Economics books

Advances in Pacific Basin Business, Economics, and Finance is an annual publication designed to focus on interdisciplinary research in finance, economics, and management among Pacific Rim countries. All articles published are reviewed and recommended by at least two members of editorial board. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:1. Policy and management on financial markets and financial institutions 2. Options, futures and other derivatives markets 3. Corporate finance and investment decisions 4. Insurance and risk management 5. Accounting, auditing and taxation 6. Marketing, management, and business policies of the Pacific Rim countries 7. Interdisciplinary issues on supply chain, finance, and marketing 8. Monetary and foreign exchange policy 9. Income, employment and other economic policies among the Pacific Rim countries

The 2017 APBBEF volume includes studies on financial regulations on financial institutions, research on financial markets, and issues on employment and income inequality. Regulations on insurance contracts and derivatives, bank capital standards and subordinated debt prices, and bank’s credit allocation during the financial crises are of great concern to policy makers. On the financial markets, this volume covers stock market activities and their relationship with industrial production growth and housing prices, a further equity premium puzzle, and accounting fraud and audit fees in China. This volume also includes the employment assimilation of marriage and human capital investment inequality and the rural-urban income gap in the Asia-Pacific region. Contributors to this volume include Edward J. Kane (Boston College), J. Huston McCulloch (Ohio State University), Cheng-Few Lee (Rutgers University), Thomas C. Chiang (Drexel University), Chiung-Min Tsai (Central Bank of the Republic of China), Wei-Chiao Huang (Western Michigan University), Hwei-Lin Chuang (National Tsing Hua University), Jingjing Yang (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), Sayyed Mahdi Ziaei (Xiamen University Malaysia), Ghulam Ali Bhatti (University of Gujrat), and Min-Teh Yu (China University of Technology).

The banking and finance sectors are relevant shares of modern economies and indeed drivers of growth in emerging economies. The majority of existing economic and finance textbooks focus on concepts and theories with briefly exposited real-world examples for illustration. This book, which collects chapters that are the contributions of the acknowledged experts in their fields, fills this gap by featuring in-depth analyses on prominent real-world topics in banking and finance. The book’s applications of econometrics present insightful perspectives on the recent development of banking issues, stock market contagion, the impact of internet technology (IT) on stock markets, financial innovation and technology firms, and an international perspective on the loan puzzle and interest rate adjustment in emerging markets. In addition to exhaustive case studies on banking and finance in India, Hong Kong, Japan, and other Asian emerging markets, the authors coherently contribute an intellectual advancement of contemporary issues in banking and finance literature. The authors offer an essential reading and source of reference for postgraduate and advanced undergraduate courses in economics and finance.

The EMU debt crisis that emerged in 2010 has identified a group of Southern countries, especially Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, as low performers exhibiting several serious macroeconomic imbalances, and it has also highlighted that EU integration experienced by Eastern European countries (especially the latter-comers to EU) was not accompanied by a rapid process of real convergence. Since then, the research about the effects of peripherality have regained a renewed interest to ultimately ground better regional policy recommendations aimed at achieving a sustained reduction of income per capita disparities across EU regions. In this new work, Pascariu and Duarte, along with an international group of acclaimed scholars, delve into key challenges currently facing the European Union. They investigate this central question: does the domestic market system lead to the development of a center-periphery model, by highlight gaps, or does it support the convergence process? Analyzing the effects of peripherality across the EU regions, a two-fold approach is used to deliver policy recommendations grounded in economic theory, and of interest to other countries and regions facing a process of integration.

The biggest causes of dissatisfaction in the current analysis of China’s mega trends is the lack of serious economic research effort. This has resulted in confusion and misunderstanding about the development and direction of mega trends and blind acceptance of these trends. This all leads to potentially erroneous business and policy decisions and reactions to the emergence of China. This new book examines the structural forces behind mega trends in China, refuting conventional wisdom and demystifying media and market hype. It aims to bridge the gap between the East and the West, and academic and market studies of China by examining China’s macroeconomic mega trends through the lens of rigorous economic research and evidence and taking a critical approach to question and assess the evolution of these mega trends. Coverage of China’s mega trends in this book is not meant to be exhaustive, as new trends will emerge over time and the existing trends will keep on evolving.

