Innovations in Financial Markets and Institutions – serie

Topicality of Asian economy has refused to fade for almost four decades; if anything it has been levitating. The Asian economy has changed markedly since the economic and financial crisis of 1997-1998 and is continuing to evolve.   As a scholarly subject matter, Asian economy has not stopped attracting academicians, policy mandarins, decision makers in the arena of business and students of Asian economy. The Asian crisis was a cataclysmic event for the region and brought to the surface several systemic limitations, like those in the financial sector, corporate governance, regulatory oversight, legal framework, and exchange rate management. Managers of Asian economy need to get to the bottom of these acutely problematical systemic issues. Additionally, Asian economies need to change with the demands of time and devise their post crisis development strategy. Asia’s growth model, that served it so well for four decades, is overdue for renewal so that it can re-strengthen its bonds with the ever-evolving regional and global economic reality. The old growth model is likely to be less relevant and effective in the post-crisis future of the Asian economies. It is sure to run into the wall of diminishing returns. An outstanding feature of Asian Economy and Finance: A Post-Crisis Perspective is that unlike most Asia-related books, it is written in a comprehensive and authoritative manner and covers large areas of Asian macro-economy and finance. The noteworthy areas of focus include global and intra-regional trade and investment, as well as financial and monetary aspects. In-depth discussions have been provided on regional integration through expanding trade, financial flows, regional production networks, and financial and monetary co-operation. In taking a contemporary or post-crisis view of the Asian economy, this book offers the newest knowledge related to relevant themes on the Asian economies as well as the latest concepts. In a succinct manner,this book deals with the principal normative and positive strands with which one need to be properly familiar in this subject area. This tightly written volume covers a great deal of ground and imparts knowledge on the Asian economy related themes to students, researchers and policy makers alike. The book is neither overly technical nor model-oriented. It is easy to access for the target readership because of its descriptive analysis style, which stops short of mathematical formulations and econometric modeling. Many students and other readers who have good analytical minds and sound knowledge of economic principles feel lost in mathematical formulations. This writing style makes it accessible to a much larger number of readers.

Capital Markets, Globalization, and Economic Development consists of fourteen articles contributed by authors from Australia, Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States who provide a wide range of insights. The contributors include academics, government officials, and regulators. This book examines some of the capital market issues that economies face as they mature. These include, but are not limited to, credit ratings, financial regulation, infrastructure privatization and other timely topics.

Mutual funds are the dominant form of investment companies in the United States today, with approximately $7 trillion in assets under management. Over the past half century an important body of academic research has addressed various issues about the nature of these companies. These works focus on a wide range of topics, including fund performance, investment style, and expense issues, among others.MUTUAL FUNDS: Fifty Years of Research Findings is designed for the academic researcher interested in the various issues surrounding mutual funds and for the practitioner interested in funds for investment purposes. The authors briefly trace the historical evolution of funds, present important aspects of the Investment Company Act of 1940, and then summarize a substantial portion of the academic literature which has been written over the past five decades."This book presents an outstanding wealth of information on mutual funds in a remarkably readable format. It is probably the most comprehensive work currently available on funds. The book sheds light on the numerous issues surrounding mutual fund performance and pricing and is an important resource for any serious investor."Kathleen A. Wayner, Bowling Portfolio Management, President and CEO

Investment Management and Mismanagement: History, Findings, and Analysis will present the reader with: (1) a brief overview of portfolio management and its historical evolution , (2) the findings of a substantial amount of academic research into the performance of portfolio managers, (3) the various issues associated with both institutional and individual portfolio mismanagement, and (4) a treatment of the areas of suitability and churning The articles referenced are primarily works from academic journals, including: The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and others, as well as from practitioner-oriented venues, such as Financial Analyst Journal and various law journals. This work should be of value to academic researchers as a convenient source of summarized studies in these areas, while practitioners will find value its content as an efficient reference for determining the benefits of asset management as well as potential pitfalls.

