Theoretical and empirical research of these last decades is working on the positive and normative side in order to deepen its understanding of financial market dynamics and to tackle new and old challenges with the ambitious goal of limiting fragilities and inefficiencies. Contributions collected in this book represent a valuable and remarkable endeavour in this direction covering different topics. A first one is related to the aggregate relationship between development of financial markets and economic growth. A second topic covered is credit risk. A third important topic is related to the...