Three dominant forces worldwide are driving change today in our financial markets: competition, technology and regulation. But their collective impact in reshaping the markets, though they may be viewed individually as desirable or well-intentioned, is producing challenging results that are difficult to predict, hard to control and not easy to understand. Extreme market turbulence has underlined the key issues as much attention turns to the appropriate regulatory response. That is the backdrop for this thought-provoking book, emerging from a Baruch College Conference on equity market structure in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and featuring contributions from an acclaimed panel of international scholars, policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders. The result presents emerging perspective and ideas that illuminate the dynamics of financial regulation today and into the future. The Zicklin School of Business Financial Markets Series presents the insights emerging from a sequence of conferences hosted by the Zicklin School at Baruch College for industry professionals, regulators, and scholars. Much more than historical documents, the transcripts from the conferences are edited for clarity, perspective and context; material and comments from subsequent interviews with the panelists and speakers are integrated for a complete thematic presentation. Each book is focused on a well delineated topic, but all deliver broader insights into the quality and efficiency of the U.S. equity markets and the dynamic forces changing them.

A comprehensive book on shipping derivatives and risk management which covers the theoretical and practical aspects of financial risk in shipping. The book provides a thorough overview of the practice of risk management in shipping with the use of theoretical examples and real-life applications.

This book investigates the contemporary functioning of financial institutions and monetary policies in order to assess their effects in different economic situations. It advances some proposals to improve their contribution towards a more stable and vigorous economy in the context of both developed and developing countries. This book includes important contributions on the theory and econometric testing of monetary policy strategies, hedging by firms, financial liberalization in Latin America and the role of financial institutions in promoting economic development.

There has been an increasing recognition that financial knowledge (i.e., literacy) is lacking across the population. Moreover, there is recognition that this lack of knowledge poses real problems as credit, mortgages, health insurance, retirement benefits, and savings and investment decisions become increasingly complex. Financial Decisions Across the Lifespan brings together the work of scholars from various disciplines (family and consumer sciences, economics, law, finance, sociology, and public policy) to provide a broad range of perspectives on financial knowledge, financial decisions, and policies. For consistency across the volume each chapter follows a similar format: (1) what individuals know or need to know (2) how what they know or need to know affects financial decisions and outcomes (3) ways in which policies or programs or financial innovations can enhance their knowledge, or decisions, or outcomes. Contributors will provide both new and existing research to create a valuable picture of the state of financial literacy and how it can be improved.

Behavioral finance is the study of how psychology affects financial decision making and financial markets. It is increasingly becoming the common way of understanding investor behavior and stock market activity. In this 2nd Edition Hersh Shefrin examines the reigning assumptions of asset pricing theory and reconstructs them to incorporate findings from behavioral finance. In other words, he takes the traditional tools in asset pricing and behavioralizes them. He constructs a solid, intact structure that challenges classic assumptions and at the same time provides a strong theory and efficient empirical tools. Building on the models developed by both traditional asset pricing theorists and behavioral asset pricing theorists, Shefrin's book takes the discussion to the next step. He provides a general behaviorally based intertemporal treatment of asset pricing theory that extends to the discussion of derivatives, fixed income securities, mean-variance efficient portfolios, and the market portfolio, based on all the latest research and theory.
* The second edition continues the tradition of the first edition by being the one and only book to focus completely on how behavioral finance principles affect asset pricing, now with its theory deepened and enriched by a plethora of research since the first edition
* A companion website contains a series of examples worked out as Excel spreadsheets so that readers can input their own data to test the results

Research on MFI performance is still in its infancy. MFIs are hybrid organizations with dual objectives. Performance studies in microfinance are therefore less straightforward compared to performance studies in traditional banking research. This book contains new MFI performance research by top scholars from across the globe.

It wasn't all that long ago when the notion of selling your life insurance policy was considered strange. Things sure do change fast. Investor demand for secondhand "used" life insurance policies has grown into a $15 billion market. Analysts are predicting that that figure will grow to $160 billion by 2030. Millions of seniors have turned their life insurance policies into a financial windfall, with many earning six-figure payments or even more by selling their policies. But beware deals like these can be full of traps and pitfalls. This book will steer you through the rocky waters of the life insurance market. We'll tell you everything you need to know to invest safely and securely. We'll explain what the market for used life insurance is and where it came from. We'll step through the entire process of a policy sale, from applying for life insurance to selling your policy to investors. And we'll show you exactly how you can keep more money in your hands and away from brokers, investors and middlemen. It's your life insurance policy, after all. Shouldn't you be the one who profits most when you Invest in Your Life?

Against the backdrop of China's increasingly influential role in the international financial architecture, this book seeks to characterize and evaluate China's financial power potential. It does so by analyzing the relationship between domestic financial repression and international financial power in the context of the political economy of the developmental state. On the basis of a novel theoretical framework for the analysis of the financial power potential of developmental states, the book provides an in-depth analysis of China's approach to currency internationalization, its creditor status and its policies towards the Bretton Woods institutions while contrasting the country's present role in global finance with the position of the Japanese developmental state in the 1980s and 1990s.

