Investment is crucial to the development of a nation's economy and welfare. In contrast to the United States, investment in Europe has been quite modest over the past few years. This volume gathers together a number of papers by prominent researchers in the field of investment. It provides an overview of recent developments in this area and presents new empirical findings on the determinants and implications of the investment process in European countries. Topics include: role of taxation, uncertainty and the financial systems, as well as the relevance of corporate governance to the investment process. Two chapters are dedicated to infrastructure investment and foreign direct investment.

Wall Street seems short on vision these days. Investors are living day to day, planning no further than the next quarterly earnings reports. That’s no way to invest. Former investment banker and hedge fund manager Hilary Kramer advocates a different approach: GameChanger Investing. Based on her thirty-plus years managing billions of investment dollars, Kramer—a globally recognized futurist—shows you how to make money and stay ahead of the wave in a constantly changing world. As long as people keep innovating, dreaming, and executing, great companies will grow and create wealth. But not all growth companies are created equal. From fintech to food-tech, information warfare to the Internet of Things, Kramer identifies the specific technologies, trends, and companies that are both changing the world and poised for significant stock appreciation. GameChanger Investing is visionary investing, but it’s not speculation. Kramer identifies companies with rock-solid fundamentals ready for catalysts that will turn them into major disruptors. Instead of fighting economic disruption or pretending it doesn’t exist, she helps you put disruption to work for your portfolio. Embrace the future and invest in tomorrow’s GameChanging billion-dollar trends. The secrets are in the pages of this book.

As we witness a series of social, political, cultural, and economic changes/disruptions this book examines the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the way emerging technologies are impacting our lives and changing society. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the emergence of new technologies that are blurring the boundaries between the physical, the digital, and the biological worlds. This book allows readers to explore how these technologies will impact peoples’ lives by 2030. It helps readers to not only better understand the use and implications of emerging technologies, but also to imagine how their individual life will be shaped by them. The book provides an opportunity to see the great potential but also the threats and challenges presented by the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, posing questions for the reader to think about what future they want. Emerging technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, cloud computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), and fully autonomous vehicles, among others, will have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, as such this book looks at their potential impact in the entire spectrum of daily life, including home life, travel, education and work, health, entertainment and social life. Providing an indication of what the world might look like in 2030, this book is essential reading for students, scholars, professionals, and policymakers interested in the nexus between emerging technologies and sustainable development, politics and society, and global governance.

More than twenty World Bank practitioners deliver their vision of the policy agenda for, and likely economic evolution of, developing countries in the post-crisis era.

The SRI phenomenon is said to be entering the mainstream of financial intermediation. From a fairly marginal practice promoted or campaigned for by NGO’s and at odds with financial practice and orthodoxy it grew into well formulated policy adopted by a wide range of investors. Academic literature on SRI has also boomed on the assumption that mainstreaming is taking place. However, little thinking has been carried out on questions specifically arising from this alleged ‘mainstreaming’. This book, addressed to those with a scholarly or practitioner’s interest in SRI, starts filling this neglected dimension. Today, one cannot ignore the difficulties of main stream financing. The financial spheres are trembling globally in one of the worst crises since the 1930’s. As a response to the crisis, the intermediation of ‘financial responsibility’ will undoubtedly be the subject of new regulation and scrutinizing. This book looks into what these turbulences will imply for SRI. In view of these circumstances, one might or even should, ask oneself whether the phenomenon was not an empty fad during the exuberant high of financial euphoria that came abruptly to an end with current financial crises. To put it rather sec: are financial intermediaries that promote ‘sustainability’ credible, while it is obvious that some developments in financial intermediation -predictably, as some say- were unsustainable? Is this an opportunity for enhancing SRI because of the strength and superiority it has developed or will it disappear due to a return to financial myopia? This book is the first to question the future of SRI in such a radical way.