This book provides a thorough introduction of fintech in general and cryptocurrencies in particular. It describes the courses of action and policies by central banks to control and regulate these disruptive innovations, to a wide readership.

In doing so, the book elaborates on the interrelationship between issues such as fintech and cryptocurrencies, central banks and digital currencies, Neo/challenger banks, financial inclusion and new generation of investors, while highlighting their regulatory and monetary implications. It does so by first (a) contributing to a rapidly emerging and expanding field of study on financial technology and digital banking, (b) emphasizing the organic interconnectedness of these advancements with socio-economic fabric of our societies and (c) layouts the countermeasures taken by central banks in response to disruptive technologies.

The book serves as a valuable supplement for courses on Fintech, appealing to a broad range of readers including students, academics, banking and finance practitioners and policy makers.

The book serves as a valuable supplement for courses on finance, business administration, commerce, economics and governance, appealing to a broad range of readers including students, academics, banking and finance practitioners and policy makers.

This book offers a holistic approach to the level playing field concept that takes into account six regulatory objectives of the European financial services regulatory framework for banks and non-banks. These intermediate objectives are: (i) facilitating market access by non-banks to provide payment services; (ii) safeguarding the security of the payments market; (iii) safeguarding the integrity of the payments market; (iv) enhancing consumer protection in case of an unauthorised or erroneous payments; (v) allowing non-banks access to payment systems; and (vi) facilitating collaboration between competing payment service providers to develop standards for the payments market that reflect the interests of both banks and non-banks. The book discusses the rules and regulations covering these intermediate objectives to determine the extent to which there is a level playing field between banks and non-banks. In addition, the book provides high-level summaries of competition law requirements and related case law, and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and financial law practitioners.

This book presents a holistic picture of Nigeria's financial services landscape. This includes identifying service providers and regulatory bodies, understanding consumer behaviour, and examining the unique challenges faced by Nigerian financial institutions. The book presents up-to-date research on recent developments and regulatory changes within Nigeria's financial sector, as well as future considerations for how financial services and financial inclusion can play a crucial role in the country's sustainable economic growth.

Combining academic analysis with practical insights, the book takes readers through Nigeria's key financial services providers, regulators, consumers, marketing strategies and challenges. A core focus throughout is on financial inclusion and the opportunities associated with reaching financially underserved or excluded populations, demonstrating how increasing financial access at a country-wide level aligns with global goals of reducing inequalities and promoting growth. It will have interdisciplinary appeal to scholars, students and professionals working in finance, economics, business, public policy and development studies.

This edited volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the intricate dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, particularly within the context of sustainable development in Africa. The book explores the multifaceted consequences of the war, drawing attention to its socioeconomic, environmental, and political implications. It also emphasizes the significance of sustainable development on a global scale, positioning itself at the intersection of conflict studies and sustainable development literature.

Chapters discuss the international response to the conflict, including sanctions on Russia and disruptions in global supply chains, which has had significant implications for countries in Africa that rely on Russia and Ukraine for essential commodities. The history and root causes of the conflict are analyzed, highlighting the contrasting narratives - the pro-Russian perspective and the pro-Western viewpoint. Underscoring the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on global peace, sustainable development, and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students focusing on development, food systems, peace and conflict, security studies, international relations, and the SDGs.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of contemporary indigenization topics in the cultural context of sub-Saharan Africa. Discussing current state of affairs of indigenous entrepreneurship in Africa, it seeks to understand what enables and constrains indigenous entrepreneurship in the region. Further, it explores the role of the institutional environment in promoting indigenous entrepreneurship.

Tying in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the chapters examine how indigenous entrepreneurship relates to ending poverty, creating decent work and economic growth, reducing inequalities, contributing to sustainable cities and communities, and promoting peace, justice and strong institutions.

For researchers interested in how indigenous entrepreneurship practices in sub- Saharan Africa contest contemporary theories in entrepreneurship and management research, this work will prove a valuable resource with its much- needed case studies, quantitative and qualitative research, and practitioner perspectives.

