David Ricardo, one of the major figures in the history of economic thought, particularly in the English classical political economy, deployed his activities as economist just two hundreds of years ago. Since then his economics has been generally estimated as the culminating point of the classical economics, and his name and theory has been exerting an enduring influence up to the present. This book, consisting of articles contributed by historians economic thought on money and finance, intends to reappraise the Ricardo's monetary and financial thought on the occasion of its bicentenary and to offer historical clues to understanding today's world wide financial crisis. The book consists of eight chapters divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to the historical back ground of Ricardo's thought (Hume, Smith, Thornton etc). It serves to bring in relief the originality of Ricardo's thought in the historical context. The second and central part consists of four chapters discussing the most important aspects of Ricardo's monetary thought: Ricardo and quantity theory of money, the ideal monetary regime conceived by Ricardo very early in his career and matured till the last moment of his life, plan for the establishment of a national bank. In this part, the relation between the quantity of money and its value in Ricardo's theory is examined in a new light and Ricardo as a non-quantity theorist. The two chapters in the third and last part discuss the problems raised after Ricardo in relation to his monetary thought. Tracing Ricardo's economic thought to the early 19th century, this book may provide readers insight to help them understand the present day financial crises through his works.

This book provides an overview of China's financial markets and their latest developments. The book explores and discusses the difficulties in building modern financial markets that are compatible with an increasingly complicated market economy and examines the various strategies to reform China's financial system. It covers a range of topics: China's financial structure, financial regulation, financial repression and liberalization, monetary policy and the People's Bank of China, banking reforms, exchange rate policy, capital control and capital-account liberalization, and development of the stock markets. The book provides a basic understanding of the current issues related to the development of China's financial markets. It enhances knowledge of China's regulatory framework which has helped to shape China's financial landscape. It provides specific, useful knowledge about investment in China, such as, market sense, to identify the investment opportunities in various asset classes.

Respected international experts such as Michael Bordo, Larry Sjaastad and Ken Clements are brought together in a wonderfully well researched new book on this most important of topics. This comprehensive, well-written book provides all you need to know about Gold and the Modern World Economy.

Financial inclusion through microfinance has become a powerful force in improving the living conditions of poor farmers, rural non-farm enterprises and other vulnerable groups. In its unique ability to link the existing extensive network of India s rural bank branches with the Self Help Groups (SHG), the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has covered up to 97 million poor households by March 2010 under its Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme. Policy-makers have proclaimed SHGs as the most potent initiative for delivering financial services to the poor in a sustainable manner."

This book presents a comprehensive scientific assessment of the impact of the Self Help Group Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP) on the member households. The book discusses wide-ranging topics, including the rural financial sector in India, the history and structure of the SBLP, the impact methodologies, the economic and social impact of microfinance, its role in building assets while reducing poverty and vulnerability, the role of women and their empowerment, training and accumulation of human capital and policy implications of lessons learned.

The empirical results show that vulnerability of the more mature SHG members declines significantly. Vulnerability also falls for villages with better infrastructure and for SHGs that are formed by NGOs and linked by banks. The results strongly demonstrate that on average, there is a significant increase in the empowerment of the female participants. The economic impact of SBLP is found to be the most empowering. Greater autonomy and changes in social attitudes also lead to female empowerment. The investigation further reveals that training (especially business training) has a definite positive impact on assets but not on income. The impact of training can be improved through better infrastructure (as in paved roads), linkage model type, and the training organiser.

Bridging the gap in the existing literature and between academics and practitioners, this book moves beyond the usual theoretical issues in the impact assessment literature and draws on new developments in methodology. It will be of interest to academics, development practitioners and students of economics, political science, sociology, public policy and development studies."

First Published in 2005. This study uses the Baring archive to provide a professional and contemporary understanding of the foreign financial history of Continental Europe and the United States from the years 1815 to 1870. The material gathered in this book, for France, Russia, Austria, Spain and the United States, and the conclusions reached in all the chapters, go far towards supporting and confirming that the belief that capital exports give rise to growth is an inflated claim.

