This book presents the economic foundation of international equity investments providing a practical guide to invest in international equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It shows how to gain exposure to foreign stock markets through both theoretical foundations of international diversification and in-depth characteristics of global, regional, country-specific, and international sector/thematic ETFs. Unlike other books in the field which broadly discuss different aspects of the ETF market, this book explores one specific market segment, offering the first in-depth and state-of-the-art analysis of international equity ETFs and including, in particular, ETFs with global, regional, single-country, and international sector/thematic exposures. The number and variety of such financial instruments are constantly growing. Hence, it seems obvious that there is an urgent need for a book that will help investors who are willing to diversify their portfolios outside the domestic market-in both developed and emerging/frontier markets. International Equity Exchange-Traded Funds presents a comprehensive review of investment possibilities offered by international ETFs for stock market investors.

This book undertakes a specialised analysis of a topic that is highly significant both theoretically and practically. At the theoretical level, it discusses questions that have remained insufficiently answered in the fields of international human rights and institutional law. Notably, it clarifies how international human rights law conditions member states' governance role within international financial institutions and how this role is to be accommodated in the regime of international responsibility. Furthermore, the book's thorough discussion of member states' human rights due diligence duties offers a practical contribution to the understanding of what tools may be used by states to secure their human rights obligations when participating in international financial institutions. Its practical significance also relates to the examination of the various elements that must be demonstrated by an individual wishing to invoke member State responsibility for alleged human rights violations in the context of international financial institution operations.

Das Buch untersucht Empfehlungen und Leitlinien der Europaischen Finanzaufsichtsbehoerden von einem handlungsformtheoretischen Ansatz ausgehend. Miteinbezogen werden auch die Empfehlungen und Leitlinien der Level-3-Ausschusse als Vorlauferausschusse. Es stehen u.a. Fragen der Identifikation und Abgrenzung von anderen Handlungsformen, der Wirkungen von Leitlinien und Empfehlungen, des Verfahrens und des Rechtsschutzes im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung. Das Vorhaben systematisiert erstmals Empfehlungen und Leitlinien der Europaischen Finanzaufsichtsbehoerden als Handlungsform. Kennzeichnend fur das Werk ist dabei insbesondere die rechtswissenschaftliche - oeffentlich-rechtliche Sichtweise auf aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Finanzaufsicht.

This EYIEL special issue examines the interaction between international investment law and competition law. Although issues related to both international investment law and competition law arise regularly in international legal practice and are examined together, scholarly analysis largely treats them as parallel universes. As a result their actual and potential overlap has yet to be sufficiently explored. In this light, International Investment Law and Competition Law discusses a variety of topics at the intersection of investment and competition, including the interaction between competition-related provisions and investment protection standards in free trade agreements; investors' anti-competitive behaviour and illegal investments; state aid schemes and foreign investors' legitimate expectations; EU member States' compliance with investment awards as (illegal) state aid under EU law; State-owned enterprises and competitive neutrality; and interactions between public procurement, investment and competition law.

This new textbook provides an up-to-date overview of international banking as the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds. Integrating geo-economic, operational, institutional and regulatory changes in the financial sector, the volume's methodology incorporates specific case studies and research, combining theory with practical examples to illustrate the impact and consequences of past and present financial crises. The volume considers the core aspects of international banking, including its structural and technical features, historical context, institutional evolution in core markets, and wholesale, retail, investment and private banking. It uses specific examples from past and present literature, post-2008 case studies and histories, and research materials, offering a fully updated overview of how international banks respond to global crises, the origin, efficacy and evolution of financial markets, and the regulatory framework within which they function. One chapter is devoted to the evolution and potential of new markets, including the financial sectors of the BRICS and other emerging economies. Each chapter examines background, causes, impact and resolution, focusing on specific cases and their broader implications for the sector. This textbook is a guide to the new, and at times unchartered, landscape to be navigated by large domestic, cross-regional and global banks, and will be invaluable reading for students of finance, business and economics, as well as for those in the financial sector.