This open access book examines the long-term impact of Christian missionaries in Zambia, and sub-Saharan Africa more generally, on education, health, and economic development. It examines how Christian missionaries provided Western-style education and healthcare within sub-Saharan Africa during the 20th century and how this was provided along unequal gender and regional lines. With sub-Saharan Africa currently facing challenges in the provision of essential public goods and services, the legacy of Christian missionaries in Zambia provides an insightful case study for better understanding how gendered education and regional health inequality have hindered economic development in this region.

This book offers a new perspective on colonialism and the economic challenges faced within Africa. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested development economics and economic history.

This book examines human capital development in the Middle East. It focuses on the investment in human capabilities, namely education and health, the two most critical components of growth and development. The book assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare sector, with particular attention paid to effectiveness of public health policies and services, health expenditure, mortality rates, and psychological effects of the pandemic on the wider society. It also evaluates the pandemic effects on the education sector, more specifically medical education, physical education, emotional effects on students and teachers, method of communications, learning and teaching, and the extent to which digital readiness has minimized these effects. The book reveals the severity of the pandemic on human capabilities in terms of loss of lives, illness, vaccinations, knowledge acquisitions, skills development, and productivity, while providing new insights for governments to deal with similar crises in the future. It uses a variety of research methods and quantitative and qualitative techniques, country case studies, and primary data collected through survey questionnaires, interviews, and official reports to analyse the impact of the pandemic on health and education. The analyses are supported by statistical data and illustrated by tables and figures. Readers, students, researchers, industry practitioners and policy makers will benefit from the new insights offered by a diverse group of 40 professors, researchers, and industry experts from across the Middle East and beyond.

While there has been a huge expansion of the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy in the last decade or so, fewer studies have explored Turkey's engagement with the changing global political economy since 2008 in a holistic manner. Against the backdrop of the debates on the 'rise of the Global South' and the crisis and decline of the US-led Liberal International Order, this book interrogates Turkey's ambitions to increase its regional and global economic, political, and military 'footprint' and the limitations thereof. The volume explores Turkey's economic and political relations with diverse regions and countries, ranging from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, post-Brexit Britain to Iran, as well as rising powers India and China. Drawing upon various critical IPE/IR approaches, the book offers a critical perspective, challenging conventional accounts which tend to draw upon and reproduce rigid dichotomies.

This book explores the role of the informal sector at the beginning of the structural transformation of the Indian economy. It highlights the dynamic nature of the informal sector and the crucial role that it played in that transformation. The growth of the informal sector is analysed alongside the decline in agriculture and the growth of industry. Issues such as unemployment, wages, rural-to-rural migration, in addition to rural-to-urban migration, are discussed. The book also considers the role of social

factors, including those relating to caste and tribe, in migration decisions. It also highlights the links between migration, the informal sector, and economic growth that are also relevant to other developing countries. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in development economics, development studies, and economic history.

This book provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the mixed ownership reform, a timely and critical topic in the Chinese economy. Authors approach the subject matter with a unique blend of theoretical perspectives and practical examples, offering insights into the future trajectory of SOEs in China. The book's content spans from the historical evolution of SOEs, the role of state-owned capital, to the impact of mixed ownership on social capital, and the institutional measures required for successful reform. It is intended for academics, students, and practitioners interested in Chinese economy and business. The most important features and benefits of the book include its comprehensive analysis, blend of theory and practice, and forward-looking perspective.

This book explores the relationship between interest rate liberalization and the reform of China's financial system. It covers many important topics about China's financial system including the role of deposit and lending rates, yields to investment, the relationship between investment and real interest rates, the impact of interest rate liberalization on resident saving, mechanism for RMB exchange rate determination, and policies necessary for interest liberalization. The book also discusses key impediments, path choice, and policy recommendations for China's interest rate liberalization.