Unlike other books which focus solely on the business or profit aspects of measuring the customer experience, this book focuses on the benefits to the consumer as well as the company or financial institution. The book describes how business and government can undertake market research to determine whether the credit and investment markets are functioning properly and providing consumers with adequate information to make sound and safe credit and investment decisions. A discussion of different market research methods abilities to uncover problems in the credit and investment markets is provided. Findings and trends from studies measuring the customers experience in the credit and investment markets during the 1991 - 2009 time periods are discussed along with regulatory guidelines and consumer protection laws. The methodologies used to measure the customer experience and detect misleading sales practices; unfair treatment and discrimination in the financial services market place are described in detail. The techniques of mystery shopping, matched pair testing and consumer surveys are described along with a detailed discussion of study design, data collection methods, sample size determination, statistical testing, reporting and analysis. Sample questionnaires, mystery shop scenarios and profiles and sample analyses and charts are provided.

This volume takes up bankruptcy in early modern Europe, when its frequency made it not only an economic problem but a personal tragedy and a social evil. Using legal, business and personal records, the essays in this volume examine the impact of failure on business organizations and practices, capital formation and circulation, economic institutions and ethics, and human networks and relations in the so-called "transition" to modern society, from the early-sixteenth to the early-nineteenth century. One group of essays concentrates on the German-speaking world and shows a common concern for the microeconomics of bankruptcy, that is, for such issues as the structure of the firm, the nature of its capital, and the practices of its partners, especially their assessment of risk. Another group of essays shifts the focus from Central to Western and Northern Europe and away from the microeconomics of the early modern firm to an institutional consideration of bankruptcy. The final group of essays turns to Southern Europe, especially the Mediterranean basin, to assess bankruptcy not as an unfortunate result of crisis, but as an intentional response to crisis. All of the contributions are the result of original research; many of the scholars publish in English for the first time. All of the chapters are founded on close archival research, offering insights not only into business organization and practice but also into social and cultural aspects of economic life from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century.

Develop a clear understanding of why financial markets exist, how financial institutions serve these markets, and what services those institutions offer with Madura's best-selling FINANCIAL MARKETS AND INSTITUTIONS, 13E. Packed with today's real examples and practical applications, this engaging edition clarifies the management, performance, and regulatory aspects of financial institutions. You explore the functions of the Federal Reserve System and its recent changes, major debt and equity security markets, and the derivative security markets. Expanded coverage now discusses stock valuation, market microstructure strategies, and liquidity in today's financial markets. In addition, new content explains popular sources of funding, such as crowdfunding. Real examples connect concepts to today's financial trends as online resources in MindTap digital learning solution highlight Excel Online, an integrated eBook, Aplia homework tools, and resources for strengthening your understanding.

This volume is designed to present a conceptual and practical illustration for the contemporary developing role of Islamic Banking and Finance components including Islamic Banking, Non Islamic Banking (Takaful and Financial Markets Tools and Products.) with stronger focus directed to the regulatory aspects, country, regional case studies and International Financial Crisis impacts. Consequently this Volume aimed at a fruitful contribution while defining how public policies, governance, legal framework and field studies' lessons can help decision makers to identify the major factors that may shape the attitude of both Islamic Financial Institutions and customers towards safe and sound services and through defining main determinants for successful, strategic inclusion of the Islamic Financial System into the real sustained development nationally, regionally and internationally.

McClean argues that a collective move towards stewardship within the financial industry is necessary to restore ethical behaviour and public confidence. Drawing on practical examples and offering new policy recommendations, this unique philosophical study paints a picture of what a truly ethical trading culture of the future might look like.

