Originally published in 1979, The Investment Behaviour of British Life Insurance Companies provides a critical analysis of the investment policy of the life insurance industry for the period of 1962-76, and attempts to construct an econometric model of the investment behaviour. It looks at the portfolio composition of life funds and their position in the markets for securities in terms of their gross purchases and sales and net acquisitions. It also considers the principles on which life offices appear to operate the principles on which life offices appear to operate in respect of investing their 'reserves' to meet future contingent liabilities. This book will appeal to those working in the field of economic and business.

This title was first published in 2003. Covering a diverse range of countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Russia, as well as referring to the characteristics of the region as a whole, this book examines the inflow and outflow of foreign direct investment from both home and host company and country perspectives. By analyzing foreign direct investment in terms of process, content and context, the book provides a holist approach towards direct foreign investment in the transitional context of Central and Eastern Europe, embracing both macro- and micro-economic perspectives of the process.

Originally published in 1987, The Flight of International Capital provides a fascinating comprehensive analysis of the history of international money movements. Taking 1931 as the turning point between old-style and modern methods of conducting monetary affairs, the book relates currency shifts and investment trends to political events. He deals with five eras in the history of international capital; the unsettled post-crash period 1931-1936; the flight of capital to the US before World War II; the dollar and Swiss Franc's time as the only 'hard monies' till the late fifties; the emergence of the mark-dollar axis before 1971; and finally, the behaviour of floating currencies.

In recent years, the globalization of financial asset markets has become increasingly important and has led to closer linkages among these markets. New global investment instruments such as sovereign credit default swaps, exchange traded funds, and bond markets have been created, enabling investors to fine tune their investment portfolios to their likings. Financial investments have been further expanded to include real asset investments such as real estate investments. It is important for global investors to make proper decisions in assessing these investments in their asset allocations and for policymakers who can provide sound policy guidance to cope with the globalization of the financial markets. This volume contributes to a fresh perspective on the economic and finance research on international financial markets and also the commodity markets. It enables scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to better understand the changes and dynamics of commodity and financial asset trading following the recent global financial crisis. This volume contains a comprehensive analysis of international financial markets through a series of essays from leading researchers in the field.

Originally published in 1979, Inside the City looks at The City of London as one of the important financial centres in the world. The book provides an interesting insight into the City as a major centre of international banking, asking key questions such as, how long the city can last as a major centre, how do its services compare with other centres, and what it can do to maintain its present position? The book examines how the great network of markets and institutions that make up the City operated when the book was written, providing key chapters on the Stock Exchange, institutional and private investors, the banking world, including foreign and merchant banks, the commodity and money markets, Euromarkets, Sterling and insurance. This book will be of interest to those studying or researching in the field of economics and finance.

First published in 1989, The Economics of the Swap Market looks at how the swap has become a commonplace tool for corporations throughout the OECD world to 'lock-in' interest rates on their borrowing. The aim of The Economics of the Swap Market, is to contribute to a redressing of the balance. Subjects covered include both those conventionally falling within the scope of micro-economics and of macroeconomics, beginning with an examination of the forces behind the take-off the swap market and a formal setting out of key arbitrage relationships which hold in equilibrium between the swap markets on international capital flow.

This book explores how the concept of "competition", which is usually associated with market economies, operated under state socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where the socialist system, based on command economic planning and state-centred control over society, was supposed to emphasise "co-operation", rather than competitive mechanisms. The book considers competition in a wider range of industries and social fields across the Soviet bloc, and shows how the gradual adoption and adaptation of Western practices led to the emergence of more open competitiveness in socialist society. The book includes discussion of the state's view of competition, and focuses especially on how competition operated at the grassroots level. It covers politico-economic reforms and their impact, both overall and at the enterprise level; competition in the cultural sphere; and the huge effect of increasing competition on socialist ways of thinking.

As the new Russian state struggles with the transition to a market economy, the need for radical monetary reform becomes increasingly urgent. The choice of reform is crucial, for it will largely determine Russia's future economic performance. In order to break free of the lingering effects of Soviet central planning, the new Russian state needs a stable, convertible currency.
Steve H. Hanke, Lars Jonung and Kurt Schuler propose that Russia establishes a currency board which would issue a Russian currency fully convertible with international currency, backed 100 per cent by international bonds. The international community would aid in establishing the currency board by providing the initial reserves. Early supplies of this new Russian currency would be distributed free to Russian citizens. The authors give detailed explanations of how the currency board could be established and how it would work.

