?" Taking a hard look at real-world retirement statistics from multiple government surveys to answer those questions, it calculates the effects of specific strategies on retirement sustainability. It also discusses the background to prior retirement planning research and describes the three research groups used: 1) determining the success rates of the base population considering only social capital annual income and distributions from portfolios of financial assets, 2) adding the strategy of home equity conversion mortgages, and 3) increasing annual income through delayed social security benefit claiming and continuing work after retirement. The book then examines and compares the results for each to determine whose retirement will be most enhanced by the strategies. Lastly, it presents case studies applying research to real-world financial planning cases.

How did the US financial crisis snowball into USD 15 trillion global losses? This book offers a clear synthesis and original analysis of the various factors that led to the financial crisis of 2007-2010 - namely, an asset price bubble and excessive leverage. The focus is on the ingredients of and dynamics within the international financial system, and as such is the most comprehensive publication in scope to date in terms of market, country and instrument coverage. In addition to its thorough dissection of the causes and consequences of the most calamitous financial crisis in the past seventy years, the author also debates 'the way forward', including regulatory challenges, proposed changes and critique, and early warning systems

'Why the Economists Got It Wrong' illustrates the origins and development of the financial crisis, tracing its cultural origins in mainstream views which favoured financial liberalization policies. These views are contrasted with those of Keynes and Keynesian economists such as Minsky. Thus, among other things, Keynes's ideas on uncertainty and Minsky's ideas on financial fragility are taken up. The book points to an interpretation of economic events where uncertainty plays a central role, the dichotomy between real and monetary variables is rejected, and elements from the Classical approach are revived. This implies drastic changes in economic policy recipes, and particularly at economic policies aimed at building institutional and regulatory structures in order to counter financial fragility.

Drawing from many sources in the literature, Stochastic Dominance and Applications to Finance, Risk and Economics illustrates how stochastic dominance (SD) can be used as a method for risk assessment in decision making. It provides basic background on SD for various areas of applications. Useful Concepts and Techniques for Economics Applications The majority of the text presents a systematic exposition of SD, emphasizing rigor and generality. It covers utility theory, multivariate SD, quantile functions, risk modeling, Choquet integrals, other risk measures, statistical inference, nonparametric estimation, hypothesis testing, and econometrics. The remainder of the book explores new applications of SD in finance, risk, and economics. At the beginning of each economic concept, the authors clearly explain only the necessary mathematics so readers are not overburdened with learning nonessential, arduous mathematics. This accessible guide helps readers build a useful repertoire of mathematical tools in decision making under uncertainty, especially in investment science. It provides thorough coverage on the theory of SD, along with many applications to economics and other fields where risk is crucial.

Artificial intelligence is a consortium of data-driven methodologies which includes artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, probabilistic belief networks and machine learning as its components. We have witnessed a phenomenal impact of this data-driven consortium of methodologies in many areas of studies, the economic and financial fields being of no exception. In particular, this volume of collected works will give examples of its impact on the field of economics and finance. This volume is the result of the selection of high-quality papers presented at a special session entitled 'Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Economics and Finance' at the '2003 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence' (IC-AI '03) held at the Monte Carlo Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, June 23-26 2003. The special session, organised by Jane Binner, Graham Kendall and Shu-Heng Chen, was presented in order to draw attention to the tremendous diversity and richness of the applications of artificial intelligence to problems in Economics and Finance. This volume should appeal to economists interested in adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the study of economic problems, computer scientists who are looking for potential applications of artificial intelligence and practitioners who are looking for new perspectives on how to build models for everyday operations.

There are still many important Artificial Intelligence disciplines yet to be covered. Among them are the methodologies of independent component analysis, reinforcement learning, inductive logical programming, classifier systems and Bayesian networks, not to mention many ongoing and highly fascinating hybridsystems. A way to make up for their omission is to visit this subject again later. We certainly hope that we can do so in the near future with another volume of 'Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Economics and Finance'.

This book puts numerical methods in action for the purpose of solving practical problems in quantitative finance. The first part develops a toolkit in numerical methods for finance. The second part proposes twenty self-contained cases covering model simulation, asset pricing and hedging, risk management, statistical estimation and model calibration. Each case develops a detailed solution to a concrete problem arising in applied financial management and guides the user towards a computer implementation. The appendices contain "crash courses" in VBA and Matlab programming languages. A companion CD provides ready-to-run codes (VBA, MATLAB).

Nominal yields on government debt in several countries have fallen very near their zero lower bound (ZLB), causing a liquidity trap and limiting the capacity to stimulate economic growth. This book provides a comprehensive reference to ZLB structure modeling in an applied setting.

