From the early forms of loans to farmers to present day credit cards, consumer credit has always been part of human life and economics. However, ever since the Bible, controversy has reigned as to its legitimacy. It is the history of this controversy that is presented here by the authors. Outlining significant developments in different aspects of consumer credit from the Hammurabi Code through to current questions such as household overindebtedness, they shed some historical light on modern debates.

An introduction to the fast growing $1.5 billion foreign exchange trading marketplace, showing you how the markets work, how to trade them successfully and how to mitigate risk.

"The Financial Times Guide to Foreign Exchange Trading"is the authoritative primer, the first port of call for anyone interested in foreign exchange trading and wants to know what it is all about before taking the plunge.

In the last decade, both developed nations and emerging economies have been rocked by the effects of global financial crises precipitated by a baffling range of causes, from sub-prime mortgage rates to outbreaks of virulent disease. Financial and governmental bodies have acknowledged the pressing need for algorithmic models capable of predicting such crises in order to inform interventionary measures, yet to date, no single model has emerged that is robust and agile enough to sufficiently meet that task while maintaining a useful signal-to-noise ratio, making them little more reliable than a carnival fortune-teller. The Handbook of Research on Financial and Banking Crisis Prediction through Early Warning Systems addresses the inequity of developed and developing nations from the bottom up through an exploration of current literature, specific case-studies, and data-based recommendations for new crisis indicators. Touching on such topics as the Greek debt crisis, electronic banking, and financial crises in developing economies, this publication targets an audience of academics, financial analysts, researchers, post-graduate students, and policymakers working in the fields of international finance and liability management.

Since the early 1990s the countries of the European Union and Central and Eastern Europe have been involved in the process of reforming their retirement income systems. The principal objective of these reforms is to contain the cost of pay-as-you-go public pensions in the face of ageing populations. Many of the reforms involve greater reliance on personal saving and the development of capital markets to fund private pension arrangements. The distinguished contributors from Europe and the United States demonstrate the complexity of pension provision and reform, and highlight the dangers of focusing on one particular model. They consider critical issues and debates about how to finance pensions, present evidence on the effects of pension reform on the incomes of the elderly, set out objectives to ensure intergenerational equity in public pensions, and examine different pathways to pension coverage. They also argue that recent reforms in Europe may have the effect of reducing the incomes of future pensioners while exposing them to uninsurable risks associated with private pensions. This book addresses a pervasive and increasingly important issue by identifying differences in pension systems throughout the EU and Europe as a whole, and proposing various reforms and solutions to the emerging problem of pension provision. It will prove essential reading and a valuable source of reference for academics, economists, policymakers and government agencies concerned with the evolution and reform of pensions, and with social and economic development in general.

The Handbook of International Banking provides a clearly accessible source of reference material, covering the main developments that reveal how the internationalization and globalization of banking have developed over recent decades to the present, and analyses the creation of a new global financial architecture. The Handbook is the first of its kind in the area of international banking with contributions from leading specialists in their respective fields, often with remarkable experience in academia or professional practice. The material is provided mainly in the form of self-contained surveys, which trace the main developments in a well-defined topic, together with specific references to journal articles and working papers. Some contributions, however, disseminate new empirical findings especially where competing paradigms are evaluated. The Handbook is divided into four areas of interest. The first deals with the globalization of banking and continues on to banking structures and functions. The authors then focus on banking risks, crises and regulation and finally the evolving international financial architecture. Designed to serve as a source of supplementary reading and inspiration, the Handbook is suited to a range of courses in banking and finance including post-experience and in-house programmes for bankers and other financial services practitioners. This outstanding volume will become essential reference for policymakers, financial practitioners as well as academics and researchers in the field.

