Page 1
Page 1
Microfinance Investment Funds : leveraging private capital for economic growth and poverty reduction
The surge in new investment funds - nearly 60 funds at last count - is an exciting sign that microfinance is attracting mainstream financial markets. Foreign investors bridge a crucial gap for MFIs and greenfield banks not yet able to attract deposits, debt or equity from local sources. Recognizing the ultimate goal of building those local financial markets that serve the poor, some foreign investors and funds are facilitating local intermediation with incentives like guarantees for local banks to lend to MFIs in local currency. Such contributions to local market building, combined with strengthening governance, increasing transparency and rigor make the new funds potentially very positive forces in microfinance.
International Trade and Multinational Activity : Heterogeneity of Firms, Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment, and International Business Cycle Dynamics
During the last 25 year, the neoclassical Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory has been extended to the ‘new’ trade theory by including imperfect competition and fixed costs into the analysis of trade relations. Furthermore, these micro-oriented trade models are increasingly used to analyze macro-oriented questions. Chapter 2 of this study investigates the dynamic welfare effects of exposure to trade in a new trade model, which is extended by firm heterogeneity.
Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation : Schumpeterian Legacies
This book provides an account of work in the Schumpeterian and evolutionary tradition of industrial dynamics and the evolution of industries. It is shown that over time industries evolve and change their structure. In this dynamic process change is affected and sometimes constraint by many factors: knowledge and technologies, the capabilities and incentives of actors, new products and processes, and institutions. All these elements and their relations drive innovative activities and affect economic performance in an industry. Investigations into these complex phenomena show a deep interdependence between empirical work delivering a rich account of regularities and stylized facts in the structure of industries and their change, and theoretical analyses ranging from appreciate theorizing to formal modeling.
Innovation Matters : Competition Policy for the High-Technology Economy
A proposal for moving from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy, reviewing theory and available evidence on economic incentives for innovation. Competition policy and antitrust enforcement have traditionally focused on prices rather than innovation. Economic theory shows the ways that price competition benefits consumers, and courts, antitrust agencies, and economists have developed tools for the quantitative evaluation of price impacts. Antitrust law does not preclude interventions to encourage innovation, but over time the interpretation of the laws has raised obstacles to enforcement policies for innovation. In this book, economist Richard Gilbert proposes a shift from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy. Antitrust enforcement should be concerned with protecting incentives for innovation and preserving opportunities for dynamic, rather than static, competition. In a high-technology economy, Gilbert argues, innovation matters.
General Equilibrium and Welfare Economics : An Introduction
A good basic understanding of general equilibrium theory is a fundamental and indispensable background for advanced work in virtually any sub-field of economics; and a thorough understanding of the methods of welfare economics, particularly in a general equilibrium context, is indispensable for investigators undertaking applied policy analysis. This book addresses these needs and requirements by emphasizing the basic underpinnings of general equilibrium and welfare economics. In particular, the theory of choice, which is fundamental to both areas, is developed in a very comprehensive and rigorous fashion. Moreover, extensive use is made of examples, both of the simple type intended to bolster the student’s understanding of the basic concepts, and those illustrating the application of the material to field areas in economics.
Fitofarmacovigilanza : Vigilanza sulla sicurezza dei prodotti fitoterapici = Phytopharmacovigilance: Monitoring the safety of phytotherapeutic products
The use of herbal medicines is now widespread in large sections of the population to solve both acute and chronic problems, both trivial and very serious, and for health purposes. We know that phytotherapics can be obtained without a prescription, and that they are found, as well as in pharmacies, also in herbal medicine and supermarkets as food supplements. It is therefore essential to monitor the safety of these products through phytopharmacovigilance, which requires in-depth knowledge about the nature of the phytotherapic, its chemical components and the way in which it was prepared and used. Doctors, pharmacists, herbalists, and consumers themselves will find in this manual useful information on adverse reactions (ADRs) from herbal medicines; the industries of the herbal sector, and above all the legislator and the bodies responsible for control, will find incentives to improve the safety of use of these natural drugs.
Financial Privacy : An International Comparison of Credit Reporting Systems
This book provides the first in-depth analysis of the economics and regulation of financial privacy. It is an international comparison of credit reporting systems in the United States and in European countries. On the theoretical level the book explains competition in information markets, especially in markets for goods made of highly personal and sensitive information. It reviews the microeconomics of information and privacy and discusses the economic incentives to disclose or to conceal information. The book also focuses on the institutions of credit reporting, the history of credit reporting agencies and the regulation of privacy and credit reporting on both sides of the Atlantic as well as internationally. Finally, on the empirical level, it reviews the microeconomic and potential macroeconomic effects of credit reporting in the credit markets of countries around the world.
