This book breaks new ground by exploring the challenges, constraints, and opportunities of national financial systems in developing countries, while noting that all such systems must be considered small when viewed in the context of global finance. Banking, securities, contractual savings, and systemic macroeconomic aspects are all considered.

This collection of essays aims to form a focused, original and constructive approach to examining the question of convergence and divergence in Europe.

Rules, Rules, Rules, Rules considers various sectors where rule-making spans all or most of the four levels of jurisdiction - international, federal, provincial, and city or local - in areas such as food safety, investment and trade, forestry, drinking water, oil and gas, and emergency management.

It is now well known that there are close links between financial sector development and economic growth, and in turn between economic growth and poverty reduction. A well-functioning financial sector that allocates finance to the best opportunities can contribute to a more diverse economy and a more equal society, rewarding entrepreneurial newcomers and challenging an entrenched and sometimes corrupt, economic and political status quo. However, at first glance, the international finance theory and policies would seem to have little relevance for Africa as there were built up in response to developments that took place far from Africa and whose direct impact on Africa was limited. Nonetheless, key components of the international finance functioning are very relevant for Africa. The ongoing global financial and economic crises that are shaking the world have come as a stark reminder that African countries have a direct interest in global financial stability even though they may not be the main actors. In this line, economic fundamentals, sound national macroeconomic and structural policies and a sound and properly regulated financial system are as critical as ever in Africa. This volume explores the application of the basic theory and the policies of international financial transactions in Africa. It contains six chapters on conceptual and policy-oriented issues. Analyses raise important questions and offers favorable counter-arguments to the application of international finance theory after bringing to focus the relevance of certain themes in Africas inter-state and intrastate policies.

This book represents a significant contribution to the debates surrounding globalization and local systems of innovation. The diverse perspectives on global and local processes combined with original insights on developing countries should be of value to scholars and students of economics, social science, political science and business administration. The book should also be of interest to policymakers in governmental and non-governmental bodies, particularly international development agencies.

Focuses on a micro approach to political economy that grounds policy choices in the competitive environments of domestic politics and decision-making processes.

In Public Law and Private Power, John W. Cioffi argues that the highly politicized reform of corporate governance law has reshaped power relations within the public corporation in favor of financial interests, contributed to the profound crises of contemporary capitalism, and eroded its political foundations. Analyzing the origins of pro-shareholder and pro-financial market reforms in the United States and Germany during the past two decades, Cioffi unravels a double paradox: the expansion of law and the regulatory state at the core of the financially driven neoliberal economic model and the surprising role of Center Left parties in championing the interests of shareholders and the financial sector. Since the early 1990s, changes in law to alter the structure of the corporation and financial markets—two institutional pillars of modern capitalism—highlight the contentious regulatory politics that reshaped the legal architecture of national corporate governance regimes and thus the distribution of power and wealth among managers, investors, and labor. Center Left parties embraced reforms that strengthened shareholder rights as part of a strategy to cultivate the support of the financial sector, promote market-driven firm-level economic adjustment, and appeal to popular outrage over recurrent corporate financial scandals. The reforms played a role in fostering an increasingly unstable financially driven economic order; their implication in the global financial crisis in turn poses a threat to center-left parties and the legitimacy of contemporary finance capitalism.

Written by 27 World Bank experts, this book draws on the Bank's unique global capabilities and experience to promote an understanding of key global issues that cannot be solved by any one nation alone in an increasingly interconnected world. It describes the forces that are shaping public and private action to address these issues and highlights the Bank's own work in these areas. Covering four broad themes (global economy, global human development, global environment, and global governance), this comprehensive volume provides an introduction to today's most pressing global issues -- from pove.

Environmental harm is commonly associated with companies that extract, consume, and pollute our shared natural resources. Rarely are the 'unseen polluters,' the financiers that sponsor and profit from eco-damaging corporations, placed at the forefront of the environmental debate. By focusing on these unseen polluters, Benjamin Richardson provides a comprehensive examination of socially responsible investment (SRI), and offers a guide to possible reform. Richardson proposes that greater regulatory supervision of SRI will help ensure that the financial sector prioritizes ethically-based investments. In Socially Responsible Investment Law, he suggests that new governmental reforms should encourage companies to participate in socially responsible investments by providing a better mix of standards and incentives for SRI through measures that include redefining the fiduciary responsibilities of institutional investors to incorporate environmental concerns. By doing so, Richardson posits that corporate financiers, including banks, hedge funds, and pension plans, will become more accountable to the goals of ensuring sustainable development.