This important collection presents an authoritative selection of papers on public private partnerships. The literature is relatively new, and draws on the disciplines of both economics and engineering. As well as examining the recent experience of these schemes - whose evolution has accelerated in recent years - this insightful collection also considers the intellectual origins of the concept, and investigates the organisational and risk management aspects of PPPs. It will be an essential source of reference for all those with an interest in this topical subject. 36 articles, dating from 1991 to 2003

Other books present corporate finance approaches to the venture capital and private equity industry, but many key decisions require an understanding of the ways that law and economics work together. This revised and updated 2e offers broad perspectives and principles not found in other course books, enabling readers to deduce the economic implications of specific contract terms. This approach avoids the common pitfalls of implying that contractual terms apply equally to firms in any industry anywhere in the world.

In the 2e, datasets from over 40 countries are used to analyze and consider limited partnership contracts, compensation agreements, and differences in the structure of limited partnership venture capital funds, corporate venture capital funds, and government venture capital funds. There is also an in-depth study of contracts between different types of venture capital funds and entrepreneurial firms, including security design, and detailed cash flow, control and veto rights. The implications of such contracts for value-added effort and for performance are examined with reference to data from an international perspective. With seven new or completely revised chapters covering a range of topics from Fund Size and Diseconomies of Scale to Fundraising and Regulation, this new edition will be essential for financial and legal students and researchers considering international venture capital and private equity.
An analysis of the structure and governance features of venture capital contractsIn-depth study of contracts between different types of venture capital funds and entrepreneurial firmsPresents international datasets from over 40 countries around the worldAdditional references on a companion websiteContains sample contracts, including limited partnership agreements, term sheets, shareholder agreements, and subscription agreements

The original essays in this book connect the microeconomic and macroeconomic approaches to public debt. Through their thought-provoking views, leading scholars offer insights into the incentives that individuals and governments may have in resorting to public debt, thereby promoting a clearer understanding of its economic consequences. The authors explore public debt along two distinct but complementary analytical paths. One path concerns microeconomic aspects of public debt as it emerges through budgetary processes where individuals respond to the costs and gains of different courses of action. The other concerns the systemic properties of rational individual acting within a democratic system of political economy. Within this scheme of thought, the two levels of analysis are integrated by recognition that efforts to control macro-level outcomes must address the micro-level circumstances and conditions that promote public debt as systemic budgetary outcomes. Scholars and students, as well as policy makers in public debt and political economy, will find this critical resource invaluable to understanding this vital issue. Contributors include: A. Alupoaiei, F. Balassone, G. Brennan, S. Cecchetti, M. Cecioni, M. Cioffi, W. Cornacchia, F. Corneli, F. Dragu, G. Eusepi, E. Longobardi, K. Mause, F. Neagu, A. Pedone, A. Rieck, L. Schuknecht, G. Semeraro, L. Voinea, R.E. Wagner

This book consists of detailed case studies of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico and Sub-Saharan Africa, providing a critical review of the determinants and impact of FDI on growth and development, employment, technology transfer and trade.The expert contributors examine a range of controversial issues including the contribution of the relatively large volume of FDI in China to its growth, whether India should fully liberalise its FDI regime and the impact of Mexico's membership of NAFTA on the volume of FDI it has attracted. Malaysia's economic policies, which appear to have attracted relatively large volumes of FDI but failed to generate the hoped for transmission of technology and skills are also questioned, along with the role of corruption in limiting the contribution of FDI to achieving social goals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The impressive record of the Irish Republic in attracting and harnessing FDI to development objectives is examined closely and provides a detailed analysis of policies likely to promote efficient utilisation of FDI. Foreign Direct Investment will be of interest to researchers, scholars and practitioners in the areas of international economics and international business - foreign direct investment and multinational enterprises in particular - and development economics.

Environmental taxes differ from each other according to the functions they serve and the manner in which they are implemented. This study highlights the appropriateness of different kinds of environmental taxes against a rigorous framework of theory and case study evidence. The purpose of this book is to analyse the way in which environmental taxes are categorized and which factors affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the different kinds of environmental taxes in practice. This pragmatic approach is emphasized along with the multiplicity of regulatory problems such as: At what level should the environmental tax rate be set? What is the proper time schedule for introducing an environmental tax? What are the most appropriate taxable characteristics and how should they be determined? What activities should be exempt from environmental taxation? How can tax relief be implemented? These are only some of the regulatory problems explored in this study, which also encompasses an examination of the theory of regulation. The author argues that economists have often paid too little attention to the administrative and legal issues concerning the implementation of legislation, such as environmental tax laws, which are of course vital to the success of any potential policy. Lawyers too have in turn neglected the theory of regulation, which would assist in analysing problems in a future-oriented way. Environmental Taxes will therefore be of great interest to a wide audience of environmental economists, law and economics scholars as well as policymakers.

