This open access book provides a decade-spanning, meticulously curated collection of research that showcases groundbreaking advances in blockchain, cryptocurrency, digital finance, and market volatility. Through empirical studies, predictive models, and comprehensive reviews, this book reveals the evolution of financial innovation over the past decade, highlighting blockchain as a transformative direction alongside other pivotal advancements, with both theoretical insights and actionable applications.

With its pioneering focus on emerging topics-such as innovative blockchain applications in finance, the rise of tokens and NFTs as digital assets, and cryptocurrency market dynamics-this book delves into cutting-edge financial phenomena rarely covered in traditional finance literature. Spanning complexities from market dynamics, volatility, and spillover effects to the evolving regulatory landscape for crypto adoption, it provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of blockchain's role in modern finance.

Intended for researchers, academics, policy makers, and finance professionals, this book balances rigorous academic research with real-world applicability, providing insights that appeal to both scholarly and practical perspectives. Key benefits include a unique mix of strategic advances in financial innovation and actionable research insights for navigating its evolving landscape.

A practioner's guide to quantitative reverse stress testing, featuring advanced solutions for better management of financial risks

Whether you manage a portfolio, a business unit or a bank, you must ensure that a sudden shock in the markets won't drive you out of business because of a large loss, a jump in capital utilisation or an increase in funding consumption . In financial risk management, reverse stress testing is the attempt to identify worst case scenarios causing maximum financial loss. Traditional stress testing methods have failed to avert the last financial crisis or highlight financial distress. . Every so often some regulators and risk managers specify stress scenarios with simplifications that create a false sense of safety. To avoid a combinatorial explosion, a number of arbitrary choices are usually made in relation to the level of each shock, their combination and the time horizon. These assumptions, although necessary, limit the effectiveness of this technique.

Quantitative Reverse Stress Testing: Hunting for the Black Swan offers a more natural approach to identifying the realistic scenario provoking the largest losses. It also provides a means to understand the impact of extreme events and how to mitigate them while introducing technological advances and the adapted mathematical tools that have made it possible to solve this type of quantitative finance problems. You'll see how mitigation strategies can be more accurate and better targeted, reducing risk, cost of funding and regulatory capital.

With this book, you'll have access to a comprehensive guide to crucial aspects of reverse stress testing.

? Get an introduction to a rigorous mathematical framework to quantitative reverse stress testing

? Consider different heuristics, one of them based on annealing, to solve theoptimisation problem

? Review solution implementation, system infrastructure design and integration into the financial risk management of a firm

? Read related case studies from a variety of industries

If it's time to move your approach to reverse stress testing forward, this guide offers real solutions tooptimisation and cost issues. Get a guide that supports a more informed approach to testing and financial risk management as it helps to protect vital business interests.

This volume sheds light on the valuation of assets in emerging economies. It provides essential insights and practical strategies tailored for investors, analysts, and financial professionals and addresses unique challenges such as diverse financial reporting standards, higher volatility, liquidity issues, and distinct regulatory environments.

Bridging a critical gap in existing literature, the book analyzes the historical context, key issues, and trends of emerging markets. It offers step-by-step valuation methodologies for public and private companies, adding real-world case studies, and practical examples from M&A activities, legal advisory experiences, and startup valuations.

With contributions from financial advisors, corporate experts, and lawyers, this book offers a holistic and practical perspective and will appeal to academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike, equipping readers with the tools to navigate and understand the complexities of emerging market valuations effectively.

This book provides a critical analysis of how credit rating agencies engage with the political and economic dynamics of developing countries. Focusing on Brazil and Argentina, it demonstrates how S&P Global, Moody's Investor Service, and Fitch Ratings-the "Big Three"-employ a politics of risk that seeks to advance the interests of global financial markets while interacting with domestic governance processes. Drawing on underexplored materials such as sovereign rating reports and press releases, this book examines how these agencies deploy their evaluations and public statements as instruments of this politics of risk. Their actions respond to the political risk conditions they identify, which are shaped by factors such as government ideology and shifts in the international context. Through detailed case studies of Brazil and Argentina, this book shows how credit rating agencies become part of wider political disputes over economic policy and governance in the Global South. Bringing together key debates in International Political Economy, "Political Risk and the Politics of Risk" sheds light on the intersections of financialization, neoliberalism, and the tensions between financial globalization and democratic governance. By revisiting recent political and economic developments in two of Latin America's largest economies, this book fills a crucial gap in the literature and offers fresh insights into the often-overlooked role of credit rating agencies in contemporary global capitalism. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners in International Political Economy, Political Science, Development Studies, and Latin American studies, as well as those seeking to understand the complex relationships between finance, politics, and power in emerging economies.