In Finance, Investment and Macroeconomics, Myron J. Gordon advances a theory of finance and investment under uncertainty and risk aversion which resolves problems left unsolved by Keynes in a manner consistent with his work. Keynes established that both the short-run and long-run performance of a capitalist system depend upon investment, but he failed to arrive at an alternative to the neoclassical theory of investment. Professor Gordon demonstrates that the extension of neoclassical theory to deal with uncertainty and risk aversion is based upon a string of assumptions which are empirically false. The competitive stationary state, the foundation for the neoclassical theory of a capitalist system, is shown to be unfeasible because it results in a very high probability of bankruptcy at the micro level and the system's early collapse on the macro level. Capitalists seeking long term survival are shown to be subject to a growth imperative, to the pursuit of monopoly power, and to a concern for financial policy. Later sections of the book discuss the consequences of this behaviour for short-run fluctuations and the long-run development of capitalist systems. This innovative book advances an important new theory of finance and investment which recognizes the problem of bankruptcy when the future is uncertain. It will be welcomed by both post Keynesian and neoclassical economists as a significant contribution to current economic understanding.

This book focuses on the application of the partial hedging approach from modern math finance to equity-linked life insurance contracts. It provides an accessible, up-to-date introduction to quantifying financial and insurance risks. The book also explains how to price innovative financial and insurance products from partial hedging perspectives. Each chapter presents the problem, the mathematical formulation, theoretical results, derivation details, numerical illustrations, and references to further reading.

This book provides an introduction to the use of statistical concepts and methods to model and analyze financial data. The ten chapters of the book fall naturally into three sections. Chapters 1 to 3 cover some basic concepts of finance, focusing on the properties of returns on an asset. Chapters 4 through 6 cover aspects of portfolio theory and the methods of estimation needed to implement that theory. The remainder of the book, Chapters 7 through 10, discusses several models for financial data, along with the implications of those models for portfolio theory and for understanding the properties of return data. The audience for the book is students majoring in Statistics and Economics as well as in quantitative fields such as Mathematics and Engineering. Readers are assumed to have some background in statistical methods along with courses in multivariate calculus and linear algebra.

Are people ready to take pivotal financial decisions like choosing a mortgage, saving for retirement, or investing their savings? How does the degree of knowledge about financial products and services affect the quality of their choices? Can financial fraud be prevented by increasing consumer financial knowledge? Financial Literacy in Europe addresses these important questions and more. In the first part, the author investigates the concept of financial literacy by analyzing its components and comparing different definitions from previous studies. This then forms a comprehensive measure of financial literacy to be applied in empirical studies that analyze the role of financial literacy in explaining consumers' financial behaviors. In the second part of the study, the author uses brand new data collected by the Consumer Finance Research Center (CFRC) from several European countries (the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Spain) to assess financial literacy in Europe and highlight similarities and differences across countries. Filling an important gap in previous research, the author develops a rigorous approach in the measurement of financial literacy in order to examine European financial literacy issues in great detail. This book, therefore, is a useful resource for assessing the effectiveness of single financial education programs or planning national strategies on financial education. It can also support policy makers in developing financial regulation and consumer protection strategies, considering the consumer perspective and their ability to deal with financial markets and institutions.

Islamic finance's phenomenal growth owes to the Shariah compliant nature of its financial instruments. Shariah forbids the charging of interest (Riba) and instead promulgates risk-sharing and trade-based modes of financing. The Islamic financial industry has been subject to both critique and admiration. Critics argue that Islamic instruments (bearing debt-based structures) differ from their conventional counterparts only in legal lexicon and not in economic impact. The admirers argue that such instruments, irrespective of wider economic implications, rigorously comply with 'juristically sound' Islamic principles. This book aims to reconcile the above dispute. It argues that the financial impact of instruments is a consequence of the way they are priced and structured. The similarity in pricing and structures is an outcome not of the underlying Islamic financial modes but of the competitive environment in which Islamic instruments compete. Even risk-sharing and trade-based Islamic structures, if implemented in such an environment, would have a financial impact similar to that of conventional instruments. This book has a wider appeal for both academic and non-academic audiences. It can complement undergraduate and graduate courses as an additional reading on the intricacies of Islamic financial instruments and markets. For PhD students, it would help identify future research areas. To non-academics, it offers a deeper understanding regarding the working of the Islamic finance industry.