This volume presents Richard Blundell's outstanding research on the modern economic analysis of labor markets and public policy reforms. Professor Blundell's hugely influential work has enhanced greatly our understanding of how individuals' behavior on the labor market respond to taxation and social policy influence. Edited by IZA, this volume brings together the author's key papers, some co-authored and some unpublished, with new introductions and an epilogue. It covers some of the main research insights in the study of labor supply. The question of how individuals adapt their behavior in response to policy changes is one of the most investigated topics in empirical labor and public economics. Do people reduce their working hours if governments decide to raise taxes? Might they even withdraw completely from the labor market? Labor supply estimations are extensively used for various policy analyses and economic research. Labor supply elasticities are key information when evaluating tax-benefit policy reforms and their effect on tax revenue, employment, and redistribution. The chapters cover empirical and theoretical developments as well as applications to tax and welfare reform, and each represents a substantive research contribution from Blundell's publications in top research outlets.

The highly prized ability to make financial plans with some certainty about the futurecomes fromthe core fields of economics. In recent years the availability of more data, analytical tools of greater precision, and "ex post" studies of business decisions have increased demand for information about economic forecasting. Volumes 2A and 2B, which follows Nobel laureate Clive Granger's Volume 1 (2006), concentrate on two major subjects. Volume 2Acovers innovations in methodologies, specifically macroforecasting and forecasting financial variables. Volume 2Binvestigates commercial applications, with sections on forecasters' objectives and methodologies. Experts provide surveys of a large range of literaturescattered acrossappliedand theoretical statistics journals as well aseconometrics and empirical economics journals. "The Handbook of Economic Forecasting" Volumes 2A and 2Bprovide a unique compilation of chapters giving a coherent overview of forecasting theory and applications in one place and with up-to-date accounts of all major conceptual issues.
Focuses on innovation in economic forecasting via industry applicationsPresents coherent summaries of subjects in economic forecasting that stretch from methodologies to applicationsMakes details about economic forecasting accessible to scholars in fields outside economics"

Discounting is a perennial problem for economists; it is an essential component of assessing economic comparisons over time, but a number of practical and theoretical difficulties continue to confront its use. This is especially so for economists concerned with long time horizons, such as climate change or the management of the environment and natural resources. Discounting is perhaps the area of economics that generates the most disquiet and confusion from outside the discipline. Economics and the Future tackles the discounting issue from a number of angles, ranging from relatively short-term private financial decisions, to very long-term public issues spanning generations. The authors present differing perspectives and original ideas in a style that remains accessible while addressing some of the more difficult questions about discounting in theory and practice. It reveals that the economic issues regarding time are embedded in a broader social, ethical and philosophical context. This book explores practical and theoretical concerns in making economic comparisons over time, and presents innovative proposals for resolving some of the problems raised. As such, it will be of great interest to a wide-ranging audience including: academics and students focusing on economics, economic consultants, analysts and policy advisors and environmental organizations.

Learn how to evaluate any investment fund before deciding where to place your money so you can ensure you generate more wealth and protect your cash. This valuable guide will help you make the right investment decisions by: - Explaining the procedures that should be followed before investing money anywhere. - Helping you cut through marketing language to get a real sense of how risky a company's strategy may be. - Showing you what questions to ask of investment fund managers so you're more comfortable investing in a company. - Showing you how to recognise the warning signs of risky investments. This book will also help you identify companies who consistently deliver high returns, thereby allowing you to generate more wealth by investing in successful, and stable, funds.