Financialization, New Investment Funds, and Labour

Financialization, New Investment Funds, and Labour PDF

Author: Howard Gospel

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014-02

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0199653585

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The book examines the activities of often highly controversial investment funds, namely private equity, hedge funds, and sovereign wealth funds, in US, UK Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Poland, and Japan, exploring the importance of these funds and considering the evidence relating to their effects on work and employment.

The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems

The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems PDF

Author: Hilde Bjorkhaug

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-03

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1351654926

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Financialization is the increased influence of financial actors and logics on social and economic life, and is one of the key drivers transforming food systems and rural economies around the world. The premise of this book is that the actions of financial actors, and their financial logics, are transforming agri-food systems in profound ways. It is shown that although financialization is a powerful dynamic, some recent developments suggest that the rollout of financialization is contradictory and uneven in different spaces and markets. The book examines cases in which state regulation or re-regulation and social movement resistance are setting roadblocks or speed bumps in the path of financialization, resulting in a ‘cooling off’ of investment, as well as the other side of the argument where there is evidence of a ‘heating up’. The authors address not only the limits to financialization, but also the mechanisms through which financial entities are able to penetrate and re-shape agri-food industries. This book provides both a comparative analysis of financialization blending, and empirical findings with conceptual insights. It explores the connection between financialization, food systems, and rural transformation by critically examining: the concept of financialization and how food and farming are being financialized; the impacts of financialization in the food industry; and financialization in farming and forestry – along with the impacts this has on rural people and communities. This is a timely book, bringing together concrete case studies, from around the globe, to reveal the operations and impacts of finance capital in the ‘space’ of agri-food.

Financialisation in the Automotive Industry

Financialisation in the Automotive Industry PDF

Author: Marcelo José Do Carmo

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780367751401

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Where presidents or members of affluent families were previously seen, it is increasingly the case that car manufacturers are owned by banks and investment funds which have taken control of the entire economic life of these firms. This has significant impact on the terms of employment and layoffs, wages and precarious work, growing inequalities in income strata, compensation levels for executives, and the implementation of short-termist strategies across business operations. This book explores this increasing financialization - the predominance of the financial sector over the productive sector - in the automotive industry. In particular it is shown that the financial operations of these companies through leasing, insurance, loans, and other financial instruments is now much more profitable than the manufacturing aspects of the business, which was originally the raison d'être for these firms. The chapters demonstrate how there are great demands to increase the return to shareholders as a main concern, despite other metrics and/or other stakeholders. The work studies the impact of financialization at the world's five largest automakers which together represent almost 50% of car production, providing an exploratory analysis of profitability, shareholder composition, compensation to executives, workers' salaries, dividend payments to shareholders, and employment. Encouraging debate on contemporary economy, this book marks a significant addition to the literature on financialization, contemporary forms of capitalism, labour and economic sociology more broadly. Marcelo José do Carmo has a PhD in Production Engineering at the Federal University of São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil. Mário Sacomano Neto is an Associated Professor of Organizational Theory at Federal University of Sao Carlos, UFSCar, Brazil. Julio Cesar Donadone is currently Full Professor at the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil, and coordinator of the Center of Studies on Economic Sociology and Finance NESEFI -UFSCa.

Economics of Sovereign Wealth Funds

Economics of Sovereign Wealth Funds PDF

Author: Mr.Udaibir S. Das

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2010-12-09

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1589069277

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The book covers a wide range of topics of relevance to policymakers in countries that have sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and those that receive SWF investments. Renowned experts in the field have contributed chapters. The book is organized around four themes: (1) the role and macrofinancial linkages of SWFs, (2) institutional factors, (3) investment approaches and financial markets, and (4) the postcrisis outlook. The book also discusses the challenges facing sovereign wealth funds in the coming years, from an inside perspective on countries, including Canada, Chile, China, Norway, Russia, and New Zealand. Economics of Sovereign Wealth Funds will contribute to a further understanding of the nature, strategies and behavior of SWFs and the environment in which they operate, as their importance is likely to grow in the coming years.

Adaptive Markets

Adaptive Markets PDF

Author: Andrew W. Lo

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 069119680X

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A new, evolutionary explanation of markets and investor behavior Half of all Americans have money in the stock market, yet economists can’t agree on whether investors and markets are rational and efficient, as modern financial theory assumes, or irrational and inefficient, as behavioral economists believe. The debate is one of the biggest in economics, and the value or futility of investment management and financial regulation hangs on the answer. In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Lo transforms the debate with a powerful new framework in which rationality and irrationality coexist—the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Drawing on psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and other fields, Adaptive Markets shows that the theory of market efficiency is incomplete. When markets are unstable, investors react instinctively, creating inefficiencies for others to exploit. Lo’s new paradigm explains how financial evolution shapes behavior and markets at the speed of thought—a fact revealed by swings between stability and crisis, profit and loss, and innovation and regulation. An ambitious new answer to fundamental questions about economics and investing, Adaptive Markets is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how markets really work.

