This open access book provides an overview of the credit distribution ecosystem in Europe, with a specific focus on the definitions, laws, and authorities related to the figures of credit intermediaries (credit agents and brokers). It explores the regulatory framework, market structures, and technological innovations in credit intermediation. The analysis draws on the authors' academic research in banking and finance, industry experience with institutional clients and financial product distribution, and the regulatory role of the OAM. The book defines and classifies credit intermediaries in different European jurisdictions, including the UK, and compares regulatory and legislative frameworks governing credit distribution across these markets. It also analyses the role of national supervisory authorities in this sector. Designed for finance professionals, regulators, and scholars, the book offers an in-depth examination of credit agents and brokers in the European market.

The new path for economic development that India must create

The whole world has a stake in India's future, and that future hinges on whether India can develop its economy and deliver for its population-now the world's largest-while staying democratic. India's economy has overtaken the United Kingdom's to become the fifth-largest in the world, but it is still only one-fifth the size of China's, and India's economic growth is too slow to provide jobs for millions of its ambitious youth. Blocking India's current path are intense global competition in low-skilled manufacturing, increasing protectionism and automation, and the country's majoritarian streak in politics. In Breaking the Mold, Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba show why and how India needs to blaze a new path if it's to succeed.

India diverged long ago from the standard development model, the one followed by China-from agriculture to low-skilled manufacturing, then high-skilled manufacturing and, finally, services-by leapfrogging intermediate steps. India must not turn back now. Rajan and Lamba explain how India can accelerate growth by prioritizing human capital, expanding opportunities in high-skilled services, encouraging entrepreneurship, and strengthening rather than weakening its democratic traditions. It can chart a path based on ideas and creativity even at its early stage of development.

Filled with vivid examples and written with incisive candor, Breaking the Mold shows how India can break free of the stumbling blocks of the past and embrace the enormous possibilities of the future.

This book offers readers a comprehensive understanding of how legal frameworks shape sustainable practices and economic growth. The book provides valuable insights into the integration of law and economics to promote sustainable agricultural development, focusing on technological advancements and their economic impacts. Readers will gain a deep understanding of how legal structures support agricultural households and marginalized communities. In examining economic policies and trade, the book reveals the pivotal role of law in achieving sustainable development goals, balancing intellectual property rights, and managing environmental challenges like oil spills. This makes it an essential resource for grasping the complexities of global economic strategies and their sustainability implications. The section on labor law addresses contemporary issues in employment, such as the gig economy, income disparity, and workplace discrimination. By highlighting legal protections and social equity, the book underscores the importance of fair labor practices. Overall, readers will benefit from a detailed, interdisciplinary exploration of how legal and economic systems can collaboratively drive sustainable development and social justice.

This book presents green hydrogen as a transformative force set to redefine the energy landscape. Offering a meticulous and current analysis, it caters to the increasing demand for expertise from investors, policymakers, students and industry leaders. This book covers the entire product life cycle, from sourcing to consumption, addressing technical challenges and solutions related to green hydrogen supply chain. Amid the global energy transition and the Indian Green Hydrogen Mission, this book is an essential read. It delves into the intricacies, potential and challenges of green hydrogen production, storage, transportation amid the ambitious targets of the Indian hydrogen mission. With billions being invested by venture capitalists and energy giants, this book provides knowledge to make informed decisions, including a comparative analysis of green hydrogen with other renewable energy sources like bioenergy and battery storage. As the regulatory framework for green hydrogen evolves rapidly, this book deciphers the complex policy landscape, clarifying incentives, mandates and the path towards a hydrogen-powered economy. It also offers market intelligence, revealing diverse applications of green hydrogen from industrial decarbonization to clean transportation, forecasting market growth and identifying key players. Social acceptance and public perception of green hydrogen are also explored, highlighting factors that could influence its adoption.

This book posits that, beyond China's reform and opening-up policy and various factors of timing, geographical advantages, and popular will, the institutional innovations introduced in Shenzhen-including allowing inputs to receive reasonable returns, leveraging the market's role, cultivating modern industrial chain (clusters), promoting high-quality economic development, emphasizing contractual obligations and the rule of law, and establishing a limited yet effective governance framework-constitute the unique drivers of Shenzhen's modernization. The city's new designation as a Pilot Demonstration Zone has charted a course for its future development by defining new goals and consolidating its institutional advantages.