The financial stress of 2008 propelled the world into the most severe recession since the great depression. Despite the significant risk that it poses to the real economy, the complex interaction between financial stress and economic performance is not well understood due to the crucial gaps that remain in our understanding of this critical and dynamic relationship. Dynamics of Financial Stress and Economic Performance: Insights and Analysis from the World Economy attempts to understand the complex non-linear dynamics between financial system stress and economic performance on a global level. An analytical approach is taken to examine twelve major countries, and provide a detailed understanding of the crucial financial and economic issues faced in light of financial stress; including interest rate bottoms, inflation asymmetries, financial health of households, money supply bubbles, fiscal issues, trade dynamics, over leveraging of the financial markets, behaviour of housing prices, debt problems, potential for economic growth, or a complex combination of any of the above. This book will appeal to practitioners, students and researchers in fields such as financial economics, risk management and quantitative finance who wish to expand their knowledge of these crucial and complex dynamics. It is also an appealing read for those who are generally curious about business, banking, financial markets and macro-economic issues occurring on both an individual country and global level.

This book offers a critical perspective from which to observe evolution of the Euro Area and the European Union in these times of growing economic and political conflict. Key implications of design failures in the Euro Area (i.e. incorrect diagnostics of the public finance crisis, single monetary policy failure, heterogeneous macroeconomic environment, asymmetry in macroeconomic policies, obstacles for policy coordination) and their contribution to the excessive external and internal economic imbalances will be critically discussed from the economic, policy and institutional perspectives. This critical insight is used to examine both institutional asset and economic performance of Europe after the crisis, moving from the authors’ shared perspective that the crisis revealed the weak aspects of the whole architecture of the European Union. The economic crisis revealed the existence of different forms of imbalances inside the Eurozone and highlighted the flaws of the institutional architecture of economic policy in Europe. The greater fragility of some countries in respect to others has triggered a backward process in which national interests have started to prevail over those of both the currency area and the entire European Union. In turn, this has fuelled a progressive decline in confidence in the European institutions and is creating growing questions of interpretation both in terms of economic theory and institutional asset. This book focuses on these issues and on the degree of legitimacy of the European institutions resulting therefrom. It aims to investigate the nature and validity of the European integration process emphasizing limits and challenges arising from it.

With a growing prominence of sophisticated econometric research in a much-expanded field of New Economics of Participation (NEP), it is of particular value to learn about real-world examples of participatory and labor-managed firms in the advanced market economies through extensive case studies. In this volume of Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms, the authors present such case studies. The real-world examples of participatory organizations described vividly in this volume will help researchers in NEP to design empirical strategies better, and to interpret their econometric results more sensibly. Furthermore, they will help policymakers and practitioners in their efforts to construct better public policy and design management practices.

Energy poverty, one of the major challenges facing the global energy system, has drawn wide attention from the international community and academia. As the largest developing country in the world, China faces a number of challenges in understanding and resolving the problem of energy poverty. Energy Economics: Understanding and Interpreting Energy Poverty in China presents a succinct overview of research on China’s Energy Poverty as studied by the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). Based on the analytical framework of energy economics, the book summarizes and refines international energy assessment methods, builds China’s energy poverty measurement and comprehensive evaluation criteria, and evaluates China’s energy poverty from the perspective of time and space. It goes on to analyze the impact of solid fuel use on urban and rural residents’ health, and review the relationship between energy poverty and economic development, clean energy development and energy poverty, as well as climate change and energy availability. Finally, it summarizes policies and actions to eliminate energy poverty. This book will provide essential scientific support for researchers and policy makers dealing with energy poverty.

This multidisciplinary approach to the Western Balkans addresses topics from responsible business and ethics, innovation, corporate social responsibility, and new technology to human resources management. It is a theoretical and practical guide towards a sustainable future for the Western Balkans, showing drivers and barriers affecting the region in its effort to green its economy, and provides a systematic and holistic overview and critical examination of the situation in the region. Chapters explore a review of the literature and developing theory, and report empirical procedures. If the Western Balkan countries are following the industrialised states of Western Europe—which are now keen to develop in a sustainable manner, combining economic growth with social justice and improved environment—this work fills the growing need for more research and to expand the current knowledge base about environmental and development challenges, as well as the new, efficient and climate-neutral ‘Green Economy’ of this region.