This book has come up with the most up-to-date, comprehensive and objective analysis of China's investments in Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative. It covers the broad range of Sino-Pakistan relations in the backdrop of Pakistan's complex political, governance, security, socio-environmental and technological challenges that hinder implementation of CPEC projects. Backed by robust empirical evidence, a unique feature of this volume is that it demystifies several myths about CPEC concerning 'debt-trap' narrative, China's 'win-win' proposition and Pakistan's mantra of 'game changer' and 'fate changer'. By examining Chinese infrastructure-building initiative vis-a-vis competing economic initiatives such as the US/G7-led Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment, the Global Gateway strategy of the European Union, and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor of the G20, a distinctive significance of this book is that it aptly situates the implications of China's growing role in Pakistan in broader regional and global context.

This book provides a close analysis of the changes in the global oil and gas industry and the new energy industry. It offers a deep exploration of various sectors such as the global oil industry, natural gas industry, new energy industry, low-carbon market, and electricity market. Since 2023, there have been significant adjustments in the global energy market. The geopolitical situation in the Middle East is unstable, resulting in fluctuating international oil prices and a profound transformation in the trade flow of crude oil. Additionally, the global natural gas trade pattern is undergoing reshaping. China is accelerating the construction of a new energy system with the gradual increase in the proportion of renewable energy consumption, the development and improvement of the domestic carbon market, and the gradual expansion of green electricity trading.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview and trend forecasts of the energy sectors for professional readers in the field, as well as to offer recommendations on how to respond to these developments.

The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have increased CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions significantly. There is considerable consensus that this increase in emissions has been contributing to climate change. In order to limit global warming, a comprehensive and fast transition to lower emissions in all industrial sectors is crucial. Despite the strong increase in renewable energies capacity over the past years, there are various challenges associated with the further transition to a 100% renewable energies supply. One of the challenges is the fluctuating supply of renewable energies due to the intermitted nature of wind and sunshine. Another challenge arises from the low marginal costs of renewable energies that lead to a reduction of the electricity price, which impairs a profitable operation of both conventional and renewable energies power plants. Against this backdrop, the main question of this research is which policy scenario can ensure an economic efficient and ongoing expansion of renewable energies together with a secure level of electricity supply? The research focusses on Germany, as Germany has to find sustainable and economically feasible policy scenarios in the short-term due to its strong expansion of renewable energies and its decision to phase-out both nuclear and coal power plants.

Why Muslims in South India observe hierarchical intra-communal relationships despite the egalitarianism of their religion
In Seeking Allah's Hierarchy, P. C. Saidalavi provides an ethnographic study of a Muslim barber community in South India, unraveling how these barbers negotiated concepts of hierarchy through Islamic values of piety, genealogy, morality, and wealth. Through this close-drawn study, Saidalavi argues that Muslim hierarchy exists and it works on its own terms. It both draws upon Islamic jurisprudential and moral discourses and is shaped by the larger economic, cultural, and political environment, including that of Hinduism. Yet ultimately, Muslim hierarchy is neither a replica nor a watered-down version of caste in Hinduism.
Seeking Allah's Hierarchy contends that the Islamization process in South Asia cannot be reduced to conceptual schemas or patterns dictating religious practice. Instead, this process works within a "lived tradition," in which Muslims attempt to infuse and rationalize their practices using their interpretations of Islamic values, meanings, and purpose. In this case, barbers challenged other Muslims' perception of them as hierarchically inferior by emphasizing their religious piety. Yet those same Muslims also drew on Islam to provide a rationale for categorizing barbers' work as morally obligatory but undignified, thus rendering the barbers "lower."
The barbers' challenge to this perceptual hierarchical order was inspired by communist political activities in Kerala and commenced when they started unionizing in the 1970s. By establishing shops, instituting uniform pricing, and standardizing working hours, barbers successfully transformed their work relations into labor within the strictures of capitalist market relations. Recounting their story here, Saidalavi complicates the question of "caste" found in the Indian subcontinent by showcasing the specificity of hierarchical practices among Muslims, despite the egalitarianism of their religion.

How debt and speculation financed the suburban American dream and led to today's inequalities
In the popular imagination, the suburbs are synonymous with the "American Dream" of upward mobility and economic security. After World War II, white families rushed into newly built suburbs, where they accumulated wealth through homeownership and enjoyed access to superior public schools. In this revelatory new account of postwar suburbanization, historian Michael R. Glass exposes the myth of uniform suburban prosperity. Focusing on the archetypal suburbs of Long Island, Cracked Foundations uncovers a hidden landscape of debt and speculation.
Glass shows how suburbanites were not guaranteed decent housing and high-quality education but instead had to obtain these necessities in the marketplace using home mortgages and municipal bonds. These debt instruments created financial strains for families, distributed resources unevenly across suburbs, and codified racial segregation. Most important, debt transformed housing and education into commodities, turning homes and schools into engines of capital accumulation. The resulting pressures made life increasingly precarious, even for those privileged suburbanites who resided in all-white communities. For people of color denied the same privileges, suburbs became places where predatory loans extracted wealth and credit rating agencies punished children in the poorest school districts. Long Islanders challenged these inequalities over several decades, demanding affordable housing, school desegregation, tax equity, and school-funding equalization. Yet the unequal circumstances created by the mortgages and bonds remain very much in place, even today.
Cracked Foundations not only transforms our understanding of housing, education, and inequality but also highlights how contemporary issues like the affordable housing crisis and school segregation have their origins in the postwar golden age of capitalism.