This book takes the Shenzhen Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone as a case study to research on the coordinated regional economic development. It provides a detailed introduction to the origin of the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone, the development of enclave economy with Chinese characteristics, the differences between Chinese and foreign enclaves, and the theoretical evolution of enclave development. The book offers an in-depth analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the Shenshan Cooperation Zone's transition from "tripartite co-management" to "bilateral cooperation" and finally to "unilateral comprehensive leadership". It elaborates on why the development of the Shenshan Cooperation Zone adopts a combined economic model that integrates the cultivation of endogenous innovation drivers with the establishment of regionally induced growth poles, industrial gradient transfer, and complementary factor endowments. The book also scientifically demonstrates the implementation path of "planning leading, infrastructure first, platform-driven development, and industry-city integration". As a monograph that combines theoretical depth and practical insight, it systematically studies the development of enclave economy and offers significant reference value for the advancement of enclave economies.

Public administration of government land allocated to the private sector as leasehold interests and short term tenancies etc. is a very complicated and challenging area of knowledge for property users, owners, investors, researchers and regulators. This book covers fundamental concepts and practices of this area with a focus on Hong Kong.

This book provides a critical examination of how artificial intelligence and algorithmic management are transforming labour relations in the platform economy, with a focus on food-delivery workers in China. By combining ethnographic research with labour process theory, it reveals the hidden mechanisms of digital labour control and the ways workers resist algorithmic exploitation in an era of technological dominance. This book will interest scholars of the platform gig economy, of Chinese labor issues, and of the sociology of AI.

This book explores the impact of migration on economic growth and entrepreneurship in Sweden. By looking at economic and migration trends over the last centuries, it examines the sectors, industries, and geographical locations where entrepreneurship has taken place, the economic and social impact of entrepreneurship, and the specifics of migrant entrepreneurship. Trends within Sweden are compared with the rest of the world to assess the unique aspects of migrant entrepreneurship in Sweden and to see whether Swedish institutions positively impact economic growth.

This book examines the history of migrant entrepreneurship to see if the challenges faced by modern migrants are new and to evaluate whether past successes can be used to overcome these challenges. It will be relevant to students, researchers, and policymakers interested in the economics of migration, labour economics, and entrepreneurship.

A lively new translation of Plutarch's charming and timeless essay on how to be a good listener-and why listening is essential to learning and living well

Listening is a skill-even an art-and it's essential to learning and to life. Indeed, as Plutarch writes in How to Listen, "listening well is the foundation for living well." In this volume, Jeffrey Beneker presents a vivid and accessible new translation of Plutarch's classic essay about how to become a skilled listener, complete with an inviting introduction and the original Greek on facing pages.

Plutarch is most famous as the author of Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen. But he was also an expert on teaching and learning and How to Listen is arguably one of his best pedagogical works. A proponent of active listening well before its time, Plutarch explains the skills we need-and the obstacles and distractions we must overcome-to become effective listeners. Good listening requires, above all, an acknowledgement of our own ignorance in certain subjects and a commitment to gaining knowledge. We must set aside pride and envy so we can respect the expertise of others. We must also train ourselves to see through style and focus on substance, to discriminate between weak and strong arguments, and to criticize ideas fairly and accurately.

Filled with shrewd insights and advice, How to Listen shows how to cultivate a skill that everyone who wants to learn and live well must master.

This book aims to elucidate the operational mechanisms of transfer of land development right within a public ownership system, which not only offers a distinctive and dynamic case study on TDR program to advance institutional diversity in transitional economies, but also serves as a valuable reference for addressing urban-rural development disparities worldwide.

An energetic new translation of the ancient Greek satirist Lucian's humorous and enlightening dialogue on the pros-and cons-of athletics, fitness, and competition

Sports and philosophy went hand in hand for the ancient Greeks and Romans, and philosophical conversation was a recognized part of gym life throughout Greco-Roman antiquity. Athens's Lyceum was a gym-and reportedly a hangout of that philosophical gym rat Socrates-before it became the site of Aristotle's school. Fittingly, that gym is the setting of the Greek satirist Lucian's Anacharsis, a witty philosophical dialogue that wrestles with questions about the purpose and value of sports-questions that we are still grappling with in our own sports- and fitness-obsessed times. How to Compete presents a new translation of Lucian's timeless classic, inviting us into a ringside debate about the point of sports.

Pitting a sports skeptic, Anacharsis, against a superfan, Solon, this delightful and thought-provoking work tries to make sense of sports. Why do so many of us care so much about them? Are sports like boxing too violent? Should we take fitness so seriously? Do athletics have educational value? And, most important of all, why did the ancient Greeks exercise naked? While Anacharsis, observing a Greek sport that sounds something like mixed martial arts, asks what kind of citizens set aside serious affairs to watch young men beat each other to a pulp, Solon counters that sports have great civic benefits and that athletes are ultimately competing for the highest prize-human excellence.