Closed-End Investment Companies (CEICs) have experienced a significant revival of interest, both as investment vehicles and as the subject of academic research, over the past decade. This academic research has focused on the nature of closed-end funds' discounts and premiums and on the share price behavior of these firms. The first book by the authors, "Closed-End Investment Companies: Issues and Answers," addresses closed-end fund academic articles published prior to 1991. This second book addresses those articles that have appeared since that time.Closed-End Fund Pricing: Theories and Evidence is designed for the academic researcher interested in CEICs and the practitioner interested in using CEICs as an investment vehicle. The authors summarize the evolution of CEICs, present the factors thought to cause CEIC shares to trade at different levels from their net asset values, provide a complete survey of the recent academic literature on this topic, and summarize the current state of research on CEICs.

At the start of the twenty-first century, the Japanese financial system is undergoing a major transformation. This process is spurred by a sense of crisis. Dominated by large institutions, the Japanese banking system has suffered from serious problems with non-performing loans since the early 1990s, when the Japanese stock market and urban real estate market both crashed. Delays in responding to these twin asset bubbles, by both regulatory authorities and the banks themselves, made matters worse and led to a banking crisis in late 1997 and early 1998. Not anticipating this setback, in late 1996 the Japanese government inaugurated its Big Bang of comprehensive financial deregulation designed to complete the process of creating `free, fair, and open financial markets'. Beginning in late 1998 and early 1999 the government finally embarked on a major rehabilitation of the Japanese banking system, including making available some Yen 60 trillion (approximately USD 500 billion) of government funds to recapitalize fifteen major banks, adequately fund the deposit insurance program, and write off the bad loans of nationalized or bankrupted banks. One result of this reform process is that the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which dominated Japanese financial system policy for most of the post-war period, has been stripped of most of its former regulatory powers. The purpose of this book is to describe, analyze, and evaluate the process that is transforming the Japanese financial system. The chapters address various issues relating to the transition of the Japanese financial system from a bank-centered and relationship-based system to a competitive market-based system. Questions taken up include: Why did Japanese banks get into such serious trouble? Why has the MOF lost its immense power? How will the Big Bang's financial deregulation further change the Japanese financial system, including the huge government financial institutions and postal savings system? What are some of the broader implications of this transition? The book is divided into three parts: Part I considers the origins of Japan's banking crisis; Part II focuses on five particularly important areas of major actual and potential changes; Part III addresses the effects of the Big Bang, including its potential systemic externalities. Taken together, this book offers an unusually up-to-date, comprehensive and thorough appraisal and evaluation of the profound changes occurring in Japan's financial system.

Major challenges for life insurance companies have been posed by an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry and the emergence of non-traditional competitors such as banks, mutual fund companies and investment advisory firms. This is the first book to analyze the determinants of firm performance in the life insurance industry by identifying the `best practices' employed by leading insurers to succeed in this dynamic business environment. The book draws upon data from insurer financial statements as well as upon an extensive survey of life insurer management practices and strategic choices in distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources and financial strategies. Generic strategies such as cost leadership, customer focus, and product differentiation are analyzed as well as strategic practices specific to the insurance industry. Best practices are identified by measuring the economic efficiency of insurers and by comparing firms across the industry. Both cost and revenue efficiency are measured relative to best practice efficient frontiers consisting of the industry's dominant life insurance firms. Economies of scale and the effects of mergers and acquisitions on efficiency are also analyzed. Financial strategies are examined with specific reference to pricing policy, valuation of assets and liabilities, and the current state of firm-level risk management systems. The benchmarks established are the result of extensive fieldwork that identifies key financial risks and methodologies to both measure and manage them at the firm level. The results discussed in the book indicate that firm performance is significantly correlated with management practices and strategic choices. Thus, life insurers can improve profitability by adopting optimal combinations of strategies. The book contains important new material on the effects of strategic choices in product distributionsystems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, and financial risk management policies. In the area of efficiency, the methodology provides a new approach for identifying peer groups of insurers and measuring the performance of individual insurers relative to their peer group. On the topics of risk and pricing, new insights are offered relative to current methodologies and in regard to areas where improvement is clearly warranted. The book concludes with an analysis of the future opportunities and challenges in the life insurance industry facing managers, and the strategic options available to them to cope with these changes.

This volume describes the banking structure in ten major countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, France, Italy and Switzerland. It will serve as a reference guide for practitioners and academics in banking and finance. The book is particularly relevant as globalization of financial markets continues and one chapter is dedicated solely to the European economic integration in 1992. Each country is treated in a chapter whose author, or at least one of the co-authors, is a resident of the country in question.

