The papers in this volume empirically examine three evolving and important topics in financial economics: the determinants of monetary and bank efficiency and the key factors that contribute to successful monetary and banking operations; the institutional factors that enhance or detract from the efficient manner in which financial markets work; and the macro, micro, and social factors that impact stock valuation and optimum portfolio selection.

This volume contains contemporary analysis of three key developments in financial economics: financial integration; the dynamics of financial markets; and the information, computer, and technology revolution and its impact on markets and the economic performance, among others. With regard to financial integration, the contributions focus on three streams in international finance: the impact of increased financial integration on credit risk and on the required regulatory arrangements needed to reduce the probability of welfare reducing bank failures, the creation of new international currencies, and the relationship between finance and growth. With regard to the dynamics of financial markets, specific attention is devoted to the complex interaction of different sets of traders with heterogeneous beliefs and information sets. Finally, with respect to the ICT revolution, attention is focused on its impact on: foreign direct investment across countries, competition in the banking industry, consolidation in the financial services industry including its effects credit availability for small and medium sized enterprises, and the capital structure decisions of financial firms.

New venture founders and their sponsors seek to create economic value by finding and commercializing new and better ways of doing things. Their common goal, which also defines the purpose of the entrepreneurial process itself, requires a better grasp of the key elements that influence the choices involved in attempting to create economic value under highly uncertain conditions. It also requires a deeper understanding of the consequences of new venture investment as well as the various contextual factors that influence investment decisions and venture outcomes. When confronted with a particular decision making problem faced by entrepreneurs and new venture investors, academic scholars analyze how and why the problem in question is a special case of some theory or model which they know. In seeking to detect generalities and to make abstracted sense of observed realities, academics generally classify the problem in a way that is a natural consequence of the specific discipline- or field-based knowledge they possess (Davidsson, 2002). The explanations that academic researchers provide and the predictions they make are therefore likely to be framed in terms of the types of variables, theoretical perspectives, levels of analysis, and research methodologies with which they are familiar. In seeking to explore the intellectual underpinnings of new venture investment, we have gathered and organized a set of papers that provide scholarly analysis of the choices involved in new venture investment as well as the various contextual factors that influence investment outcomes. To insure a more robust and hopefully interesting scholarly treatment of such problems, we sought to include a variety of interdisciplinary and international perspectives that reflect a broad range of theoretical and empirical approaches.

Financial models are an inescapable feature of modern financial markets. Yet it was over reliance on these models and the failure to test them properly that is now widely recognized as one of the main causes of the financial crisis of 2007-2011. Since this crisis, there has been an increase in the amount of scrutiny and testing applied to such models, and validation has become an essential part of model risk management at financial institutions. The book covers all of the major risk areas that a financial institution is exposed to and uses models for, including market risk, interest rate risk, retail credit risk, wholesale credit risk, compliance risk, and investment management. The book discusses current practices and pitfalls that model risk users need to be aware of and identifies areas where validation can be advanced in the future. This provides the first unified framework for validating risk management models.