Featuring an inviting introduction, a handy glossary, helpful notes, and the original Greek on facing pages, How to Compete is a winning exploration of why sports are more than just a game.

This book analyses China's emergence on the global stage and helps readers to understand its superpower aspiration by assessing it from different hidden aspects, debunking myths, and questioning conventional wisdom, which often are just conventional views without much wisdom, through rigorous research thoughts backed by data and evidence. This book will interest China watchers, scholars and economists.

A foundational treatment of discrete choice models, with a focus on random utility models

Discrete choice models are essential tools for understanding decision-making when individuals must choose among alternatives. They have applications across the social sciences, notably in economics, marketing, and political science. This book offers a foundational treatment of discrete choice models, introducing the logit model and its generalizations, logistic and Poisson regressions, and generalized linear models, and demonstrates their use in analyzing important econometric models. These include international trade gravity, demand estimation, matching with and without transfers, hedonic markets, and dynamic discrete choice. Bridging theoretical clarity and practical applicability, the book is suitable for use in graduate-level coursework and will be an essential resource for researchers and practitioners.

* Extensive coverage of computational issues, focusing on optimization and the reformulation as generalized linear models
* Emphasis on econometric questions, including simulation, estimation, and inference methods, with estimation techniques based on both simulated and actual datasets
* A substantial set of exercises and problems at the end of each chapter
* Two appendixes, with one covering the mathematical tools needed to understand the material, and the other the Python code examples

This book is the first volume presenting carefully selected chapters from the proceedings of the 8th International Scientific Conference on Business and Economics (ISCBE), Tetovo, North Macedonia, which took place in May 2025.

The chapters explore the interplay between green and digital transformations, highlighting how businesses and economies can leverage technology and innovation to achieve sustainability goals. They cover a wide range of areas relevant to contemporary business and economics issues such as sustainable business models, digital integration for green growth, economic policies for resilience, circular economy practices, and the role of finance in fostering sustainability.

The book is an essential compass for business leaders to navigate the complex challenges posed by the impact of global economic tensions and competition on sustainability efforts.

An empirical analysis and new theoretical framework for understanding economic expectations and decision-making in different historical settings.

Expectations play a crucial role in shaping economic behavior. But how are expectations actually formed, and how has this changed over time? The financial crisis of 2007-08 cast doubt on traditional theories of expectation formation, particularly the rational expectations framework. In Contingent Expectations, Alexander Nuetzenadel and Jochen Streb examine the ways that past experiences influence the economic expectations and decision-making of households, investors, and policymakers through history, and offer an alternative perspective. Combining a comprehensive empirical analysis of expectation formation from the eighteenth century to the present day with an assessment of the relevant economic theory, Nuetzenadel and Streb present a new theoretical framework, contingent expectations, for understanding economic expectation.

Nuetzenadel and Streb show how economic actors developed new forecasting methods in response to rising uncertainty brought on by the Industrial Revolution, the expansion of global trade, financial market integration, and environmental crises. Tracing the evolution of economic theories on expectations, they find that when growing market volatility made forecasting more complex, economic agents often adapted with remarkable flexibility to changing circumstances. Challenging prevailing concepts of expectations, including rational choice and adaptive expectations, Nuetzenadel and Streb emphasize the heterogeneity of economic agents' cognitive practices-in particular, the need to consider variation in information costs and historical experience. Expectation formation, they argue, is contingent on each individual's current decision-making situation. Their account of the history of economic expectations has significant implications for current debates in economics.

This brief discusses how to deal with data visualization and prediction in human society, a context in which big data analysis and artificial intelligence have the potential to transform the world.

The debates presented in this brief combine different disciplines such as data-science, economics, political science, social informatics, informatics, philosophy of recognition and human actions, and artificial intelligence for human society.

Written by leading researchers from various disciplines, the brief provides fresh perspectives on the social impact of AI and evolution of human beings. As such, it offers a unique resource for all scholars and policymakers interested in the most exciting and fuzzy connections between disciplines, where knowledge in one field helps to answer questions in another.

This graduate textbook introduces to social choice theory, with a specific focus on elections and fair division, supported by mathematical theories and practical implications.