This book offers a reassessment of the international monetary problems that led to the global economic crisis of the 1930s. It explores the connections between the gold standard--the framework regulating international monetary affairs until 1931--and the Great Depression that broke out in 1929. Eichengreen shows how economic policies, in conjunction with the imbalances created by World War I, gave rise to the global crisis of the 1930s. He demonstrates that the gold standard fundamentally constrained the economic policies that were pursued and that it was largely responsible for creating the unstable economic environment on which those policies acted. The book also provides a valuable perspective on the economic policies of the post-World War II period and their consequences.

Emerging market economies have accounted for three quarters of world economic growth and more than half of world output over the last decade. But the energy and ideas inherent in emerging economies cannot generate growth by themselves without resources to support them - and first among these resources is money which is needed to purchase the capital and knowhow that turn ideas and initiative into income. How do emerging economies rich in resources other than money get money? This question encapsulates what emerging market finance is all about, and why finance is absolutely crucial to economic development. In emerging countries, most of the population does not have access to bank accounts or financial markets to save or borrow. The result is that many firms cannot get access to financial resources to grow, while households cannot borrow and save in ways that could reduce the riskiness and poverty of their lives. Even those that do have access to formal finance find that credit is unreliable and expensive. These financial failures limit growth and also increase the frequency of costly financial crises. These issues, and many more like them, mean that finance in emerging economies is different and often more complex than the view presented in most textbooks, where finance is only considered from the perspective of wealthy, developed economies. This book addresses this failure by focusing on the important characteristics of financial systems in emerging market economies and their differences from those in developed countries. This book surveys both theoretical and empirical research on finance in emerging economies, as well as reviewing numerous case studies. The final chapters describe and compare financial systems within the four different regions that encompass most emerging economies: Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South America.

International Finance offers a clear and accessible introduction to the fundamental principles and practice of international finance in today's world, from the international financial environment and exchange rates, to financing multinational companies and international investment. The theory and techniques are presented with the non-financial manager in mind, and the theoretical material is supplemented by case studies and a discussion of the appropriateness of the various techniques and principles to solve practical problems. This book draws from examples and practice around the world, helping students of international corporate finance, particularly non-specialist finance students, understand the complexities of modern Europe and comparative systems of finance globally. International Finance is essential reading for anyone studying international finance or needing an up-to-date, engaging resource to help them navigate the complicated and ever-changing global financial world. Key theories and terms are explained and defined, avoiding unnecessary jargon and acknowledging that many readers are coming to the subject with little or no prior knowledge of corporate finance at all. Online supporting resources include PowerPoint lecture slides.

The goal of this volume is to bring a more broad-based empirical experience than has been customary to the theoretical debate on how financial systems should be managed. This is achieved not only with cross-country economic studies, but also with an account of carefully chosen and widely contrasting country cases, drawn from Europe, Latin America, Africa, East and South Asia and the former Soviet Union. The widespread financial crises of recent years have all too dramatically illustrated the shortcomings of financial policy under liberalization. The complexity of the issues mocks any idea that a standard liberalization template will be universally effective. The evidence here described confirms that policy recommendations need to take careful account of country conditions. The volume is the outcome of a research project sponsored by the World Bank's Development Economics Research Group.

Trading floors are a thing of the past. Thanks to a combination of computers, high-speed networks and algorithms, millions of financial transactions now happen in fractions of a second. This book studies the automation of stock markets in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, identifying the invisible actors, devices, and politics that were central to the creation of electronic trading. In addition to offering a detailed account of how stock exchanges wrestled with technology, the book also invites readers to rethink the nature of markets in modern societies. Markets, it argues, are sites for the creation of relations, and in studying how these relations changed through technology, the book highlights the sources, dynamics, and consequences of automation. In this respect, the book is both a history of automation in finance and a sociological analysis of the way in which automation gradually changed the lives and work of key financial actors.

The second volume of The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World explores the development of modern economic growth from 1870 to the present. Leading experts in economic history offer a series of regional studies from around the world, as well as thematic analyses of key factors governing the differential outcomes in different parts of the global economy. Topics covered include human capital, capital and technology, geography and institutions, living standards and inequality, trade and immigration, international finance, and warfare and empire.

