The principal message of this book is that international financial enterprises must be reoriented towards funding productive activities rather than potentially destabilizing speculation. The effects of financial sector operations are addressed with serious warnings that the dangers of speculative destabilization are increasing as regulatory and market discipline gradually weakens. The Structural Foundations of International Finance examines the ways in which national economies, especially those of industrialized countries, are affected by the operations of international financial markets. Although these markets provide productive funding, there is also much speculative trading in stocks and currencies which can cause booms, slumps and hinder recovery. The authors advocate entrepreneurial coordination by productive enterprises for balanced and stable growth, with reduced risks of financial crises and recessions.

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of a textbook for graduate students in finance, with new coverage of global financial institutions. This thoroughly revised and updated edition of a widely used textbook for graduate students in finance now provides expanded coverage of global financial institutions, with detailed comparisons of U.S. systems with non-U.S. systems. A focus on the actual practices of financial institutions prepares students for real-world problems. After an introduction to financial markets and market participants, including asset management firms, credit rating agencies, and investment banking firms, the book covers risks and asset pricing, with a new overview of risk; the structure of interest rates and interest rate and credit risks; the fundamentals of primary and secondary markets; government debt markets, with new material on non-U.S. sovereign debt markets; corporate funding markets, with new coverage of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurial ventures; residential and commercial real estate markets; collective investment vehicles, in a chapter new to this edition; and financial derivatives, including financial futures and options, interest rate derivatives, foreign exchange derivatives, and credit risk transfer vehicles such as credit default swaps. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with bullet point takeaways and questions.

In the past three decades a number of important changes have made international business more complex and exciting. The rapid and continuous changes in information and communications technology (ITC), reduced trade barriers among countries, and regionalization have increased the links and dependency among firms from various countries. This has created opportunities for increasing expansion to new markets and increasing global integration while simultaneously posing many challenges. This book views international business as a complex and integrated system and takes a systems approach to study and analyze the changes thus enabling readers to assess global business opportunities and risk in a comprehensive and integral manner. The topics presented in this book allow practitioners, scholars, and students of international business to have a broad understanding of the most relevant issues in a changing international environment.

For MBA courses in International Corporate Finance, International Business Finance, and Multinational Financial Management. This book focuses upon the basic principles which together make a "toolkit" for analysis of issues in international finance. It also captures the importance and excitement of international financial management and highlights the new approaches in the field. It covers the theoretical foundations of international financial decisions and contains extensive applications of the theory to financial practice with a main objective of developing critical thinking skills regarding the theory and practice of international financial management.

This book examines the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an ambitious venture in regional market integration which builds on the principles of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It assesses the long-term corporate and public policy measures to cope with the increased monetary, fiscal and structural interdependence that will be required if the benefits of the FTAA are to be realized. The contributors suggest that with enlightened US leadership and the cooperation of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, the FTAA could eventually match the EU in the world economy and as a multilateral leader. Initiatives to promote a culture of relational cooperation in a system of liberalized global commerce are stressed. In Latin America, there is an urgent need for such cooperation in order to enhance the region s lackluster growth rate and reduce the occurrences and severity of financial crises. The United States, Canada and Mexico will also benefit from the development of dynamic structural links with their regional neighbours. The authors highlight the importance for US policy initiatives to be complemented by constructive and harmonious corporate collaborations. This spirit of alliance capitalism will help ensure the FTAA promotes social justice as well as economic efficiency. This fully integrated volume, written by leading specialists in the field, will become an indispensable source for analysis of the prospects and role of the FTAA in the global economy. It will be warmly welcomed by informed readers such as international business experts, bankers, corporate executives, economists dealing with fiscal and monetary integration, and those interested in Latin American business.

This book consists of detailed case studies of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico and Sub-Saharan Africa, providing a critical review of the determinants and impact of FDI on growth and development, employment, technology transfer and trade. The expert contributors examine a range of controversial issues including the contribution of the relatively large volume of FDI in China to its growth, whether India should fully liberalise its FDI regime and the impact of Mexico's membership of NAFTA on the volume of FDI it has attracted. Malaysia's economic policies, which appear to have attracted relatively large volumes of FDI but failed to generate the hoped for transmission of technology and skills are also questioned, along with the role of corruption in limiting the contribution of FDI to achieving social goals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The impressive record of the Irish Republic in attracting and harnessing FDI to development objectives is examined closely and provides a detailed analysis of policies likely to promote efficient utilisation of FDI.