Finance 4.0 - towards a socio-ecological finance system : A participatory framework to promote sustainability
The first is Bitcoin that infamously pursues a state-independent, decentralized conception of money. The second is Finance 4.0, a system that proposes a participatory multi-dimensional money system with built-in incentives for sustainable behavior
Equity Financing and Covenants in Venture Capital : An Augmented Contracting Approach to Optimal German Contract Design
Karoline Jung-Senssfelder presents the first augmented contracting analysis, focusing on the interaction of both, financial instruments and covenants, in the creation of incentives to the contracting parties. With a focus on the German market, she integrates the findings of her model-based theoretical and survey-based empirical analyses to derive value-adding implications for an incentive-compatible contract design in the German venture capital market.
Environmental Policy Instruments for Conserving Global Biodiversity
If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. —Mark 9:23 The current, unprecedented loss of global biodiversity as a result of anthropo genic interference in the world's ecosystems is affecting human well-being across the globe with increasing severity. It therefore represents a major chal lenge in international environmental policymaking. With the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the community of states has recognized the in creasing importance of preserving biodiversity. Given the extensive context of biodiversity loss and preservation, this study focuses on two issues, which are at the center of the public discussion regarding the objectives of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity, and that are addressed by specific policy instruments. The first issue is the regulation of cross-border trade in genetic information and genetic resources. Here, the question is whether the commercial use of genetic information derived from bio diversity can create incentives for its preservation. The second issue involves the conservation of biodiversity through the protection of ecologically valuable eco systems from human use.
Electronic Commerce : Theory and Practice
This book addresses new trends and innovative aspects in electronic commerce research, including B2B (business to business), B2C (business to customers), Supply Chain Management, Business Process Management, Agent-based E-Commerce, E-Commerce Intelligence, Decision Support Systems, Web Services, Agents and Economic Incentives, Auctions and Negotiations, Case Study in E-Commerce, and so on.
Effective and efficient organisations? : Government export promotion in Germany and the UK from an organisational economics perspective
Using organisational economics theory, the author develops a conceptual framework for analysing the effectiveness and efficiency of public services delivery. In applying the framework to case studies of export support organisations in Germany and the UK , the research establishes the causal links between organisational structures and outputs. The decisive variables are knowledge and incentives of the actors, and adaptability of the organisation.
Economics of Accounting : Performance Evaluation
This book Performance Evaluation is divided into four parts. Volume I contains Parts A through D, and the concepts developed in Part A are fundamental to both volumes. In Volume II, Part E initially focuses on optimal contracts in a single-agent /single-task/single-period setting, and explores how performance measure characteristics affect the principal’s expected payoff. Multiple performance measures (including the stock price) and multiple tasks are introduced, thereby creating settings in which the principal is concerned with both the level of incentives and the congruency of the incentives with his own preferences. Part F considers the impact of start-of-period private management information (with communication to the principal) and limited commitment in single-period settings. These analyses serve as a bridge to the multi-period models explored in Part G. These multi-period models permit exploration of the impact of inter-period consumption preferences and limited inter-period commitments on preferences with respect to the inter-period correlation and timing of performance reports. Part H concludes the book with an analysis of multi-agent contracting in settings in which agents may coordinate their actions to their mutual benefit, and may even engage in overt collusion.
Digital Integration, Growth and Rational Regulation
This book focuses on the role of information and communication technologies for economic integration, networking and growth. Technological and regulatory dynamics are highlighted with respect to EU countries and the US. The analysis deals with the main issues of rational regulations in open economies. Schumpeterian developments and dynamic efficiency gains are crucial for Europe in the context of telecommunications competition and network modernisation – achieving the goals of the Lisbon Agenda requires adequate incentives for investment and solid capital market prospects. Economic progress in the digital knowledge society will be characterised by enormous structural change and the growth of digital services. New policy conclusions at both the national and international levels – including welfare analysis – are presented.
Country-Compatible Incentive Design : A Comparision of Employees' Performance Reward Preferences in Germany and the USA
Based on an empirical study among employees of a multinational corporation (MNC) in Germany and the USA, Marjaana Gunkel shows that the employees in these countries have different preferences regarding incentives and that incentive plans designed for one country are not always effective in others. Money is an important motivator in both countries, but the motivational effects of non-monetary rewards differ greatly. In addition, the author presents an explorative study of employee groups in China and Japan and gives advice for designing appropriate compensation schemes for employees of MNC in different countries.
Ad-Hoc, mobile, and wireless networks ; Vol.3738 ; 4th International conference, ADHOC-NOW 2005, Cancun, Mexico, October 6-8, 2005, Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Ad-Hoc Networks and Wireless, ADHOiNOW 2005, The papers discuss architectures, protocols, and algorithms for: access control, scheduling, ad hoc and sensor networks analytic methods and modelling for performance evaluation, characterization, optimization, auto-configuration, incentives and pricing, location awareness, discovery, dependence, and management, mesh networks, new applications, power management, power control, and energy-efficiency, quality-of-service, resource allocation, multimedia, routing (unicast, multicast, etc.), security and privacy, service discovery, systems and testbeds, wireless internet, and data management.