The 1944 Bretton Woods conference created new institutions for international economic governance. Though flawed, the system led to a golden age in postwar reconstruction, sustained economic growth, job creation, and postcolonial development. Yet financial liberalization since the 1970s has involved deregulation and globalization, which have exacerbated instability, rather than sustained growth. In addition, the failure of Bretton Woods to provide a reserve currency enabled the dollar to fill the void, which has contributed to periodic, massive U.S. trade deficits.

Our latest global financial crisis, in which all these weaknesses played a part, underscores how urgently we must reform the international financial system. Prepared for the G24 research program, a consortium of developing countries focused on financial issues, this volume argues that such reforms must be developmental. Chapters review historical trends in global liquidity, financial flows to emerging markets, and the food crisis, identifying the systemic flaws that contributed to the recent downturn. They challenge the effectiveness of recent policy and suggest criteria for regulatory reform, keeping in mind the different circumstances, capacities, and capabilities of various economies. Essays follow ongoing revisions in international banking standards, the improved management of international capital flows, the critical role of the World Trade Organization in liberalizing and globalizing financial services, and the need for international tax cooperation. They also propose new global banking and reserve currency arrangements.

The European Union is creating a Financial Union with a European Banking Union and a Capital Markets Union in reaction to lessons learned from incomplete financial markets integration, the Global Financial Crisis and European Sovereign Debt Crisis. This book critically analyses these projects for a more integrated, resilient and sustainable financial system at a time when the United Kingdom as the member state with the most developed capital markets and the leading global and European financial center, the City of London, is leaving the Union. Neoliberal financial globalization and markets integration policies have led to finance-led capitalism that caused the crises. By building on pre-crises integration ideas, the Union revives and expands the reach of capital markets-based financing and shadow banking. The book discusses the consequences of deeper integration and the future of European financial centers advocating an alternative financial markets integration based on theories explaining finacialization and finance-led capitalism.

Regional development banks (RDB) have become increasingly important in the world economy, but have also been relatively under-researched to date. This timely volume addresses this lack of attention by providing a comprehensive, comparative, and empirically informed analysis of their origins, evolution, and contemporary role in the world economy through to the second decade of the twenty-first century. In Regional Development Banks in the World Economy, the editors provide an analytical framework that includes a revised categorisation of RDB by geographic operation and function. Part one offers detailed analyses of the origins, evolution, and contemporary role of the major RDB, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Central American Bank, the Andean Development Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Part two offers comparative analyses of key topics on RDB, examining their initial design and their changing business models, their shifting role in promoting policies supported by the United States as hegemon and the private sector. The volume ends with a critical reflection on the role played by RDB to date and a strong defence of the need for these banks in an increasingly complex world economy.

Economic globalization has given rise to frequent and severe financial crises in emerging market economies. Other countries are also unsuccessful in their efforts to generate economic growth and reduce poverty. This book provides perspectives on various aspects of the international financial system that contribute to financial crises and growth failures, and discusses the remedies that economists have proposed for addressing the underlying problems. It also sheds light on a central feature of the international financial system that remains mysterious to many economists and most non-economists: the activities of the International Monetary Fund and the factors that influence its effectiveness. Dr Isard offers policy perspectives on what countries can do to reduce their vulnerabilities to financial crises and growth failures, and a number of general directions for systemic reform. The breadth of the agenda provides grounds for optimism that the international financial system can be strengthened considerably without revolutionary change.

Economic globalization has given rise to frequent and severe financial crises in emerging market economies. Other countries are also unsuccessful in their efforts to generate economic growth and reduce poverty. This book provides perspectives on various aspects of the international financial system that contribute to financial crises and growth failures, and discusses the remedies that economists have proposed for addressing the underlying problems. It also sheds light on a central feature of the international financial system that remains mysterious to many economists and most non-economists: the activities of the International Monetary Fund and the factors that influence its effectiveness. Dr Isard offers policy perspectives on what countries can do to reduce their vulnerabilities to financial crises and growth failures, and a number of general directions for systemic reform. The breadth of the agenda provides grounds for optimism that the international financial system can be strengthened considerably without revolutionary change.

