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Book Description




Frontiers in Economics


Book Description

Economic Theory, academic policy analysis and public policy design are becoming more interdependent. Hence, the demands for close interactions between the policy community and the research community have been rising significantly. This book assesses how recent economic thinking has advanced under these influences. Furthermore, it evaluates the important contribution economics can add to the design and evaluation of public policy, now more than ever before. The study is of interest to policy makers, policy analysts, researchers and students of economics at all levels. The authors, which include many of Germany's most eminent economists, draw on their wide experience in research and consultancy to present a coherent view of where European economic theory stands today and how it can play a role in the management of the economy of the new millennium.




Entrepreneurial Finance


Book Description

This book examines the proliferation of new sources of entrepreneurial finance and how these sources have the potential to make it easier for ventures to raise capital and grow. To date, entrepreneurial finance literature has developed a rich tradition of research on venture capital and angel finance. However, the emergence of ‘new’ sources of finance – such as crowdfunding – and the limited attention paid to ‘traditional’ debt financing and financial bootstrapping offer opportunities to explore, from different points of view and theoretical perspectives, the challenges that ventures face. The objective of this book is to explore these new and traditional sources of finance; suggest how these phenomena can be better understood conceptually; and guide new ways of understanding the topic in future, especially for researchers. The introduction outlines the new sources of entrepreneurial finance, and in comparing them with more traditional sources, proposes challenges in our conceptual understanding of these new and traditional sources. The subsequent chapters deal with important topics, including looking at the way different funding sources may interact; factors that impede family firms from getting external funding; how best to succeed with equity crowdfunding by looking at pre-selection processes; considering differences in perceptions towards funding sources arising from whether entrepreneurs are native born or immigrants; factors to consider when funding specialized assets in high uncertain sectors such as biotechnology; and the internationalization of business angel activity. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Venture Capital journal.




Frontiers of Development Economics


Book Description

With contributions from 35 leading economists, this forward-looking book explores the future of development economics against the background of the past half-century of development thought and practice. Outstanding representatives of the past two generations of development economists assess development thinking at the turn of the century and look to the unsettled questions confronting the next generation.The volume offers a thorough analysis of the broad range of issues involved in development economics, and it is especially timely in its critique of what is needed in development theory and policy to reduce poverty. An overriding issue is whether in the future 'development economics' is to be regarded simply as applied economics or whether the nature and scope of development economics will constitute a need for a special development theory to supplement general economic theory.'Frontiers of Development Economics' is an ideal reference for all those working in the international development community.




Nonlinear Dynamical Systems in Economics


Book Description

Many problems in theoretical economics are mathematically formalized as dynam ical systems of difference and differential equations. In recent years a truly open approach to studying the dynamical behavior of these models has begun to make its way into the mainstream. That is, economists formulate their hypotheses and study the dynamics of the resulting models rather than formulating the dynamics and studying hypotheses that could lead to models with such dynamics. This is a great progress over using linear models, or using nonlinear models with a linear approach, or even squeezing economic models into well-studied nonlinear systems from other fields. There are today a number of economic journals open to publishing this type of work and some of these have become important. There are several societies which have annual meetings on the subject and participation at these has been growing at a good rate. And of course there are methods and techniques avail able to a more general audience, as well as a greater availability of software for numerical and graphical analysis that makes this type of research even more excit ing. The lecturers for the Advanced School on Nonlinear Dynamical Systems in Economics, who represent a wide selection of the research areas to which the the ory has been applied, agree on the importance of simulations and computer-based analysis. The School emphasized computer applications of models and methods, and all contributors ran computer lab sessions.