Risk-based capital standards presume a need for common capital standards across countries. The details of forging an agreement were left to the staffs of the primary bank regulators in each country, and compromises were inevitable. Although domestic constituencies' reactions to the proposals were invited, the arduous negotiations that led to the proposals generated intense pressure on the principals not to make changes. The European Community's approach to financial integration seems to be driven by a political desire to achieve an integrated market within Europe, despite significant institution al differences among countries. Underlying that desire is a belief that the market pressures that result from different regulatory systems operating in the same market will produce the right answer . The financial provisions of the U .S.-Canada free-trade agreement take a direction that, in my judgment, is more productive. The provisions are more limited in scope than are those of the European initiative. National treatment and national sovereignty are preserved. However, the delicate issue of national responsibility for failing institutions, and its relationship to monetary policies, is not addressed. A Better Alternative A productive basis for international regulation can be formulated around three principles: 1. free entry for foreign-owned subsidiaries chartered under the laws of the host country; 2. national treatment for those subsidiaries; and 3. national responsibility for (a) monetary policy, (b) prevention of unwarranted financial panics in domestically chartered institutions, whether foreign or domestically owned, and (c) supervision of all domestically chartered institutions, regardless of ownership.

Furthermore, if the effects of regulations on user costs are excluded, it is impossible to analyze monetary policy effects. Chapter 2 examines the principal areas of regulation that affect user costs. For example, reserve requirements, as administered by the Federal Reserve, act as a tax on financial firms so covered. Required reserves earn no return to the financial firm and there is foregone revenue. Deposit insurance increases the user cost of servicing deposits to the banks. Interest rate regulations place limits on interest rates on time de­ posits, or prohibit payments on demand deposits during part of the period studied. Underlying all these are the open market operations of the Federal Reserve, and their effects on interest rates and the quantities of financial goods. Chapter 2 reveals that previous work on the estimation of bank tech­ nologies is incomplete, and that the regulations require modelling as a part of the profit maximizing structure. 1.3 User Cost Derivation Chapter 3 discusses the construction of user costs. These are derived for the services from all assets or liabilities on a bank balance sheet or appearing on the income statement. The user cost formulation permits goods to be classified as outputs and inputs. Those with a positive user cost, where expenditures per unit exceed revenues per unit, are inputs. The unit for financial goods such as loans or deposits is one dollar per period. Goods with a negative user cost, with expenditures falling below revenue per unit, are outputs.

Closed-End Investment Companies (CEICs) were the dominant form of investment companies in the United States during the early part of this century, but interest in them declined after the 1929 stock market crash. Since 1985, however, there has been a significant revival of interest in CEICs. A substantial amount of academic research has focused on the nature of closed-end funds, discounts and premiums, and on the share price behavior of these firms, which often results in the prices differing from the net asset value of the shares. This book is designed for the academic researcher interested in CEICs and the practitioner interested in using CEICs as an investment vehicle. The authors summarize the evolution of CEICs, present the factors that cause CEIC shares to trade at different levels from their net asset values, provide a complete survey of the academic literature on this topic, and summarize the current state of research on CEICs.

Initial public offerings (IPOs) play a crucial role in allocating resources in market economies. Because of the enormous importance of IPOs, an understanding of how IPOs work is fundamental to an understanding of financial markets generally. Of particular interest is the puzzling existence of high initial returns to equity IPOs in the United States and other free-market economies. Audience: Designed for use by anyone wishing to perform further academic research in the area of IPOs and by those practitioners interested in IPOs as investment vehicles.

One of the major financial market events of the 1980s was the precipitous rise of depository institution failures including banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions. Not since the 1930s has there been a similar period of turmoil in these industries. The events of the 1980s have inspired a renewed interest in the causes and cost of financial institution failure and several questions that had seldom been asked in the post-World War II economics literature have resurfaced Why do financial institutions fail? What are the costs of their failure? How do they differ from other firms and industries? What are the implications for financial market regulation? The Causes and Costs of Depository Institution Failures critically surveys and extends previous analyses of these questions. Audience: Scholars and researchers in the areas of money and banking, financial institutions, and financial markets, as well as regulators and policymakers.