This edited book is the first to bring together in one place new theoretical and empirical evidence as well as case studies about spatial spillovers, with a particular focus on spillovers in Asia. In the context of this book, spatial spillovers are locally bounded and territorially rooted interactions between one or more economic agents and their environments. They are salient because they affect regional economic growth and development. Specifically, the individual chapters in this book shed light on the different kinds of spatial spillovers witnessed in Asian regions, particularly those that derive from the acquisition and transfer of knowledge, those that arise from horizontal or vertical industrial interactions, and those that come about because of economic growth. The book departs from the existing literature in three ways. First, the book explicitly recognizes that different kinds of spatial spillovers have dissimilar impacts on the lives and therefore on the welfare of the residents of different regions. Second, the book emphasizes the varied dimensions of the interactions and the ways in which these dimensions influence different societies. Third, this book demonstrates the ways in which an understanding of the preceding two points contributes to our knowledge about the nexuses between spatial spillovers and regional economic growth and development. Because Asia is the fastest growing and the most dynamic continent in the world today, the research delineated in the individual chapters of the book provides practical guidance concerning two salient questions. First, how do we effectively address the economic growth and development challenges stemming from spatial spillovers between one or more regions within Asia? Second, how do we ensure that the policies we design to address these challenges give rise to broad-based and sustainable economic growth and development?

This open access book analyzes the achievements and challenges of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from the macro and industrial, real and financial, domestic and international perspectives, and explores the opportunities for future development and related public policy issues. It is a new research achievement of CICC Research and CICC Global Institute on major issues in China's new development stage.

The year 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the past decade, BRI has established more than 3,000 cooperation projects, galvanized nearly 1 trillion U.S. dollars of investment, created more than 420,000 jobs, and lifted nearly 40 million people out of poverty. BRI has made remarkable achievements in promoting connectivity and cooperative development between China and participating countries, and has been welcomed by the international community both as a public good and a cooperation platform.

Compared with ten years ago, the global environment has undergone profound changes. COVID-19 epidemic has brought great impacts to the world, and the post-epidemic economic recovery is uneven, with some long-term scarring effects still emerging. New changes and constraints, such as geopolitical events, industry chain adjustment, and green transition, have also exerted far-reaching influences on the economic fundamentals and global governance. Under the new situation, international cooperation mechanisms, including BRI, are facing new problems and challenges, which need to be explored and solved in practice.

This book is both academically rigorous and readable, and provides valuable references for public policy departments, enterprises, and financial institutions who seek to better understand the macro, financial and industrial trends of BRI.

This volume showcases how the climate change phenomena (CCP) have been causing multifaceted threats to humankind through increasing numbers of extreme events, affecting social, economic, and human development worldwide. The Global South is especially showcased in this contributory volume where adverse effects of CCP and related disasters impact majority of the population which depends on land and natural resources for their livelihoods. This book asserts that climate change and extreme events are potential threats to sustainable human development and micro spatial observations and analysis of impacts of CCP are vital for adopting resilience policies. This book, not enquiring why CCP is happening, embarks on a quest to showcase how best to respond to such phenomena through detailed and well-founded micro-spatial investigations on poor farmers, pastoralists, fishermen folk, migrant labours, slum dwellers, who are considered the most threatened by climate changes and weather shocks, based on possible disruptions in the production process. Scholarly contributions in this volume analyze how local and regional versions of CCP actively challenge the economies and livelihoods, question the social securities and good governance, and how such phenomena ultimately become a constraint in achieving sustainable development in the Global South. This volume accommodates many aspects of regional adaptation strategies in vulnerable areas and groups in different parts of the Global South to ensure stability and peacefulness. Academicians, research scholars, and readers inquisitive about the socio-economic dimensions of climate change in the Global South, will find the discussions across different chapters of this volume interesting.

This book provides a broad and insightful guide to the economic, social, and environmental concerns seen within Africa. It highlights the central economic challenges faced by African countries and outlines ways in which long-term sustainable development in Africa can be achieved. A particular focus in given to issues of poverty, inequality, and unemployment and how poor infrastructure, limited healthcare and education, and environmental deterioration are exacerbating these issues. By looking at the limited effectiveness of traditional development initiatives, a new framework for economic development is presented that focuses on community ownership and long-term sustainability and which acknowledges the history of colonisation, economic exploitation, and political instability that has held Africa back in the past.