Ethical Finance and Prosperity


Book Description

The debate on connections between economic activity and socio-environmental impact has become increasingly relevant. As a result, ethical finance is emerging from its niche. However, the terms "ethical finance" and "sustainable finance" are often confused and overlapping, and the risk of greenwashing is high. Many authors suggest the need of a paradigm shift because the present economic system is no longer able to maintain a safe environment. Tim Jackson explicitly argues about the need of a future of "prosperity without growth". From the experiences of ethical finance, we can identify some interesting tools to achieve that goal. This book explains how ethical finance works and which innovations it has engendered in financial and economic systems; clarifies the links between finance and ethics, going beyond Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, and offers an approach, which is vital for most financial sectors, from microcredit to impact investing; investigates the goals, constraints, and opportunities of environmental and social considerations in finance and explores the more innovative experiences in banking and investing. It helps readers understand the phenomena in depth, distinguishing the strategic, managerial, organizational, and risk practices of ethical finance. The authors adopt a holistic but critical approach, both with respect to the practices exercised by financial intermediaries, and with reference to new regulatory aspects. The book identifies the key issues and current challenges of ethical finance, both for financial operators and regulators. Several concrete international cases offer empirical comparisons of practices, and as such it will be an invaluable reference for academics and researchers who wish to deepen their knowledge of ethical finance.




Estimation and Determinants of Cost Efficiency: Evidence from Central Bank Operational Expenses


Book Description

The finances of central banks is a topic of renewed interest: many central banks are posting significant losses due to the cost of monetary policy, over which central banks have no control. Conversely, operational expenses, over which the central banks have more control, is a subject of less attention. We use public income statement data from central banks to calculate a score for operational expense efficiency based on a stochastic frontier analysis. In addition, we offer potential explanations for the observed variations in efficiency levels across central banks. Our analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across countries and income groups. Central banks with a single objective demonstrate higher efficiency compared with those with multiple objectives. Regarding the output of price stability, central banks in low-income developing countries exhibit lower efficiency compared with central banks in emerging markets and advanced economies. Factors such as central bank independence, the depth of the financial system, and the degree of openness play a role in influencing efficiency levels. Our findings underscore the significance of well-defined objectives, the operating environment, and concentration on core activities in reducing inefficiency.




Bank-Industry versus Stock Market-Industry Relationships


Book Description

This book focuses on a variety of themes concerning the relationship between financial systems in a broader sense and firms’ growth in historical perspective in some European countries. Financial systems are nowadays largely acknowledged to be a crucial element in determining economic growth. In modern economies, they play a key role by mobilizing savings, pricing risks and allocating capital to firms. Following a consolidated taxonomy focusing on the historical perspective, countries have been conventionally divided into bank-oriented (Continental Europe countries and Japan) and market-oriented systems (Anglo-Saxon countries). The chapters in this book present case studies on Belgium, Great Britain, France and Italy and show that financial systems do not trigger growth processes and industrialization, but they are essential to sustain them over time. Each society has the financial system that fits with its historical trajectory, without any being better or worse than others. The important thing is to have a financial system that is sophisticated and stable, and that evolves according to the demand forces of the moment. History matters. Bank-Industry versus Stock Market-Industry Relationships will be a beneficial read for students interested in economics and business history. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Business History.




Effective Fiscal-Monetary Interactions in Severe Recessions


Book Description

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent need for policy support have called the traditional separation between fiscal and monetary policies into question. Based on simulations of an open economy DSGE model calibrated to emerging and advance economies and case study evidence, the analysis shows when constraints are binding a more integrated approach of looking at policies can lead to a better policy mix and ultimately better macroeconomic outcomes under certain circumstances. Nonetheless, such an approach entails risks, necessitating a clear assessment of each country’s circumstances as well as safeguards to protect the credibility of the existing institutional framework.




Economics with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents


Book Description

This book offers a practical guide to Agent Based economic modeling, adopting a “learning by doing” approach to help the reader master the fundamental tools needed to create and analyze Agent Based models. After providing them with a basic “toolkit” for Agent Based modeling, it present and discusses didactic models of real financial and economic systems in detail. While stressing the main features and advantages of the bottom-up perspective inherent to this approach, the book also highlights the logic and practical steps that characterize the model building procedure. A detailed description of the underlying codes, developed using R and C, is also provided. In addition, each didactic model is accompanied by exercises and applications designed to promote active learning on the part of the reader. Following the same approach, the book also presents several complementary tools required for the analysis and validation of the models, such as sensitivity experiments, calibration exercises, economic network and statistical distributions analysis. By the end of the book, the reader will have gained a deeper understanding of the Agent Based methodology and be prepared to use the fundamental techniques required to start developing their own economic models. Accordingly, “Economics with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents” will be of particular interest to graduate and postgraduate students, as well as to academic institutions and lecturers interested in including an overview of the AB approach to economic modeling in their courses.