Consumer Attitudes Toward Credit Insurance provides the findings of a survey of approximately 3600 individuals who had the opportunity to purchase credit life insurance in conjunction with all types of consumer loans, except first mortgages and credit cards. The survey that forms the basis of the book was conducted in 1993 by the Credit Research Center at Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management. It replicates and expands upon four previous national studies of credit insurance consumers, done between 1970 and 1985. Despite the generally positive findings of prior research with respect to consumer attitudes toward credit insurance, several open questions remain of interest to policy makers, specifically the question of whether coercion is involved in the sale of the insurance. Consumer Attitudes Toward Credit Insurance addresses these outstanding issues. It presents a profile of who is currently being served by the credit insurance market, as well as the reasons borrowers purchase the product and their experience with the offer of credit insurance at point of sale.

Historians of our financial system will record this as an age of deregulation and bank mergers. Deregulation, a cornerstone of President Reagan's Administration, resulted in federal and state legislation that contributed to increased competition for financial services and increased merger activity. During the 1981-1986 period, there were 2,139 mergers in banking and finance, accounting for 16 percent of total merger activity.l More mergers occurred in banking and finance than in any other industry. Because of these bank mergers, there are vast amounts of data avail­ able for scholarly research. This book presents some results of that research which will be of interest to academics, bankers, investors, legislators, and regulators. The book consists of ten articles, and it is divided into three parts. Part 1: National and Regional Bank Mergers gives a broad perspective of merger activity. The first article by Peter S. Rose compared the growth of bank holding companies that merged with those that did not merge. One conclusion of his study was that banks planning mergers tended to be aggressively managed and were often beset by problems, such as low profitability or declining loan quality. Mergers were one solution to their problems. But he found no solid evidence that mergers resulted in greater profitability or reduced risk. He also observed that acquiring banks did not seem to grow faster than those choosing not to merge.

"Closed-End Funds, Exchange-Traded Funds, and Hedge Funds: Origins, Functions, and Literature is a concise and valuable book that will be of interest to individual investors, financial professionals, and academic researchers, alike. It provides a brief history and institutional discussion of these investment companies and also presents a summary of the research on these funds. Investment practitioners will find the book useful as a reference and as a quick refresher on the current state of knowledge regarding each fund type. Equally important, it provides academic researchers with an accurate institutional framework within which to cast their theoretical models, and a point of departure for expanding the empirical analysis for improving our understanding of these funds. All-in-all, this is a very valuable book; I highly recommend it." (John J. Jackson, Professor of Economics, Auburn University)"Professors Anderson, Born, and Schnusenberg provide a valuable service in this monograph. The practical significance of closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, and hedge funds has increased dramatically in recent years, but all too many academics and investors know little about them. This text presents a carefully-focused and understandable description of these investment vehicles, highlighting the big, unresolved questions, while also including careful and fair accounts of the state of the literature. Nothing extraneous clutters the presentation, but, more importantly, nothing necessary is left out. Highly recommended." (T. Randolph Beard, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Auburn University)"This book is both useful as a reference book and as an additive, educational overview of ETFs and hedge funds, as well as CEFs. In today’s tumultuous markets, much reference is made to these subjects without a clear understanding of the vehicles, their structure and their history. This is a very timely publication and should be viewed as an important read.The book contains definitive explanations and also includes an excellent summary of past works in this area. Readable, informative and highly useful as a reference source." (Kathleen A. Wayner, President and CEO, Bowling Portfolio Management)

Topicality of Asian economy has refused to fade for almost four decades; if anything it has been levitating. The Asian economy has changed markedly since the economic and financial crisis of 1997-1998 and is continuing to evolve.   As a scholarly subject matter, Asian economy has not stopped attracting academicians, policy mandarins, decision makers in the arena of business and students of Asian economy. The Asian crisis was a cataclysmic event for the region and brought to the surface several systemic limitations, like those in the financial sector, corporate governance, regulatory oversight, legal framework, and exchange rate management. Managers of Asian economy need to get to the bottom of these acutely problematical systemic issues. Additionally, Asian economies need to change with the demands of time and devise their post crisis development strategy. Asia’s growth model, that served it so well for four decades, is overdue for renewal so that it can re-strengthen its bonds with the ever-evolving regional and global economic reality. The old growth model is likely to be less relevant and effective in the post-crisis future of the Asian economies. It is sure to run into the wall of diminishing returns. An outstanding feature of Asian Economy and Finance: A Post-Crisis Perspective is that unlike most Asia-related books, it is written in a comprehensive and authoritative manner and covers large areas of Asian macro-economy and finance. The noteworthy areas of focus include global and intra-regional trade and investment, as well as financial and monetary aspects. In-depth discussions have been provided on regional integration through expanding trade, financial flows, regional production networks, and financial and monetary co-operation. In taking a contemporary or post-crisis view of the Asian economy, this book offers the newest knowledge related to relevant themes on the Asian economies as well as the latest concepts. In a succinct manner,this book deals with the principal normative and positive strands with which one need to be properly familiar in this subject area. This tightly written volume covers a great deal of ground and imparts knowledge on the Asian economy related themes to students, researchers and policy makers alike. The book is neither overly technical nor model-oriented. It is easy to access for the target readership because of its descriptive analysis style, which stops short of mathematical formulations and econometric modeling. Many students and other readers who have good analytical minds and sound knowledge of economic principles feel lost in mathematical formulations. This writing style makes it accessible to a much larger number of readers.

Capital Markets, Globalization, and Economic Development consists of fourteen articles contributed by authors from Australia, Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States who provide a wide range of insights. The contributors include academics, government officials, and regulators. This book examines some of the capital market issues that economies face as they mature. These include, but are not limited to, credit ratings, financial regulation, infrastructure privatization and other timely topics.

Mutual funds are the dominant form of investment companies in the United States today, with approximately $7 trillion in assets under management. Over the past half century an important body of academic research has addressed various issues about the nature of these companies. These works focus on a wide range of topics, including fund performance, investment style, and expense issues, among others.MUTUAL FUNDS: Fifty Years of Research Findings is designed for the academic researcher interested in the various issues surrounding mutual funds and for the practitioner interested in funds for investment purposes. The authors briefly trace the historical evolution of funds, present important aspects of the Investment Company Act of 1940, and then summarize a substantial portion of the academic literature which has been written over the past five decades."This book presents an outstanding wealth of information on mutual funds in a remarkably readable format. It is probably the most comprehensive work currently available on funds. The book sheds light on the numerous issues surrounding mutual fund performance and pricing and is an important resource for any serious investor."Kathleen A. Wayner, Bowling Portfolio Management, President and CEO

Investment Management and Mismanagement: History, Findings, and Analysis will present the reader with: (1) a brief overview of portfolio management and its historical evolution , (2) the findings of a substantial amount of academic research into the performance of portfolio managers, (3) the various issues associated with both institutional and individual portfolio mismanagement, and (4) a treatment of the areas of suitability and churning The articles referenced are primarily works from academic journals, including: The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and others, as well as from practitioner-oriented venues, such as Financial Analyst Journal and various law journals. This work should be of value to academic researchers as a convenient source of summarized studies in these areas, while practitioners will find value its content as an efficient reference for determining the benefits of asset management as well as potential pitfalls.

Closed-End Investment Companies (CEICs) have experienced a significant revival of interest, both as investment vehicles and as the subject of academic research, over the past decade. This academic research has focused on the nature of closed-end funds' discounts and premiums and on the share price behavior of these firms. The first book by the authors, "Closed-End Investment Companies: Issues and Answers," addresses closed-end fund academic articles published prior to 1991. This second book addresses those articles that have appeared since that time.Closed-End Fund Pricing: Theories and Evidence is designed for the academic researcher interested in CEICs and the practitioner interested in using CEICs as an investment vehicle. The authors summarize the evolution of CEICs, present the factors thought to cause CEIC shares to trade at different levels from their net asset values, provide a complete survey of the recent academic literature on this topic, and summarize the current state of research on CEICs.

Consumer Attitudes Toward Credit Insurance provides the findings of a survey of approximately 3600 individuals who had the opportunity to purchase credit life insurance in conjunction with all types of consumer loans, except first mortgages and credit cards. The survey that forms the basis of the book was conducted in 1993 by the Credit Research Center at Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management. It replicates and expands upon four previous national studies of credit insurance consumers, done between 1970 and 1985. Despite the generally positive findings of prior research with respect to consumer attitudes toward credit insurance, several open questions remain of interest to policy makers, specifically the question of whether coercion is involved in the sale of the insurance. Consumer Attitudes Toward Credit Insurance addresses these outstanding issues. It presents a profile of who is currently being served by the credit insurance market, as well as the reasons borrowers purchase the product and their experience with the offer of credit insurance at point of sale.

Initial public offerings (IPOs) play a crucial role in allocating resources in market economies. Because of the enormous importance of IPOs, an understanding of how IPOs work is fundamental to an understanding of financial markets generally. Of particular interest is the puzzling existence of high initial returns to equity IPOs in the United States and other free-market economies. Audience: Designed for use by anyone wishing to perform further academic research in the area of IPOs and by those practitioners interested in IPOs as investment vehicles.

At the start of the twenty-first century, the Japanese financial system is undergoing a major transformation. This process is spurred by a sense of crisis. Dominated by large institutions, the Japanese banking system has suffered from serious problems with non-performing loans since the early 1990s, when the Japanese stock market and urban real estate market both crashed. Delays in responding to these twin asset bubbles, by both regulatory authorities and the banks themselves, made matters worse and led to a banking crisis in late 1997 and early 1998. Not anticipating this setback, in late 1996 the Japanese government inaugurated its Big Bang of comprehensive financial deregulation designed to complete the process of creating `free, fair, and open financial markets'. Beginning in late 1998 and early 1999 the government finally embarked on a major rehabilitation of the Japanese banking system, including making available some Yen 60 trillion (approximately USD 500 billion) of government funds to recapitalize fifteen major banks, adequately fund the deposit insurance program, and write off the bad loans of nationalized or bankrupted banks. One result of this reform process is that the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which dominated Japanese financial system policy for most of the post-war period, has been stripped of most of its former regulatory powers. The purpose of this book is to describe, analyze, and evaluate the process that is transforming the Japanese financial system. The chapters address various issues relating to the transition of the Japanese financial system from a bank-centered and relationship-based system to a competitive market-based system. Questions taken up include: Why did Japanese banks get into such serious trouble? Why has the MOF lost its immense power? How will the Big Bang's financial deregulation further change the Japanese financial system, including the huge government financial institutions and postal savings system? What are some of the broader implications of this transition? The book is divided into three parts: Part I considers the origins of Japan's banking crisis; Part II focuses on five particularly important areas of major actual and potential changes; Part III addresses the effects of the Big Bang, including its potential systemic externalities. Taken together, this book offers an unusually up-to-date, comprehensive and thorough appraisal and evaluation of the profound changes occurring in Japan's financial system.

Major challenges for life insurance companies have been posed by an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry and the emergence of non-traditional competitors such as banks, mutual fund companies and investment advisory firms. This is the first book to analyze the determinants of firm performance in the life insurance industry by identifying the `best practices' employed by leading insurers to succeed in this dynamic business environment. The book draws upon data from insurer financial statements as well as upon an extensive survey of life insurer management practices and strategic choices in distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources and financial strategies. Generic strategies such as cost leadership, customer focus, and product differentiation are analyzed as well as strategic practices specific to the insurance industry. Best practices are identified by measuring the economic efficiency of insurers and by comparing firms across the industry. Both cost and revenue efficiency are measured relative to best practice efficient frontiers consisting of the industry's dominant life insurance firms. Economies of scale and the effects of mergers and acquisitions on efficiency are also analyzed. Financial strategies are examined with specific reference to pricing policy, valuation of assets and liabilities, and the current state of firm-level risk management systems. The benchmarks established are the result of extensive fieldwork that identifies key financial risks and methodologies to both measure and manage them at the firm level. The results discussed in the book indicate that firm performance is significantly correlated with management practices and strategic choices. Thus, life insurers can improve profitability by adopting optimal combinations of strategies. The book contains important new material on the effects of strategic choices in product distributionsystems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, and financial risk management policies. In the area of efficiency, the methodology provides a new approach for identifying peer groups of insurers and measuring the performance of individual insurers relative to their peer group. On the topics of risk and pricing, new insights are offered relative to current methodologies and in regard to areas where improvement is clearly warranted. The book concludes with an analysis of the future opportunities and challenges in the life insurance industry facing managers, and the strategic options available to them to cope with these changes.

"Closed-End Funds, Exchange-Traded Funds, and Hedge Funds: Origins, Functions, and Literature is a concise and valuable book that will be of interest to individual investors, financial professionals, and academic researchers, alike. It provides a brief history and institutional discussion of these investment companies and also presents a summary of the research on these funds. Investment practitioners will find the book useful as a reference and as a quick refresher on the current state of knowledge regarding each fund type. Equally important, it provides academic researchers with an accurate institutional framework within which to cast their theoretical models, and a point of departure for expanding the empirical analysis for improving our understanding of these funds. All-in-all, this is a very valuable book; I highly recommend it." (John J. Jackson, Professor of Economics, Auburn University)"Professors Anderson, Born, and Schnusenberg provide a valuable service in this monograph. The practical significance of closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, and hedge funds has increased dramatically in recent years, but all too many academics and investors know little about them. This text presents a carefully-focused and understandable description of these investment vehicles, highlighting the big, unresolved questions, while also including careful and fair accounts of the state of the literature. Nothing extraneous clutters the presentation, but, more importantly, nothing necessary is left out. Highly recommended." (T. Randolph Beard, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Auburn University)"This book is both useful as a reference book and as an additive, educational overview of ETFs and hedge funds, as well as CEFs. In today’s tumultuous markets, much reference is made to these subjects without a clear understanding of the vehicles, their structure and their history. This is a very timely publication and should be viewed as an important read.The book contains definitive explanations and also includes an excellent summary of past works in this area. Readable, informative and highly useful as a reference source." (Kathleen A. Wayner, President and CEO, Bowling Portfolio Management)

Risk-based capital standards presume a need for common capital standards across countries. The details of forging an agreement were left to the staffs of the primary bank regulators in each country, and compromises were inevitable. Although domestic constituencies' reactions to the proposals were invited, the arduous negotiations that led to the proposals generated intense pressure on the principals not to make changes. The European Community's approach to financial integration seems to be driven by a political desire to achieve an integrated market within Europe, despite significant institutional differences among countries. Underlying that desire is a belief that the market pressures that result from different regulatory systems operating in the same market will produce the right answer. The financial provisions of the U.S.-Canada free-trade agreement take a direction that, in my judgment, is more productive. The provisions are more limited in scope than are those of the European initiative. National treatment and national sovereignty are preserved. However, the delicate issue of national responsibility for failing institutions, and its relationship to monetary policies, is not addressed. A Better Alternative A productive basis for international regulation can be formulated around three principles: 1. free entry for foreign-owned subsidiaries chartered under the laws of the host country; 2. national treatment for those subsidiaries; and 3. national responsibility for (a) monetary policy, (b) prevention of unwarranted financial panics in domestically chartered institutions, whether foreign or domestically owned, and (c) supervision of all domestically chartered institutions, regardless of ownership.

One of the major financial market events of the 1980s was the precipitous rise of depository institution failures including banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions. Not since the 1930s has there been a similar period of turmoil in these industries. The events of the 1980s have inspired a renewed interest in the causes and cost of financial institution failure and several questions that had seldom been asked in the post-World War II economics literature have resurfaced Why do financial institutions fail? What are the costs of their failure? How do they differ from other firms and industries? What are the implications for financial market regulation? The Causes and Costs of Depository Institution Failures critically surveys and extends previous analyses of these questions. Audience: Scholars and researchers in the areas of money and banking, financial institutions, and financial markets, as well as regulators and policymakers.

The ongoing globalization of financial markets has increased the import­ ance to users of financial services, policy-makers and financial analysts of understanding the structure and operation of banking systems in other countries as well as that in their own country. This volume contributes to such an understanding. The structure and operation of the banking system are described for 10 important countries, plus the European Economic Community, under one cover. The contributing authors are knowledgable and widely respected experts. The author, or at least one of the coauthors, of each chapter is a resident of the country described. Each chapter follows a broadly similar outline, although the attention devoted to any particular area varies substantially according to authors' perceptions of its relative importance in the particular country. The chapters spotlight the similarities and differences among the structures. The volume should serve as both a handy and authoritative reference guide for practitioners, regulators and students of international banking. An early benefit of the book was an international conference held in Chicago in the fall of 1989 on the world integration of financial markets. A number of the authors of the chapters presented brief versions of their papers. The conference was sponsored jointly by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the MidAmerica Institute. The audience was primarily senior officers and regulators of financial institutions in the midwest. The conference generated considerable interest in both the subject matter and the contents of this book.