This book explores how the recent development of Muslim countries as a group has fallen far short of non-Muslim countries, which, some have concluded, may be a result of Islamic teachings. The authors examine Muslim countries over time, viewing their progression on the Islamicity scale. They assess why some countries have done better than others, and to derive useful policy recommendations to improve political, social, human, governance and economic performance.

Risk Quantification and Allocation Methods for Practitioners offers a practical approach to risk management in the financial industry. This in-depth study provides quantitative tools to better describe qualitative issues, as well as clear explanations of how to transform recent theoretical developments into computational practice, and key tools for dealing with the issues of risk measurement and capital allocation.

A total of eleven papers in this volume represent recent research on important topics in finance. The contributions include analyses of issues relating to asset prices, the behavior of stock returns, and capital-raising activities. Hodges, et al. employ stochastic dominance arguments to show that the efficiency of time diversification depends on the degree of autocorrelation in security returns. In their study of the announcement effects of ninety-three minority equity investments, Chan, et. al. find a neutral stock price response on average for acquiring firms but a significantly positive response for selling firms. Nguyen, et al. provide evidence on the returns structure of U.S. information technology stocks surrounding the bursting of the internet bubble in early 2000. In a study of the informational effects of auditor reputation, Godby and Mahar, Jr. find that implied volatilities for firms audited by Andersen have increased relative to those for firms audited by other Big Five firms. Charaput and Chang find that the usage of installment receipts enhances liquidity in Canadian secondary equity offerings.

The contributions to this volume also examine important issues in international finance and financial institutions. Brailsford, et al. use a VECM technique to examine Purchasing Power Parity and causality between the yen and the dollar. Sarmas studies the impact of Hong Kong's fixed exchange rate system and Singapore's floating exchange rate system on the correlation between the US and the two respective countries' stock markets. Povel develops a theoretical model to explain multiple banking as a commitment device. Baer, et al. develop a model and empirically examine how thecreation of a futures clearinghouse can reduce the need for margin in bilateral and multilateral settings. Roberts and Siddiqi provide an empirical analysis of the link between collateralization and the number of lenders in private debt contracts. Finally, Tripp et al. empirically examine the relative efficiency of single versus multiple common bond credit unions.

This book explores and analyses economic development within Islamic Moral Economy (IME), which is proposed as an alternative economic and social system to capitalism and socialism. It presents a new model of Islamic development based on the substantive morality of Islam via micro dynamics expressed through an Islamic framework of spiritual development. Shafiullah Jan and Mehmet Asutay argue that the observed development failures of Muslim countries to provide basic necessities and an environment free of oppression and injustice can be overcome with an authentic Islamic development framework and its corresponding value system explored in the book, rather than the existing Eurocentric theory and policy making. In addition, it identifies the theological, political, social and economic boundaries for changing society to produce IME oriented development. Utilising a novel approach to development in Islam, through its substantive ethical and moral framework, the authors critically examine and evaluate the progress of Islamic banking and finance institutions in relation to its aspirations as identified by IME. Advanced Islamic economics and finance scholars will find this a useful source as it explores the intersection between Islamic development and the moral economy. The book will also be a valuable reference for those seeking to align public policies with ethical and moral Islamic frameworks.

This book is a collection of 21 original papers on Latin American finance by prominent researchers in and out of the region. This is an attempt to bring them together under the same umbrella so that the commonality and peculiarity of Latin finance can be more easily discerned across different applications as well as compared across countries. While topics are diverse (encompassing corporate finance, banking, equity and bond markets, dollarization, and pension funds), the papers range from country-specific to comparative and international in perspectives.

As from 2012, the International Monetary Institution (IMI) of the Renmin University of China publishes annual reports on the internationalization of RMB. This series of annual reports create and publish the RMB Internationalization Index (RII). Besides, they focus on one topic in each year's report. This book focuses on the offshore RMB markets. It studies several major international currencies' historical developments to summarize theoretical implications between currency internationalization process and its offshore market development. It reviews the recent development of RMB offshore markets, identifies key opportunities and challenges, and proposes some suggestions to policy makers and market practitioners. The RII will continue to rise as the RMB plays a more and more important role in international trades and financial transactions. The establishment and development of RMB offshore markets will facilitate the internationalization process of the RMB.

Financial intermediaries supply derivatives to their customers when they can hedge the exposures from these transactions. A static hedge is typically employed by arranging an offsetting transaction with a different customer or a dynamic hedge by trading in the underlying derivatives. There is however a broad range of uncertain exposures where intermediaries tend not to offer derivatives or risk management products, as they are unable to hedge the resulting exposures. Baron and Lange suggest a parimutuel auction system adapted from the betting industry as a solution to this problem. They introduce the parimutuel mechanism and the modifications required to apply the mechanism to the capital markets. The PDCA auction and its mechanics are analyzed and finally the mathematics behind the system are described and illustrated. MARKET 1: Investment professionals; Portfolio Managers; Hedge Fund Managers; Financial Engineers; Corporate finance staff; Senior Managers; Risk Managers; Consultants; Trading and Sales Staff; Quantitative Analysts; Credit Analysts; Regulators MARKET 2: MBA courses

This book reflects the current state of discussion about agricultural and rural finance in developing and transition countries. It provides insight into specific themes, such as commodity value chains, farm banking and risk management in agricultural banking, structured finance, crop insurance, mobile banking and how to increase effectiveness in rural finance. Case studies illustrate various aspects of agricultural and rural finance in developing economies. The book is based on one of the yearly financial Sector Development Symposia held by the KfW Development Bank.