Funds

Funds PDF

Author: Matthew Hudson

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-03-31

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1118790405

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Investment funds are the driving force behind much global private economic development, and yet the world of investment funds can be complex and confusing. Funds: Private Equity, Hedge and All Core Structures is a practical introductory guide to the legal and commercial context in which funds are raised and invest their money, with examinations of the tax and regulatory background, and an analysis of the key themes and trends that the funds industry face following the financial crisis. The book looks at asset classes, investor return models, the commercial and legal pressures driving different structures and key global jurisdictions for both fund establishment and making investments. It also contains a comprehensive analysis of fund managers, from remuneration, best practice through to regulation. The book is written for readers from all backgrounds, from students or newcomers to the industry to experienced investors looking to branch out into alternative asset classes, or existing asset managers and their advisers wanting to know more about the structures elsewhere within the industry.

The New Frontiers of Sovereign Investment

The New Frontiers of Sovereign Investment PDF

Author: Malan Rietveld

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2017-05-16

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0231543484

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Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) can be effective tools for national resources revenue management. These state-owned investments, funded by commodity exports, foreign exchange reserves, or other national assets, are adaptable to the challenges posed by financial shocks and have been successfully employed in an increasing number of countries. The number of SWFs continues to grow, with the largest funds managing trillions of dollars in assets among them. However, given the significant variations among SWFs, it can be difficult to compare funds that differ in size, scope, and mandate. This book provides a sorely needed practical look at how these funds work—and how they should work. The New Frontiers of Sovereign Investment combines the insights and experience of academic economists and practitioners from several funds to survey a diverse financial landscape and establish the challenging topical questions facing a broad range of SWFs today: Should they serve both economic development and financial returns, and how? Will responsible investment enhance long-term returns? How can fiscal rules for SWFs be improved to meet emerging economic challenges? The book considers these questions as they apply to both long-established and newer SWFs. Featuring contributions from sovereign wealth practitioners from Alberta's AIMCo, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, as well as analysis by scholars at the forefront of sovereign investment, this volume provides timely and much-needed information on these rapidly evolving institutions.

OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2021

OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2021 PDF

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2021-05-20

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 9264852395

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This edition of the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook reviews developments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for government borrowing needs, funding conditions and funding strategies in the OECD area.

The Concept of the Employer

The Concept of the Employer PDF

Author: Jeremias Prassl

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2015-03-26

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0191054437

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Employment law has increasingly struggled to adapt to complex modern work arrangements, from agency work to corporate groups. This book suggests that the reason for this failure can be found in our concept of the employer, which has become riddled with internal contradictions in its search for a unitary employer, the counterparty to a bilateral contract, through a series of multi-functional tests focussed on the exercise of a range of employer functions. As a result of this tension, full employment law coverage is restricted to a narrow scenario where a single legal entity exercises all employer functions - a paradigm far from the reality of modern labour markets characterized by a fragmentation of work, from the rise of employment agencies and service companies to corporate groups and Private Equity investors. These problems can only be addressed by a careful reconceptualization and the development of a functional concept of the employer. The book draws on existing models in English, German, and European law to develop a definition of the employer as the entity, or combination of entities, exercising functions regulated in a particular domain of employment law. Each of the two strands of the current concept is addressed in turn to demonstrate how a more openly multi-functional approach can successfully overcome the rigidities of the current notion without abandoning a coherent underlying framework. It fills a crucial gap in employment law and corporate law with its analysis of the defects in our current understanding of the employer, and in developing a new functional concept designed to overcome the problems identified.

The Routledge International Handbook of Financialization

The Routledge International Handbook of Financialization PDF

Author: Philip Mader

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-02-05

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13: 1351390368

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Financialization has become the go-to term for scholars grappling with the growth of finance. This Handbook offers the first comprehensive survey of the scholarship on financialization, connecting finance with changes in politics, technology, culture, society and the economy. It takes stock of the diverse avenues of research that comprise financialization studies and the contributions they have made to understanding the changes in contemporary societies driven by the rise of finance. The chapters chart the field’s evolution from research describing and critiquing the manifestations of financialization towards scholarship that pinpoints the driving forces, mechanisms and boundaries of financialization. Written for researchers and students not only in economics but from across the social sciences and the humanities, this book offers a decidedly global and pluri-disciplinary view on financialization for those who are looking to understand the changing face of finance and its consequences.