This book presents a hotly debated issue concerning the ownership of trust property in China. The book describes various conventional interpretations of Chinese Trust Law submitted by legal scholars and compares diverse approaches regarding the ownership of trust property provided by jurisdictions globally. The book does not directly answer the question "Who is the owner of trust property in China?" Instead, using a social capital perspective, it develops a more practical perspective to explain why Chinese trust business has grown rapidly even in lack of legal certainty regarding the location of ownership of trust property. The book also further predicts under what conditions is the time ripe to clarify the location of the ownership of trust property in China. By employing those sociological concepts often used to depict and analyze society, this book outlines the structure of the Chinese trust business and related social relations in different stages, i.e., the current rapid development stage, and the possible transitional stage in the near future. The focus is on how the social network structure affects the behavior of actors (such as the settlor, the trustee, and the beneficiaries, and/or their potential candidates) within the relevant section of Chinese society. The book provides readers with an intensive analysis of the impacts of historical, cultural, and social elements on the legislation and development of trust law in China. It will appeal both to lawyers interested in the Chinese trust business and to comparative law researchers and social scientists.

An accessible guide to handling the unforeseeable consequences of becoming an entrepreneur in today and tomorrow's economy

The spirit of an entrepreneur is often characterized as one of unbridled passion and a sense of fearlessness. But what about the consequences of choosing to become an entrepreneur? The occupational hazards associated with this endeavor range from maintaining focus, balancing work with your personal life, and finding good partners to burnout and boredom. Despite the abundance of entrepreneurial guides written, few focus on the essential aspect of dealing with the unexpected personal and professional costs of starting and financing a business. This new book will help you answer these tough questions.

Engaging and informative, this book skillfully examines what usually goes wrong on the road to entrepreneurship, revealing what business owners regret and what you can do to address these issues. Along the way, it provides an overview of the personality traits and qualities that make success in entrepreneurship more likely, and also explores how the weight of wearing the entrepreneurial hat can affect you.Covers the seven principal obstacles that can arise at any level in the entrepreneurial gameFilled with the valuable insights of an author who has experience as an entrepreneur and as a corporate attorney representing hundreds of entrepreneurs over his twenty-six year legal careerTouches on issues associated with everything from the nerve-wrecking start-up phase to the disenchanted later stages when success does not necessarily guarantee personal or professional contentment

If you're looking for a better way to manage and minimize some of the most prominent problems you'll face as an entrepreneur, look no further than this book.

There have been important advances in monetary economics and macroeconomics recently. In macroeconomics there has been the paramount development of the New Consensus Macroeconomics along with significant policy implications, thereby giving rise to the notion of New Monetary Policy. This book deals with the key aspects of these developments and further ones such as money, credit and the business cycle. Adding to the analysis are developments that focus on issues for open and spatial macroeconomics.

Academic finance research has shown that emerging markets still suffer from a myriad of risks such as credit, operational, market, legal and exchange rate risks. The onset of the subprime crisis 2007, the global financial crisis 2008-2009, and the Eurozone public debt crisis since the end of 2009 has brought to the light a number of emerging markets facing tumbling currencies, rising inflation, slowing growth, heavy dependence on foreign capital, and high levels of vulnerability to external shocks due to increased market integration. This context calls for not only a reconsideration of recent risk assessment models and risk management practices, but also the improvement and innovation of these models and practices. Factors such as liquidity, tail dependence, comovement, contagion, and timescale interactions have thus to be part of an integrated risk assessment and management framework. This book addresses three main dimensions of risk management in emerging markets: 1) the effectiveness of risk management practices; 2) current issues and challenges in risk assessment and modelling in emerging market countries; 3) the responses of emerging markets to the recent financial crises and the design of risk management models.

Fragile Finance inquires into the nature of financial crisis in the era of global credit. This book suggests that financial fragility today stems from an explosive combination of financial innovation, over-borrowing, and progressive illiquidity of financial structures. Drawing on the work of Hyman Minsky, the author examines the role played by these three factors in the events that defined the global financial system during the past decade, and draws on their implications for the emerging paradigm of a global financial architecture.

The field of household finance seeks to understand how households use financial instruments. Financial economists have long studied how corporations utilize financial instruments, yet relatively little is understood about how individual consumers and households utilize various credit alternatives in managing their consumption and savings objectives. However, with the increasing interest in issues surrounding behavioral finance, research into household financial decision making processes is becoming increasingly important. In response to the growing interest in household finance, this book contains a collection of essays by leading researchers studying issues involving household and consumer use of credit instruments. This collection, featuring a foreword by John Y. Campbell, will provide readers with a greater understanding of what is currently known about household credit utilization and suggest possible areas for future research.