Since the last financial crisis, much work has been undertaken to strengthen the ability to respond to distress in the EU financial system. However, reforms enacted since the Single Resolution Mechanism was created in July 2014 as part of the Banking Union initiated in 2012 mainly focused on non-performing loans, and the third pillar of the Banking Union, namely a European Deposit Insurance Scheme, has not been completed. Against this backdrop, this book focuses on the reasons why the EU banking system continues to remain fragile. In particular, high stocks of non-performing loans in some countries, the Level 3 assets evaluation and high exposure of many banks to the debts of their own governments are among the major concerns. Secondly, the book discusses the completion of the public safety net for banks, including deposit insurance, which remains primarily at the national level. This creates scope for contagion from banking sector fragility to national sovereign debt distress. Of interest to banking researchers, academics and students, this book combines rigorous analysis of the regulatory framework and empirical investigation on EU banking system data to prove that market discipline and risk sharing should be viewed as complementary pillars of the Euro-area financial architecture rather than as substitutes, requiring a reformed institutional framework.

Critical Praise . . .
"The Alchemy joins Reminiscences of a Stock Operator as a timeless instructional guide of the marketplace." - Paul Tudor Jones from the Foreword
"An extraordinary . . . inside look into the decision-making process of the most successful money manager of our time. Fantastic."- The Wall Street Journal
"A breathtakingly brilliant book. Soros is one of the core of masters . . . who can actually begin to digest the astonishing complexity . . . of the game of finance in recent years."- Esquire
"A seminal investment book . . . it should be read, underlined, and thought about page-by-page, concept-by-idea. . . . He's the best pure investor ever . . . probably the finest analyst of the world in our time." - Barton M. Biggs, Morgan Stanley
George Soros is unquestionably the most powerful and profitable investor in the world today. Dubbed by BusinessWeek as "The Man Who Moves Markets," Soros has made a billion dollars going up against the British pound. Soros is not merely a man of finance, but a thinker to reckon with as well. Now, in The Alchemy of Finance, this extraordinary man reveals the investment strategies that have made him "a superstar among money managers" (The New York Times).

Presenting an economic history of international capital mobility in the modern era, this book blends narrative and quantitative methods and connects economic outcomes to the underlying political economy of international macroeconomics. It demonstrates that recent globalization can be seen, in part, as the resumption of a liberal world order that had previously been established in the years 1880-1914, although much is different in its causes and consequences.

This book presents a systematic review of the literature on the foreign expansion decisions of multinational banks (MNBs). With today's increasing level of globalization, many banks have expanded their activities internationally to take advantage of new opportunities in different markets. As each extension strategy brings distinctive benefits and challenges, finding an optimal approach to internationalization plays a crucial role in maximizing the advantages while decreasing the drawbacks under changing conditions. After screening 141 papers, 28 articles from leading international research journals were selected according to defined criteria in order to provide a synthesized framework connecting MNBs' decisions to enter foreign markets with the reasons and consequences. The book argues that the MNBs' main motivations for foreign expansion are related to location and ownership factors. Based on the priorities of these motives, MNBs can choose cross-border lending, greenfield investment or acquisition as an entry mode. Since each has its own benefits and challenges, the chosen strategy has further implications for both the profitability of MNBs and the economic conditions of the host country regarding the competition level, lending pattern to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), market interest rates and financial stability. After establishing a link between the main drivers of foreign expansion, the entry mode choices, and the impacts of foreign bank presence in the host country, the book offers managers of MNBs insights into the further implications. Highlighting the gaps in literature, it also appeals to researchers looking for future areas of study.

This volume includes ten essays concerned with financial and other forms of economic intermediation in Europe, Canada, and the United States, dating from the seventeenth century through the twentieth. The essays relate the development of institutions to economic change and describe their evolution over time. Each also discusses several different forms of intermediation and deals with significant economic and historical issues.