Part I sheds light on the complexity of fair elections, and presents classical results from social choice theory, including May's, Arrow's, and Gibbard-Satterthwaite's theorems, and how they impact the organization of fair elections. They also discuss the measurement of voting power in such elections via the Penrose-Banzhaf index and the Shapley-Shubik index. Besides these more or less classical topics, the authors introduce Balinski and Laraki's transformative Majority Judgment framework. Moreover, Part I concludes by critically addressing flaws in contemporary Western democracies and proposing an alternative political system.

In Part II, the book dissects claims-based and preference-based fair division, explaining that the focus will be on the former. In particular, the focus will be on models that can elaborate on and make precise the thought that `fairness requires that claims are satisfied in proportion to their strength', as advocated for in the philosophical literature. The authors scrutinize various formal models, ranging from (weighted) bankruptcy problems to cooperative games, assessing their alignment with this claims-based conception of fairness. Part II concludes with a brief overview of preference-based fair division.

This textbook is a crucial resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students and scholars, bridging the worlds of mathematics, philosophy, political theory, and social justice.

The purpose of this book is to reaffirm the significance of the link between taxation and public spending as essential to the very existence of the social contract and to the system of rights and duties on which social cooperation in a democracy is based. Drawing on ideas from economics, political science, and philosophy, the book advances the fundamental principle of fiscal democracy within a society governed by norms of reciprocity and cooperation. By examining the current economic and political order, where the public sector is deployed to preserve property values and sustain the capitalist economy, the narrative of neoliberalism is challenged through the reinstatement of fiscal democracy as a means of fulfilling the social contract.

Using a novel argument in support of Rawls's property-owning democracy, this book presents a framework for a democratic welfare state that is both just and universal. It will be of interest to students and researchers in political economy, fiscal policy, and welfare economics.

Organizations construct their environments themselves. From the bewildering, chaotic array of impressions, they take those bits of information that enable them to produce such a view of the environment - one that makes it possible for them to operate in the environment with relative confidence. Thus, contrary to what traditional market research suggests, organizations do not respond objectively to existing environmental conditions, but invent, construct and create their realities themselves.The goal of exploring the environment -or, more specifically, exploring markets - is to influence this construction process through re-framing, de-generalization and hypothesis formation and thus to allow organizations to discover unusual things.

A comprehensive look at inequalities and why they matter

There is a widespread sense throughout the developed world that progress towards a better society has stalled. Many countries, including the UK, have experienced persistent economic stagnation accompanied by declining trust in institutions. Governments are struggling to respond not only to traditional economic problems but also to newer challenges posed by climate change, migration and technological change. Challenging Inequalities, written by Paul Johnson and coauthors, drawing on the findings of the six-year IFS Deaton Review, connects these conditions to inequality-inequality not just of income and wealth but of health, political participation and opportunity. It not only offers a detailed analysis of the different forms of inequalities but also an in-depth consideration of why inequalities matter, how they have changed and what can, or should, be done about them.

The book explains the enduring effects of early life experiences and education and examines the trends in employment and earnings over recent decades. It argues that economic stagnation since the financial crises of 2008-2009 has exposed inequalities originating in the 1980s. Not only have incomes stagnated, but so has progress towards reducing health inequalities and dealing with inequalities across gender, ethnicity, geography, age and educational level. The combination of earnings inequality and economic stagnation has led to the growing importance of wealth, the increasing concentration of economic power in an older generation and a decline in social mobility. Economic inequalities have also resulted directly in dangerous differences between regions and in political power across groups.

The need to address inequality has never been more urgent. Challenging Inequalities offers a road map for how we have arrived at such a perilous spot-and how we can change course to achieve better outcomes for all.

Decoding the Market: Cycles, Valuations, and Strategies offers investors a clear framework to understand the deeper forces shaping today's financial world. Moving beyond short-term market noise, it examines the structural drivers of investment outcomes-economic cycles, valuation frameworks, geopolitics, demographics, policy shifts, and technological change-while also equipping readers with tools to interpret financial statements, assess risk, understand business models, and apply insights from behavioral finance and quantitative methods. Covering equities, bonds, gold, foreign exchange, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies, the book explores the risk-return characteristics of major asset classes and provides practical strategies for navigating different market environments. With its clear structure, actionable analysis, and balance of theory and practice, this book empowers readers to make rational decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and seize opportunities across market cycles. Accessible yet deeply insightful, it is an essential guide for anyone seeking confidence, discipline, and foresight in investing-and a roadmap to achieving long-term success in an uncertain world.

This book offers a comprehensive and integrated view of the global construction sector, using language that is accessible to all interested readers.

