The last decade has witnessed the introduction of an elaborate system of regulation in the UK. Whole segments of British industry are now operating under the supervision of regulatory bodies similar to the government departments they were designed to replace. Regulation has been an inevitable part of the structural changes in the 1980s, notably the privatization program and changes in the financial services industries. This book assesses these developments across a number of sectors (utilities, telecommunications, financial services, health, and higher education) and offers a range of...

Bringing together leading researchers from around the world, Finance and Investment considers the causes for the persistently low level of investment in Europe, examining the extent to which the financial system is a contributory factor and identifying possible remedies.

Capital markets will be at least as affected as goods markets by the European Community's drive for greater economic integration. The removal of capital controls on July 1, 1990 has far-reaching consequences for the EMS and for cross-border investment, and plans for Economic and Monetary Union foreshadow fundamental upheavals at the heart of the financial system, in central banking and monetary and fiscal policy. This volume reports the proceedings of a conference on European financial integration held in Rome in January 1990, which was organized by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and...

Financial intermediation is currently a subject of active academic research on both sides of the Atlantic. European financial integration raises major policy issues about the risks of banking competition and the appropriate regulation of banks and other financial intermediaries. The choice of Anglo-American vis-a-vis Continental European forms of financial markets is also central to Eastern Europe's transformation. This volume contains theoretical papers at the forefront of academic research that shed light on banking and security markets and banking competition.

Scandals in financial institutions, weakness in the world economy, and volatility in financial markets bring to the fore front issues of regulation and consumer protection. This comparative survey of how investors are currently protected in a range of countries in Europe and the United States is set in an accessible and theoretical framework. It will be invaluable for academics and students involved in the analysis of financial markets and regulation as well as practitioners in financial institutions and regulatory authorities.

This book was originally published in 1986. During the decade preceding publication there were a number of significant developments in financial economics and major contributions made both by individuals who could be classified as conventional financial economists and by others who do not fit easily into this category - theoretical microeconomists, public and industrial economists. This volume contains a selection from the papers presented at a conference in Oxford in September 1985 which aimed to bring together a number of the leading participants in this field. The papers in the volume...

This collection looks at one of the most enduring legacies of the 1980s in Britain--the program of privitizations that the Thatcher government set moving in the first half of the decade, in which whole sectors of the UK economy which were formerly part of the public sector were sold off to the private sector. These programs have influenced economic policy throughout the world, most recently in Eastern Europe. The contributors here examine and evaluate what has been learned from the programs now completed, and what remains to be done.

Asset management is a major industry playing an increasingly important role in economic activity around the world. Traditionally, it has been primarily associated with the 'stock market' economies of the UK and the USA, but as this book shows some of the most spectacular growth in activity of recent years has occurred in continental Europe. This has presented opportunities and challenges. New forms of financial instruments and institutions have emerged in countries that have traditionally relied on debt and non-market forms of intermediation. Competition has intensified and entry has occurred...

This book was originally published in 1986. During the decade preceding publication there were a number of significant developments in financial economics and major contributions made both by individuals who could be classified as conventional financial economists and by others who do not fit easily into this category - theoretical microeconomists, public and industrial economists. This volume contains a selection from the papers presented at a conference in Oxford in September 1985 which aimed to bring together a number of the leading participants in this field. The papers in the volume...