Recently, students and scholars have expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of economics and have called for the reintroduction of historical perspectives into economic thinking. Supporting the idea that fruitful lessons can be drawn from the work of past economists, this volume brings together an international cross section of leading economists and historians of economic thought to reflect on the crucial role that money, crises and finance play in the economy. The book draws on the work of economists throughout history to consider afresh themes such as financial and real explanations of economic crises, the role of central banks, and the design of macroeconomic policies. These themes are all central to the work of Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, and the contributions both reflect on and further her research agenda. This book will be of interest to researchers in the history of economic thought, and those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the variety and diversity in approaches to economic ideas throughout history.

The economists who began using statistics to analyze financial markets in the 1950s have been credited with revolutionizing the scholarship of investing and with inaugurating modern financial economics. By examining the work of economists who used statistics to analyze financial markets before 1950, Donald Stabile provides evidence about the forerunners of modern financial economics. In studying these predecessors, this innovative book reveals that, starting around 1900, there were economists in the United States who believed that changes in stock prices could be treated as a random variable to be analyzed with statistical methods, and who used early versions of the efficient markets theory to justify their belief. Although they did not call themselves Bayesians, the author explores how they adhered to a philosophy consistent with Bayesian statistics. An epilogue considers the linkages between the forerunners of modern finance, its innovators and modern successors. An original work in the history of economic thought, Forerunners of Modern Financial Economics will be of great interest to both economists and historians interested in the development of statistical finance and economic thought, as well as to statisticians, financial analysts, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying financial economics.

This book analyses the financing problems of Greek small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), within a liberalized financial system and within an economic environment of fiscal and monetary constraints. Using recent data covering a ten-year period, the main aim of the research is to explain the interdependence between the situation of the banking sector generally and that of small and medium enterprises. The author argues that the reluctance of banks to lend to Greek companies because of the strict financing constraints, due to the national debt crisis, serves to exacerbate the cycle of economic recession. This factor seriously undermines the efforts of Greek companies to develop growth opportunities, and negatively affects their competitiveness as well as their ability to strengthen their market position. The author examines the supply and demand aspect of the problem: there is lower demand for lending due to the decline of demand for goods and services as well as a tightening of banks'credit standards, whilst on the supply side, the deteriorating financial situation of banks and their willingness to avoid increasing risk are important contributing factors. Finally, the author presents the main conclusions of the analyses carried out in the previous sections of the book and discusses some relevant recommendations for future research. Building on the extant literature, this book analyses the problem from the point of view of both businesses and the banking sector. The study is useful for scholars, businesses and policy decision makers who are interested in the problem of small and medium-sized enterprises financing.

Discover new insights on how to setup, manage, and advise wealthy families and their family offices The Complete Family Office: A Guide for Affluent Families and the Advisors Who Serve Them, 2nd Edition represents the newest update to an essential series. This book prepares the members of wealthy families to collectively manage, sustain, and grow their wealth across multiple generations. It also assists professionals who advise families to better serve their needs. This book teaches those who advise family offices and wealthy families on: - How to setup, structure, and advise a family office - Current compliance, fiduciary and risk management practices for a family office - Forward-thinking investment management, estate planning, and private trust company considerations - Fresh insights on philanthropy, legacy, and impact investing - Best practices to managing family wealth education and preparing next generation owners - New insights on family governance, strategic planning, and succession - Methods to create a family constitution, mission, and vision for families and their family offices. The Complete Family Office Handbook provides the most comprehensive, current research, practical guidance, and approaches from leading family offices from around the globe and illustrates, by way of practical case studies and examples, how families can effectively manage their wealth for the long term.

This book brings together fourteen essays by leading authors in the field of economics to explore the relationship between money and markets throughout economic theory and history, providing readers with the key to understanding fundamental issues in monetary theory and other important debates in contemporary economics. Addressing this popular and topical area in economic discussion and debate an impressive array of contributors, including Meghnad Desai, Charles Goodhart and John Davis examine the theory, policy and history of economics in the USA, Europe and Japan. The subjects covered include: the history of economic thought money and banking monetary economics poverty modern economic history. This volume is essential reading for postdoctoral researchers and historians of economic thought across the globe.

