This book applies econometric techniques to test the relationship between efficiency and risk within the banking industry in China. Chapters examine how efficiency has been affected by different types of risk-taking behaviour and how risk has been an important determinant of bank efficiency in the context of the series of reforms impacting banks in China since 1978. The author begins by unpacki…
This book takes up unique agent-based approaches to solving problems related to stock and their derivative markets. Toward this end, the authors have worked for more than 15 years on the development of an artificial market simulator called U-Mart for use as a research and educational tool. A noteworthy feature of the U-Mart simulator compared to other artificial market simulators is that U-Mart…
The Author shows that modelling the uncertain cash flow dynamics of an investment project deserves careful attention in real options valuation. Focusing on the case of commodity price uncertainty, a broad empirical study reveals that, contrary to common assumptions, prices are often non-stationary and exhibit non-normally distributed returns. Subsequently, more realistic stochastic volatility, …
The current world financial scene indicates at an intertwined and interdependent relationship between financial market activity and economic health. This book explains how the economic messages delivered by the dynamic evolution of financial asset returns are strongly related to option prices. The Black Scholes framework is introduced and by underlining its shortcomings, an alternative approach…
Thomas Malthus identified a crucial tension at the heart of a market economy: While an accumulation of wealth is necessary to provide the capital investment needed to generate growth, too much accumulation will cause planned saving to exceed profitable investment, which will result in secular stagnation, a condition of low growth and underemployment of resources. Keynes drew inspiration from Ma…
This book describes in full the major approaches used to evaluate investment in real estate and shows how theory informs decision-aid methods and tools to support such evaluation. The inclusion of numerous examples makes it also a practical guide to assessing the suitability of an investment property. The first part of the text is devoted to an analysis of the housing market through the stud…
This textbook provides an introduction to environmental finance and investments. The current situation raises fundamental questions that this book aims to address. Under which conditions could carbon pricing schemes contribute to a significant decrease in emissions? What are the new investment strategies that the Kyoto Protocol and the emerging carbon pricing schemes around the world should pro…
This book presents detailed case studies of the first commercial internet digital currency systems developed between 1996 and 2004. Transactions completed with the new technology circumvented all US financial regulations, an opening that transnational criminals exploited. Mullan explains how an entire industry of companies, agents, and participants turned a blind eye to crimes being committed i…
Thinking of launching your own hedge fund? Want to learn more about the different steps involved in setting up and scaling a hedge fund? Want to understand what are the global best practices in order to grow your existing hedge fund and attract institutional investors? This book is the first hands-on publication to set out in concrete and practical terms the various steps and considerations…
Economic development is a priority for all nation-states, whether developing or developed. In recent times, a few among the developing nations – often referred to as the emerging economies – have attracted the world’s attention because of their fast pace of economic growth. While the similarities among these nations (for example the BRICS) in the pattern of their economic growth are highl…