Conventional wisdom has treated international trade as the motive force behind international financial flows. However, the last quarter of this century has witnessed an upsurge in the volume of international financial flows which have gained a momentum of their own, thus dwarfing the role of international trade. This increase in volume is generated by the large size of the international financial market systems, which are more closely integrated today than ever before. Dilip K. Das demonstrates that the development of a whole range of financial instruments is one of the key forces behind greater integration of financial markets. "International Finance" provides students of economics, finance and business management with medium-level discussion on international finance issues which are neither introductory nor over-specialized in nature. Six themes are developed which encompass some of the most practical and useful facets of international finance.

Originally published in 1986. This helpful text sets out what appears to make exchange rates change and shows how these various factors contribute to an explanation of the past. It considers the problems of providing satisfactory forecasts of the exchange rate while presenting the methods used, outlining their drawbacks and speculating on future ways forward. Laid out to move from empirical issues to theory and on to policy, this book is easily of use to those interested in macroeconomics, applied economics and international economics as well as economic history.

Country-Risk Analysis is a comprehensive, practical guide to the management of international risk and cross-border lending. The last fifteen years of international commercial bank lending have witnessed a classical boom-and-bust cycle. Yet it is only recently that a formalized approach to country risk assessment has been implemented in the major international banks.

Ron Solberg's volume provides a state-of-the-art review of the country risk techniques that have evolved in the context of dramatic changes in developing countries' debt service capacity and in international lending itself. It deals comprehensively with sovereign credit decision making, portfolio management, lending behaviour and financial innovations.

Originally published in 1994. This work investigates seasonal fluctuations of US and British short term nominal interest rates, the dollar-sterling exchange rate and short term interest rate differentials between the US and Britain during the period 1883-1913. It finds that during the pre-World War Gold Standard seasonal movements in exchange rates did not tend to offset the seasonal fluctuations in interest rate differentials. It presents a model to explain the fluctuations and outlines two specific empirical investigations, considering the results in the light of more recent historical periods as well.

Originally published in 1926. This book explains clearly the depreciation of the franc, the return to the gold standard and dollar parity, inflation and deflation, the stabilization of the mark and its effects; and the connexion between exchange rates and prices. It describes the transfer of money abroad, bank credits, the various methods in which documentary bills are dealt with and foreign currencies exchanged. Based on the author's practical experience of finance, it incorporates economic research and contains a concise statement of Britain's debt to America, the Dawes Reparation Plan, and the debt settlements with France and Italy.

Originally published in 1923. This book describes the working of the exchanges, and explains post-war fluctuations. It describes bills, documentary and blank credits, the mechanism of exchange trading and money market; and explains inflation, floating debts, purchasing power parity, international indebtedness and stabilisation.

Originally published in 1982. This book deals with exchange-rate determination and the implications of floating rate regimes for the time paths of prices and quantities. It develops a class of stochastic equilibrium models of the open economy operating under flexible exchange rates, assuming that agents are endowed with rational expectations but do not possess full current information as to the state of the world. Chapters look at a model's response to economic disturbances, the effect on non-traded goods, and cyclical variations of the terms of trade. The final chapter considers a model to investigate purchasing parity issues.

Originally published in 1996. This study looks at the impact of exchange rate fluctuation on the pricing practices of foreign industries that import into the United States market. It presents several studies of the pass-through behaviour of over 100 disaggregated commodity groups with bi-lateral exchange rates. The book presents analysis of specific competitors and their individual pricing responses to exchange rate changes, adding significantly to pricing theory as well as being useful for marketers in predicting business responses.

Reissuing works originally published between 1923 and 1997, this collection of books on exchange rate economics is a unique resource in international finance and economic history. Books in the set look at foreign exchange policy, currency and markets in a range of eras and contexts.

