After the crisis in emerging market economies in the mid-late 1990s, the adoption of internationally recognized standards, or codes of good practice, was seen as a way to help strengthen the international financial system. This volume examines whether the standards and codes exercise can make a meaningful contribution to global financial stability and examines the developing country perspective. It takes the first steps in answering some of the open questions in the field.

Four years after the debacle, the name "Enron" has become a term in the everyday vocabulary of business ethics. Hardly anyone understands the business intricacies of what really happened with the sophisticated energy conglomerate. This book not only shows how and where ethics came into play, but also draws lessons and discusses possible remedies that may prevent the whole financial system from falling apart as a result of either excessive greed or over-regulation.

In this book Dimitris N. Chorafas has uncovered the hidden risks behind alternative investments through extensive research in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. He also provides solutions to the problems identified. This book is particularly important in light of recent scandals such as Enron and WorldCom.

Multinationals dominate world trade and direct investment. However, less developed countries have often regarded this power as detrimental to their fragile, growing economies and have pursued a policy of regulation. Modern economic theories of multinationals need to evaluate the effects of such policies. This book offers an alternative to restrictive policies, arguing that multinationals are best treated in the same way as local private firms. By integrating new theories of multinational enterprise and of development economics, the author presents a critical analysis of the various competing policy options and their consequences.

Multinational Investment in Developing Countries explores the struggle for gains from direct investment between multinationals and developing countries. The author explains differences in taxation and nationalization between countries, and considers how direct investments can best contribute to social welfare worldwide.

Defense, Welfare and Growth brings together leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Asia in search of new perspectives on how a country's defense burden might affect its welfare provision and economic growth, and vice versa. The essays are theoretical in nature, with chapters on methodology and political theory and a comparison of the historical experiences of a variety of developed and developing countries.

This book argues that it is not alway true that current account deficits are intrinsically bad and in need of serious correction. John Pitchford analyzes a broad range of issues in support of this argument, discussing approaches to current account balance, short run issues, longer run issues and policy. This counterbalance to a common misapprehension in economic theory will be a valuable guide for students of international monetary theory.

Collateral - generally defined as an asset used to provide security for a lender's loan - is an important feature of credit contracts and all the available evidence suggests that its use is getting more pervasive. This informative book builds upon recent research into this topic.

In Volatility and Correlation 2nd edition: The Perfect Hedger and the Fox, Rebonato looks at derivatives pricing from the angle of volatility and correlation. With both practical and theoretical applications, this is a thorough update of the highly successful Volatility & Correlation – with over 80% new or fully reworked material and is a must have both for practitioners and for students.

Sound risk management often involves a combination of both mathematical and practical aspects. Taking this into account, Understanding Risk: The Theory and Practice of Financial Risk Management explains how to understand financial risk and how the severity and frequency of losses can be controlled. It combines a quantitative approach with a more informal style, giving readers a blend of analysis and intuition.