This provocative book provides insight into a finance industry that is run for the benefit of banks and service providers who rely on Beatles-era theories and regulation which are totally unsuited to the modern world. The author has a near-unique perspective based on over 30 years of working - literally around the globe - for corporates, fund managers and as finance academic. In his last role his research has focused on investment decisions, and during 2012 he interviewed 34 fund managers in Istanbul, London, New York and Melbourne. He blends rich understanding of finance theory and practice to unravel the investment industry's structure and show how banks and other finance institutions privilege themselves at investors' expense. The book highlights that finance industry self-regulation is weak. Risks from inexpertise, theft, bad data and other sources are high. Regulation of the industry appears to be ineffectual with the setting of such a high bar that it is virtually impossible to successfully prosecute even the most blatant and egregious offenders. The book closes with the simple suggestion that corporations' regulations be altered to introduce the strict liability offence of being a director or officer of a large bank that becomes bankrupt. This follows the strategy of legislation that has been effective in cleaning up the environment, making workplaces safer and reducing crime by punishing those responsible for an offence.

Created by the experienced author team of Frank Fabozzi, Henry Davis, and Moorad Choudhry, "Introduction to Structured Finance" examines the essential elements of this discipline. It is a convenient reference guide--which covers all the important transaction types in one place--and an excellent opportunity to enhance your understanding of finance.

The recent global financial crisis has made the inadequacies of the scientific state of economics and finance glaringly obvious, as these disciplines gave the false reassurance that such a self-destructive phenomenon could not happen. A similar phenomenon arose in the 1930's, when the pitfalls of the dominant economic theories were sharply exposed. Since then, the same analytical framework, in its new versions, has revealed a huge number of other empirical and experimental failures. On the other hand, the founders of the currently dominant theories in economics and finance (i.e. the standard paradigm) such as Walras (1834-1910), Modigliani (1918-2003) and Miller (1923-2000) have identified mathematical contradictions within their own foundational models, the root cause of which no one has yet discovered. The standard paradigm has thus lost the reason for its existence in the light of experience, experiments and logical rigour. This book identifies the heuristic cause of these external and internal contradictions of the standard paradigm and remedies these problems by offering a new paradigm which can explain and predict observed economic behaviour, and resolve the extant behavioural, empirical and experimental puzzles. The new paradigm offers a dramatically improved understanding of economic behaviour at the micro as well as macro level of the economy within an over-arching framework comprising the real and the financial sectors. It does so in a rigorous but simple and clear way, using an axiomatic approach. It also offers policy recommendations on how the economy should be managed to avoid severe swings. It therefore is of great interest to scholars and practitioners in economics and finance.

This provocative book provides insight into a finance industry that is run for the benefit of banks and service providers who rely on Beatles-era theories and regulation which are totally unsuited to the modern world. The author has a near-unique perspective based on over 30 years of working - literally around the globe - for corporates, fund managers and as finance academic. In his last role his research has focused on investment decisions, and during 2012 he interviewed 34 fund managers in Istanbul, London, New York and Melbourne. He blends rich understanding of finance theory and practice to unravel the investment industry's structure and show how banks and other finance institutions privilege themselves at investors' expense. The book highlights that finance industry self-regulation is weak. Risks from inexpertise, theft, bad data and other sources are high. Regulation of the industry appears to be ineffectual with the setting of such a high bar that it is virtually impossible to successfully prosecute even the most blatant and egregious offenders. The book closes with the simple suggestion that corporations' regulations be altered to introduce the strict liability offence of being a director or officer of a large bank that becomes bankrupt. This follows the strategy of legislation that has been effective in cleaning up the environment, making workplaces safer and reducing crime by punishing those responsible for an offence.

With present concerns over the regulation of the banking industry continuing to make headlines, an examination of the historiography of financial crises is timely. With contributions from world-renowned figures such as Niall Ferguson, Adair Turner and William R White, this volume investigates how financial institutions and markets have undergone or reacted to past pressures, the role of financial innovations in this process and the regulatory responses that emerged as a result.