Gary Burn examines how in 1950s London, City bankers invented a new form of money and escaped offshore, beyond the jurisdiction of monetary authority. This most momentous financial innovation since the bank note, paved the way for globalization. It was a first shot in the neo-liberal counter-revolution against the Keynesian welfare state. This is the story of the Eurodollar and the re-emergence of global capital. It tells how the City discarded sterling and reclaimed its historic role as the world's foremost financial centre.

Capitalisms' Future: Alienation, Emancipation and Critique frames 21st century economic and social possibilities in a dialogue between two forms of critical social theory: Marx's critique of political economy that analyzes capitalism and the critique of political psychology that analyzes authoritarianism. Contributions from social theorists in sociology, philosophy, and cultural studies are brought together to dissect and critique capitalist crises, left-liberalism, left-Thatcherism, resistance to risk-pooling, idealist philosophy, undemocratic social character, status wages and authoritarian spectacles. Throughout, Marx's centrality to critical social theory is confirmed, both alone and in in powerful combination with Adorno, Durkheim, Dubois, Lacan, Veblen, Weber and others. This book outlines conjoined critiques of commodity-fetishism and authority fetishism as the emancipatory agenda of 21st century critical theory. Contributors are: Kevin S. Amidon, Graham Cassano, Tony A. Feldmann, Daniel Krier, Christian Lotz, Patrick Murray, David Norman Smith, Tony Smith, William J. Swart, and Mark P. Worrell.

Engineering Asset Management Review focuses on life cycle management of the physical assets required by a private or public firm for the purpose of making products and/or for providing services in a manner that satisfies various business performance rationales. In exploring the wide ranging issues involved in the management of engineered assets that constitute our built environment, this book takes a broad view of the inter- and multi-disciplinary approach which combines science, engineering, and technology principles with human behavior and business practice.

The purpose of Engineering Asset Management Review is to publish research and opinions which explore strategic and tactical issues, as well as technical data and information. It also examines the issues involved in the creation (formulation and design), acquisition (procurement, installation, and commissioning), maintenance, operation, decommissioning, disposal, and/or rehabilitation of physical assets. The range of articles covers all industry sectors and physical asset types (infrastructure, plant, equipment and facilities).

The aim of this volume is to provide a forum for

1. the assembly of a body of knowledge in the emerging field of engineering asset management;

2. knowledge transfer between researchers, scholars and practitioners;

3. cross-disciplinary interaction between engineers, technologists, economists, environmental practitioners, behavioral scientists, and business managers; and

4. the presentation of a wide spectrum of viewpoints and approaches from designers, developers, project managers, owners, operators, users, and vendors.

The world is presently buffeted by many challenges, some of which manifest in new forms, such as Fintech and cryptocurrencies, while some challenges prevail out of the legacy trailed behind by the 2007 global financial crisis. Financial stability represents a highly complex and multi-dimensional concept. This being so, a sound and holistic financial stability assessment requires a focus not only on the distinct sectors which make up an economy but also on certain key economic areas. Economic Areas Under Financial Stability examines several core areas which interact directly with financial stability. A comprehensive consideration is given to local and international developments, the payment and settlements system, reserves, derivatives,and exchange rates. The book examines critical developments on both the local and international fronts, the systematic risks which characterise the payment and settlements system, different instruments of derivatives, and the significance of fiscal and monetary policy in relation to exchange rates. This book will prove valuable to central bankers, economists, and policy-makers who are involved in the field of financial stability, as well as researchers studying the field.

This second edition, now featuring new material, focuses on the valuation principles that are common to most derivative securities. A wide range of financial derivatives commonly traded in the equity and fixed income markets are analysed, emphasising aspects of pricing, hedging and practical usage. This second edition features additional emphasis on the discussion of Ito calculus and Girsanovs Theorem, and the risk-neutral measure and equivalent martingale pricing approach. A new chapter on credit risk models and pricing of credit derivatives has been added. Up-to-date research results are provided by many useful exercises.

Despite the promise for international development, despite the proven track record of exceptional loan repayment rates, and despite the development of competitive markets in countries like Bolivia, Peru and Bangladesh or the global expansion of microfinance access to tens of millions of new clients, little research has explored the impact this expansion has had on global poverty and economic and social development in general. To address this gap, this volume brings together leaders in the microfinance industry and researchers representing a range of academic disciplines. Our goal is to outline a multidisciplinary research agenda for the field. The topics addressed in this volume and the questions posed can serve to guide social scientists, technology experts, development specialists, investors, microfinance practitioners, policymakers and students.

Money is an important instrument of calculation: as a unit of account and means of payment, it serves the purpose of exchange. Yet, it is increasingly becoming itself an object of exchange and calculation on financial markets, which tend less to the production and exchange of real goods. The question therefore is: has the economy lost its measure?