This book focuses on income inequality, output-inflation trade-off and economic policy uncertainty in South Africa. Tight monetary and macroprudential policies raise income inequality. Income inequality transmits monetary policy and macroprudential policy shocks to real economic activity. Economic policy uncertainty influences the dynamics in the lending rate margins, inflation expectations, credit, pass-through of the repo rate to bank lending rates and companies' cash holdings. The trade-off between output and inflation and output growth persistence vary with inflation regimes. Stimulatory demand policy shocks are less effective in high inflation regime. High income inequality raises consumption inequality, which raises demand for credit, but price stability matters in this link. Increased bank concentration raises income inequality, lowers economic growth and employment rate. Elevated economic policy uncertainty lowers output growth, lowers capital formation, reduces credit and raises companies' cash holdings. Increased companies' cash holdings reduce capital formation and impact the transmission of expansionary monetary policy shocks to real economic activity. This book shows there is an inflation level within the target band below it which lowers income inequality, while raising GDP growth and employment. Thus price stability, economic policy uncertainty and income inequality matter for the efficient transmission of policy shocks.

As international financial markets have become more complex, so has the regulatory system which oversees them. The Basel Committee is just one of a plethora of international bodies and groupings which now set standards for financial activity around the world, in the interests of protecting savers and investors and maintaining financial stability. These groupings, and their decisions, have a major impact on markets in developed and developing countries, and on competition between financial firms. Yet their workings are shrouded in mystery, and their legitimacy is uncertain.
Here, for the first time, two men who have worked within the system describe its origins and development in clear and accessible terms. Howard Davies was the first Chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority and the single regulator for the whole of Britain's financial sector. David Green was Head of International Policy at the FSA, after spending thirty years in the Bank of England, and has been closely associated with the development of the current European regulatory arrangements.
This guide to the international system will be invaluable for regulators, financial market practitioners and for students of the global financial system, wherever they are located. The book identifies weaknesses in a system faced with new types of institutions such as hedge funds and private equity, as well as the growth in importance of major developing countries, who have been excluded so far from the key decision-making fora. It will be essential reading for all those interested in the development of financial markets and the way they are regulated.

This book is dedicated to examining Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) market in the Asia-Pacific region between 2004 and 2017. It offers a broad examination of the attributes and development of the ETF markets. The book presents a new approach to ETF markets modeling that uses innovation diffusion model. In addition, it explores the empirical links between ETFs and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The book also compares ETFs and competing investment options. This book should appeal to both academics and practitioners as it includes detailed descriptions of the ETF markets and prepared projections regarding their future development. As the Asia-Pacific region plays a significant role in the global economy, this book should be useful for international readers beyond this area. The Emergence of ETFs in Asia-Pacific begins with an overview of the Asia-Pacific economies, focusing on their importance for the global economy and their features. Next, the book introduces an analytical framework. It explains major features of ETFs (such as their creation, distribution, and trading) and key categories, which facilitates profound understanding of the book merit even for readers with little knowledge about ETFs. The following chapter explores the role of ICTs in economy and society identifying channels of their impact on financial markets. It discusses how ICTs foster dynamic spread of financial innovations (including ETFs) across financial markets. Next, the book examines the ETF market's development in different countries in the Asia-Pacific region, by analyzing their level of development in terms of turnover. In this part it also provides brief characteristics of all markets, including their structures and categories of ETFs in various countries. Consecutive part of the book is dedicated to reports on the process of ICTs growing penetration across Asia-Pacific countries, showing the changes observed during recent years. It then continues the empirical analysis of the ETF markets in the Asia-Pacific region by attempting to trace the links between the development of ETF markets and ICT penetration during the period 2004-2017. As complementary material, a methodological annex is included showing major analytical techniques used throughout the research.

This volume presents current developments in the fields of banking and finance from an international perspective. Featuring contributions from the 4th International Conference on Banking and Finance Perspectives (ICBFP), this volume serves as a valuable forum for discussing current issues and trends in the banking and financial sectors, especially in light of the global economic challenges triggered by financial institutions. Using the latest theoretical models, new perspectives are brought to topics such as international banking and finance, Islamic banking, fintech, and corporate finance. Offering an opportunity to explore the challenges of a rapidly changing industry, this volume will be of interest to academics, policy makers, and scholars in the fields of banking, insurance, and finance.