The first part of this book builds a framework of analyzing the material consequences of global finance. Chapters are devoted to unravelling the byzantine relationship between deregulated and liberalized international finance and the effect on national economies. This relationship rests on the nature of new financial instruments, how optimal decisions are made about them and the legal and political regulatory regime that has ensued. The second part relates how the complexity of the new financial regime affects, shapes and interacts with communities, lifestyles, architecture and the development and form of urban economies. The book offers an authoritative account of the momentous changes in the organization of finance capital that occurred in the 1980s. But it never contents itself with a mere record of events. The changes in finance are related to changes in urban forms, notably metropolitan lifestyles and aesthetics. This book should be of interest to students of sociology, economics, and urban studies.

"Global Finance and Urban Living" provides an account of the momentous changes in the organization of finance capital that occurred in the 1980s. But it never contents itself with a mere record of events. The changes in finance are related to changes in urban forms, notably metropolitan lifestyles and aesthetics. The first part of the book builds a framework of analyzing the material consequences of global finance. Chapters are devoted to unravelling the byzantine relationship between de-regulated and liberalized international finance and the effect on national economies. This relationship, other chapters explain, rests on the nature of new financial instruments, how optimal decisions are made about them and the legal and political regulatory regime that has ensued. The second part relates how the complexity of the new financial regime affects, shapes and interacts with communities, lifestyles, architecture and the development and form of urban economies. The inter-disciplinary focus helps to provide a powerful account of metropolitan finance centre and what it feels like to live in it. This book should be of interest to students of urban studies, sociology, and economics.

Originally published in 1925. This book sets forth a plan to stabilize the currency at a time in which there was much discussion of what to radically change to improve the state of the flow of gold and discounts and interests. It addresses such questions as 'what is a standard of currency' and 'to whom does the gold belong' among its discussion of the best way forward. A fascinating insight into 1920s economic history.

Originally published in 1984. This book examines two important dimensions of efficiency in the foreign exchange market using econometric techniques. It responds to the macroeconomics trend to re-examining the theories of exchange rate determination following the erratic behaviour of exchange rates in the late 1970s. In particular the text looks at the relation between spot and forward exchange rates and the term structure of the forward premium, both of which require a joint test of market efficiency and the equilibrium model. Approaches used are the regression of spot rates on lagged forward rates and an explicit time series analysis of the spot and forward rates, using data from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany.

Originally published in 1979. This book addresses three questions regarding uncertainty in economic life: how do we define uncertainty and use the concept meaningfully to provide conclusions; how can the level of uncertainty associated with a particular variable of economic interest be measured; and does experience provide any support for the view that uncertainty really matters. It develops a theory of the effect of price uncertainty on production and trade, takes a graphical approach to look at effects of a mean preserving spread to create rules for ordering distributions, and finishes with an econometric analysis of the effects of Brazil's adoption of a crawling peg in reducing real exchange rate uncertainty. This is an important early study into the significance of uncertainty.

A stable and sound financial system plays a critical role in mediating funds from surplus units to investors, making it a prerequisite for economic development. Financial intermediaries have been vulnerable to adverse changes in the local and global economy and experienced frequent bubble-and-bust episodes historically. Analyses of financial crises reveal that the incentive created by neo-liberal financial principles is inconsistent with stable financial systems, and viable solutions require structuring institutions in a way that incentives are well aligned with the fundamental principles of financial systems. By drawing on the theoretical framework of the financial restraint model, this book analyses financial sectors' rents or bank rents and their effects on banks' performance and stability, and presents evidence on the relationship between rent and incentive through case studies of both developed and developing countries.

Originally published in 1983. With the prevailing uncertainties and wild fluctuation in exchange values at the time, the forward market in foreign exchange had become a vital issue for both governments and business corporations. This book by an expert practitioner in foreign exchange dealing describes how the forward market functions and analyses the constituent elements in its behaviour. The two principal types of foreign exchange deal are examined; forward outright and swap, and explanations are given of how both operate. The linkage between forward rates and interest rates is also considered and the book investigates what factors cause deviation from parity conditions. In addition, there is a discussion of political risk and the forward contract and the role of speculation in forward exchange as well as the methods of hedging.

This book, first published in 1987, examines American international finance and banking, and the affect that the United States had in the world economy. This book will be of interest to students of finance and economics.