The European Investment Bank is helping African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in parts of society that are sometimes forgotten — young people, women and girls, small companies, rural villages. We are creating opportunities for everyone. In this report, you can meet the people who are making a difference for themselves and for others. There are stories on the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a …
Food price volatility is one of the major challenges facing the global agricultural system today. This was most vividly illustrated during the global food crisis of 2007–9 when price spikes occurred for key staple food commodities—such as wheat, rice, maize, and soybeans. Given the variety of reactions by governments of countries experiencing similar food price shocks, the 2007–9 crisis o…
This book clarifies several ambiguous arguments and claims in finance and the theory of the firm. It also serves as a bridge between derivatives, corporate finance and the theory of the firm. In addition to mathematical derivations and theories, the book also uses anecdotes and numerical examples to explain some unconventional concepts. The main arguments of the book are: (1) the ownership of t…
The Investment Report, issued annually by the European Investment Bank, provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of investment and the financing of investment in the European Union. It combines the exploration of investment trends with in-depth analysis, focusing especially on the drivers and barriers to investment activity. The report leverages on a unique set of databases and survey dat…
This book provides a set of lectures for an intermediate course in Public economics devoted to four topics, in many elements related each other. The first one is the Economics of institutions and political economy, as a general framework to analyze the public intervention in modern economies. The second one is the Economics of Law, which is at the basis of the working of the exchange economy. T…
Government policies, marketing campaigns of banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, and consumers' protective actions all depend on assumptions about consumer financial behavior. Unfortunately, many consumers have no or little knowledge of budgeting, financial products, and financial planning. It is therefore important that organizations and market authorities know why con…
Once upon a time there was a city in a cold place a long way to the north. One day the city started to tell a story about itself. As the chapters unfolded, life in the city changed, and soon it didn’t even seem so cold or far away any more. People listened to the story and realised that the city wasn’t quite what they expected. They started to tell the story to each other about how the city…
Banks in Africa are weathering the COVID-19 pandemic well and showing a lot of creativity to overcome the crisis’s problems. But the war in Ukraine is causing new concerns. With interest rates rising in many countries and bond funding becoming more expensive, a significant number of banks are worried about rising financing costs. These issues and more are covered in the new Finance in Africa …
As technology advancement has increased, so to have computational applications for forecasting, modelling and trading financial markets and information, and practitioners are finding ever more complex solutions to financial challenges. Neural networking is a highly effective, trainable algorithmic approach which emulates certain aspects of human brain functions, and is used extensively in finan…
This report looks at employer–provided training in Europe. Starting with a brief outline of the economic theory of training, it turns to recent developments by combining data from two employer surveys, the European Investment Bank’s Investment Survey (EIBIS) and Eurostat’s Continuous Vocational Training Survey (CVTS). It reviews the recent empirical literature on the relationship between …