This book takes hope from countries within the Global South that have moved towards sustainable development and sets out ways in which other countries can follow them. It will be relevant to students, researchers, and policymakers interested in development and environmental economics.

This book bridges the gap between theoretical and empirical understandings of the informal sector to provide insight into the role of the informal sector within the development process. By analysing three economic sectors, it sets out a framework for analysing urbanisation, rural-urban migration, agriculture- industry relationship, income inequality, structural change, employment, and optimal growth. Through highlighting the economic contribution of the informal sector, its impact on the national output and influence on the labour market is shown, alongside how employment opportunities in the informal sector drive rural and urban migration.

This book presents a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of the informal sector and its role in the development of economies. It will be of interest to researchers and policymakers working within development economics and growth economics.

This book addresses death and immortality by paralleling Plato's philosophy of 'becoming like God' through exercising one's intellect and virtues, with the Greek archaic and heroic way of gaining immortal glory through remarkable deeds. In doing so, this study focuses on the explicit and implicit references to earthly immortality and heroism in Plato's dialogues, arguing for a distinction between the Time-bound ontology of the glory-seeking individual and the Being-centered ontology of the philosopher. Such an underlining of the ontological discrepancy between the ways of the hero and those of the philosopher makes this book a novel academic contribution. The dual focus discloses the clash of ontologies yet also reveals an implicit existential turmoil in Ancient Greek culture as to the anxieties surrounding one's potential immortality. This title appeals to students and researchers working in Ancient philosophy and existentialism.

This book provides an insider's account of how macroeconomic policies in the United States, Japan and major European countries were carried out and how the OECD and the author either as its senior official or a Japanese central banker dealt with international trade issues, protectionism, globalisation, regional integration and other related issues since the 1960s. Employing an informal tone, the author offers a critical review of the successes and failures of the economic policies followed by these countries in the international setting which prevailed during this period. This book will interest economists, international businesspersons, journalists and historians.

This book explores the marginalization that English as additional language (EAL) learners, immigrant or language-minoritized people confront when learning to socialize into using the language of schooling. The authors examine racialized academic language not to dismiss it, but to scrutinize its presence and impact on individuals' lives.

Beginning with connections between eugenics, intelligence, whiteness, language, monolingualism and bilingualism, it then reviews current practices, and how the construction of academic language in various schooling and non-schooling contexts creates hegemonic structures that perpetuate deficit perspectives. The final section envisions what could help dismantle the power knots that academic language holds in systemic structures.

This is a vital book for teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers who refuse the deficiency orientations placed on non-standardized use of language at schools and want to deconstruct the power that academic standardized language holds in the lives of language-minoritized students.

This Dictionary provides the theoretical summary and conceptual framework around the milestones obtained through Chinese reform and development and highlights the research achievements of Chinese economics over the past 40 years. It also presents Chinese economics to the world, featuring the Belt and Road Initiative and the Chinese theory and Chinese system to be known and shared internationally with a Chinese intellectual foundation. It sets out to frame the theoretical achievements of extraction and summary of practice experience from Chinese reform and development. The choice of entries in the Dictionary seeks to embody the very Chinese characteristics of economics and the combination of theory and practice is illuminated. Furthermore, the dictionary explores examples of scientific achievements that traditional economics has brought forward and how they fit and unify within both a Chinese, as well as an international context.

This book argues that Aristotle's aporia on time in the Physics figures both as an aporia in the subjective sense of a mental state of perplexity and in the objective, textual sense of a contrast between opposing views.

First the book seeks to precisely identify what constitutes Aristotle's aporiai (or aporetic contrasts) on time and then to assess them from the viewpoint of Aristotle's five chapters on time as well as the book of Physics as a whole. By such a procedure the claims in the aporiai can, on the one hand, be assessed to find out to what extent they should be accepted, rejected or somehow modified and, on the other, how the aporiai function as a means to provoke new thought and insight in regard to the precise nature of Aristotle's understanding of time.