Since the publication of the first edition of this book, the area of mathematical finance has grown rapidly, with financial analysts using more sophisticated mathematical concepts, such as stochastic integration, to describe the behavior of markets and to derive computing methods. Maintaining the lucid style of its popular predecessor, Introduction to Stochastic Calculus Applied to Finance, Second Edition incorporates some of these new techniques and concepts to provide an accessible, up-to-date initiation to the field. New to the Second Edition Complements on discrete models, including Rogers' approach to the fundamental theorem of asset pricing and super-replication in incomplete markets Discussions on local volatility, Dupire's formula, the change of numeraire techniques, forward measures, and the forward Libor model A new chapter on credit risk modeling An extension of the chapter on simulation with numerical experiments that illustrate variance reduction techniques and hedging strategies Additional exercises and problems Providing all of the necessary stochastic calculus theory, the authors cover many key finance topics, including martingales, arbitrage, option pricing, American and European options, the Black-Scholes model, optimal hedging, and the computer simulation of financial models. They succeed in producing a solid introduction to stochastic approaches used in the financial world.

A Roadmap for Couple Therapy offers a comprehensive, flexible, and user-friendly template for conducting couple therapy. Grounded in an in-depth review of the clinical and research literature, and drawing on the author's 40-plus years of experience, it describes the three main approaches to conceptualizing couple distress and treatment-systemic, psychodynamic, and behavioral-and shows how they can be integrated into a model that draws on the best of each. Unlike multi-authored texts in which each chapter presents a distinct brand of couple therapy, this book simultaneously engages multiple viewpoints and synthesizes them into a coherent model. Covering fundamentals and advanced techniques, it speaks to both beginning therapists and experienced clinicians. Therapists will find A Roadmap for Couple Therapy an invaluable resource as they help distressed couples repair and revitalize their relationships.

Since 2007, the repeated financial crises around the world have brought to the headlines financial practices and models considered to fuel the economic instabilities. Deep Dive into Financial Models: Modeling Risk and Uncertainty comes handy in demystifying the underlying quantitative finance concepts. With a limited use of mathematical formalism, the book explains thoroughly the models, their hypotheses, principles and other building blocks. A particular care is given to model limitations and their misuse for investment strategies, asset pricing, or risk management. Its reader-friendly nature provides readers with a head start in quantitative finance.

In Essays on Capital and Interest, Israel Kirzner offers a consistently 'Austrian'perspective on the problems of capital and interest theory. In the three classic essays featured in this book, Professor Kirzner argues that an Austrian approach based on the pure time preference theory offers an attractive alternative to both the orthodox neoclassical and the heterodox Sraffian approaches to economics. The author takes a subjectivist point of view with all capital and interest phenomena traced to individual multi-period plans. Capital is seen, in this perspective, not as an objective mass of tools and equipment, but as the interim state in which inter-locking multi-period plans have manifested themselves at a particular point. This consistent subjectivism makes it possible to present the pure time (Fetter-Mises) preference theory of interest in understandable terms. Essays on Capital and Interest begins with an introduction by the author placing his life's work in the context of twentieth century economics and the decline and revival of the Austrian school. This volume makes Professor Kirzner's seminal work available to a wider audience in a major new edition. It will be welcomed by Austrian economists and all those concerned with capital and interest theory.

First Published in 1968. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

What distinguishes this book from other texts on mathematical finance is the use of both probabilistic and PDEs tools to price derivatives for both constant and stochastic volatility models, by which the reader has the advantage of computing explicitly a large number of prices for European, American and Asian derivatives.The book presents continuous time models for financial markets, starting from classical models such as Black-Scholes and evolving towards the most popular models today such as Heston and VAR.A key feature of the textbook is the large number of exercises, mostly solved, which are designed to help the reader to understand the material.The book is based on the author's lectures on topics on computational finance for senior and graduate students, delivered in USA (Princeton University and EMU), Taiwan and Kuwait. The prerequisites are an introductory course in stochastic calculus, as well as the usual calculus sequence.The book is addressed to undergraduate and graduate students in Masters of Finance programs as well as to those who wish to become more efficient in their practical applications.Topics covered: