Since the 1950s, anthropologist Sidney W. Mintz has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate the disciplines of anthropology and history. Author of Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and other groundbreaking works, he wa

Since the 1950s, anthropologist Sidney W. Mintz has been at the forefront of efforts to integrate the disciplines of anthropology and history. Author of Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and other groundbreaking works, he was one of the first scholars to anticipate and critique globalization studies. However, a strong...

This book presents a critical review of the empirical literature that studies the efficiency of the forward and futures markets for foreign exchange. It provides a useful foundation for research in developing quantitative measures of risk and expected return in international finance.

The global value of trading in index futures is about $20 trillion per year and rising and for many countries the value traded is similar to that traded on their stock markets. This book describes how index futures markets work and clearly summarises the substantial body of international empirical evidence relating to these markets. Using the concepts and tools of finance, the book also provides a comprehensive description of the economic forces that underlie trading in index futures. Stock Index Futures 3/e contains many teaching and learning aids including numerous examples, a glossary, essay questions, comprehensive references, and a detailed subject index. Written primarily for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, this text will also be useful to researchers and market participants who want to gain a better understanding of these markets.

From the beginning of time, humans have been driven by both a fear of the unknown and a curiosity to know. We have always yearned to know what lies ahead, whether threat or safety, scarcity or abundance. Throughout human history, our forebears tried to create certainty in the unknown, by seeking to influence outcomes with sacrifices to gods, preparing for the unexpected with advice from oracles, and by reading the stars through astrology. As scientific methods improve and computer technology develops we become ever more confident of our capacity to predict and quantify the future by accumulating and interpreting patterns form the past, yet the truth is there is still no certainty to be had. In this Very Short Introduction Jennifer Gidley considers some of our most burning questions: What is "the future "?; Is the future a time yet to come?; Or is it a utopian place?; Does the future have a history?; Is there only one future or are there many possible futures? She asks if the future can ever be truly predicted or if we create our own futures - both hoped for and feared - by our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and concludes by analysing how we can learn to study the future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

There is no denying the role of empirical research in finance and the remarkable progress of empirical techniques in this research field. This Special Issue focuses on the broad topic of “Empirical Finance” and includes novel empirical research associated with financial data. One example includes the application of novel empirical techniques, such as machine learning, data mining, wavelet transform, copula analysis, and TV-VAR, to financial data. The Special Issue includes contributions on empirical finance, such as algorithmic trading, market efficiency, market microstructure, portfolio theory and asset allocation, asset pricing models, liquidity risk premium, currency crisis, return predictability, and volatility modeling.

Bringing together leading-edge research and innovative energy markets econometrics, this book collects the authorOCOs most important recent contributions in energy economics. In particular, the book: . OCo applies recent advances in the field of applied econometrics to investigate a number of issues regarding energy markets, including the theory of storage and the efficient markets hypothesis. OCo presents the basic stylized facts on energy price movements using correlation analysis, causality tests, integration theory, cointegration theory, as well as recently developed procedures for testing for shared and codependent cycles. OCo uses recent advances in the financial econometrics literature to model time-varying returns and volatility in energy prices and to test for causal relationships between energy prices and their volatilities. OCo explores the functioning of electricity markets and applies conventional models of time series analysis to investigate a number of issues regarding wholesale power prices in the western North American markets. OCo applies tools from statistics and dynamical systems theory to test for nonlinear dynamics and deterministic chaos in a number of North American hydrocarbon markets (those of ethane, propane, normal butane, iso-butane, naptha, crude oil, and natural gas)."