It explores the historical evolution of construction, the political, economic, social, and technological challenges the sector faces, and proposes strategic measures to promote growth and strengthen resilience.

The life cycle of construction projects is examined with particular emphasis on project management, with reference to widely recognized regulations and standards. It also features opinion pieces by the author on contemporary issues and emerging trends in the sector, followed by an analysis of risks and opportunities, as well as guidelines for managing organizational change.

The book concludes by highlighting the value of construction to humanity, emphasizing its tangible contributions to housing, infrastructure, and employment. Construction is presented not only as an economic driver, but also as a fundamental pillar in the long-term development of societies.

A transporting anthology of ancient Greek and Roman travel writings that capture the thrill of exploration and discovery-from Europe to the Holy Land and Egypt to India

At long last, a travel guide to the ancient world for the modern tourist-written by the ancients themselves. How to Travel gathers classic texts from Greek and Roman writers to explore what today's readers can learn from ancient encounters with unfamiliar peoples, places, and customs.

The Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 484-425 BCE) is one of the most famous travelers of antiquity. His Histories, which chronicle his and others' encounters with foreign peoples and places, have fascinated readers for millennia, and have much to teach about the secrets of good travel. In How to Travel, Herodotus and Tacitus take us on tours of Central Asia, Egypt, and Germania, while pilgrims like Pausanias and the Christian nun Egeria guide us through Greece and the Holy Land. Readers are whisked away to India to experience the ways of forest-dwelling sages and to the far reaches of Africa. And as if Earth weren't enough, the satirist Lucian takes us to the Moon. But this whirlwind tour of antiquity is more than a pleasure cruise. Seneca cautions travelers that, go as far as we may, we can never escape ourselves. Gratitude, Egeria says, is the traveler's proper response for the privilege. And Homer reminds us that, ultimately, there's no place like home.

Featuring vivid new translations, an inviting introduction, and the original Greek and Latin texts on facing pages, How to Travel captures the thrill of exploration and discovery-and how new experiences, fresh vistas, and foreign cultures can change the traveler.

This book explores into the dynamics of income distribution, challenging the established approaches of 19^th-century political economist Karl Marx and 21^st-century economist Thomas Piketty. Re-examinining the foundational principles of wealth creation through the lens of physical sciences, particularly mechanics, thermodynamics, and kinetics, Bernard C. Beaudreau argues that energy, rather than labor or capital, drives material processes and the accumulation of wealth.

In the book, Beaudreau critiques current distribution theories, highlighting their connections to the basic laws of physics. He introduces the energy-organization approach, positing that labor and capital are organizationally productive rather than physically productive. This perspective can be used to observe income distribution as they connect to energy rents, which are the returns to energy after accounting for its costs. The book touches on globalization, presenting this approach as a form of energy rent seeking rather than a result of comparative advantage. Beaudreau proposes alternative systems for distributing energy rents and examines their implications for the legitimacy of wages and profits.

Integrating scientific principles with economic theory, this book offers a unique approach to conversations surrounding income inequality.

This book, set out over four volumes, provides a comprehensive history of economic thought in the 20th century. Special attention is given to the cultural and historical context behind the development of economic theories, to the leading or peripheral research communities and their interactions or controversies, and a critical appreciation and assessment of theories throughout these times.

Volume IV explores economic theory in the age of globalization, between the years from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. It focuses on efforts to establish a new neoclassical paradigm led by proponents of New Chicago economics, and traces the emergence of alternative research trajectories-including New Keynesians, Behavioral Economics, and Complexity Economics. The volume concludes with an examination of the debate on the financial and economic crisis of 2007-8. Key thinkers discussed include Robert Lucas, George Akerlof, Joseph Stiglitz, Daniel Kahneman and Brian Arthur.

This work provides a significant and original contribution to the history of economic thought and gives insight to the thinking of some of the major international figures in economics. It will appeal to students and scholars wishing to further their understanding of the history of economics.

This book provides unique insight into the intellectual life and economic ideas of Ferdinando Galiani. By placing his work within the development of economic science in the 18th century, it synthesises his ideas and places them within the history of economic thought. The key economic themes within Galiani's work, alongside his innovative methodology, are highlighted to show the originality of his work and the depth of his ideas. A particular focus is given to his work on monetary theory and his contribution to our understanding of the theory of value, the characteristics of monetary systems, the origin of money, and the nature of interest and exchange rates.

This book explores the influence of Ferdinando Galiani on both 18th century Europe and modern economics. It will be of relevant to students and researchers interested in monetary policy and the history of economic thought.