The undamming and restoration of rivers is a major component of our broader environmental movement. There are ecological, economic, and social justice issues enveloped by initiatives involving river restorations, and it's time to focus our attention on these concerns.

In this book, Richard M. Robinson reviews the removal of big concrete, big earthen, and low-head dams along North America's larger and smaller rivers. Chapters highlight issues and contradictions related to dam safety, dam removals, and river restoration. The resulting book provides key insights into the economics and ecology of environmental restoration, our water resource management, and environmental justice.

With so many states committed to economic transformation, and so many experts ready to provide technical advice on how to achieve it, why does progress so often remain elusive? In Pursuit of Prosperity examines the process of economic upgrading-moving to more valuable activities in production, improving technology, knowledge, and skills, and participating in global value chains-and develops a new theory to explain the form and success of national policies designed to promote it.

Using a mixed-methods approach, Charles R. Hankla draws upon archival research and interviews from France and India as well as quantitative models of sixteen countries across six decades. He finds that when state and private actors are aligned in their institutional structures, which can happen in both corporatist and pluralist systems, industrial policy tends to be more effective. It is when the state or the private sector independently dominates industrial policy that poor outcomes are most likely. As In Pursuit of Prosperity shows, rather than being fixed characteristics of countries, policymaking styles vary across time and across sectors of the economy, reflecting the changing power dynamics and organizational resources of stakeholders. The book sheds light on how industrial policy-which is experiencing a comeback in the United States and beyond-can best be harnessed for upgrading. It offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of the complex relationship between state politics and economic performance in the modern globalized world.

This book breaks down new ways to use foresight and economic theory to enhance economic planning at a national level.

Economic forecasting models often rely on time-series analysis. While important, these models can limit an economist's ability to foresee economic outcomes comprehensively. Effective economic planning and policymaking require a deep understanding of the socioeconomic and political forces that shape future economic outcomes. Using an interdisciplinary approach to economic theory and foresight, this book explores a new way to approach economic planning.

Emphasizing resilience, adaptability, and future-oriented behavior, this book highlights how policymakers and researchers can integrate foresight and futures methodologies at local and national levels. It explores the methodological challenges inherent in foresight and offers a comprehensive guide to developing and utilizing scenarios. The chapters examine factors related to human thinking and behaviors, demonstrating how this knowledge can be used to support emerging developments across various economies.

The book provides resources and management tools to help readers understand economic development using economic foresight. Acknowledging both the challenges and opportunities of long-term planning within developing economies, the authors provide recent case studies from Greece and beyond. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of the political economy of foresight and the essential theories needed to illustrate unique dynamics of socioeconomic change.

Economic and social inequality have become defining features of the world economy in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. While increased inequality has been particularly pronounced in the United States, a similar phenomenon of increasing inequality of incomes and wealth has emerged in the economies of most major western European states. Realizing Equality in Policy brings together leading scholars to address current issues relating to rising inequality as it affects policy in the areas of education, health care, anti-poverty, employment, and economic policy.

With contributions from scholars of both luck and relational egalitarianism, the essays reexamine a number of basic assumptions regarding social and economic policy from an egalitarian perspective. They explore gender-based discrimination, international justice, and the possibility for engagement between socialist and left-liberal thought. Rather than focusing on the subtle distinctions that divide egalitarian views, this volume shows that both views have the potential to offer important insights about how differences might be overcome and gaps might be closed. In offering new directions for solving wealth inequality through policy, Realizing Equality in Policy contributes to ongoing conversations in political theory, economic theory, and moral philosophy.

This book explores the lived experiences of young Muslims in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States as they seek religious guidance in an increasingly digital world. Based on extensive qualitative research-including interviews with 122 young Muslims-it examines how faith, identity, and knowledge come together in modern society.

In doing so, the book looks at the role of imams in diaspora communities, the trust (or skepticism) placed in online religious sources, and the influence of family, friends, and digital religious figures. Between Clicks and Clerics captures the shifts in religious learning as young Muslims turn to both traditional and digital sources.

Through firsthand narratives, this book highlights the voices of young Muslims as they work through questions of authenticity, authority, and independence in their spiritual journeys. It shows how they balance tradition with modern life, skepticism with belief, and personal choice with community expectations. As religious authority spreads beyond traditional figures, this book examines how Islamic knowledge is changing in the Anglosphere and what it means for the future.

This textbook provides a short introduction to auction theory through exercises with detailed answer keys. Focusing on practical examples, this textbook offers over 98 exercises that predict bidders' equilibrium behaviour in different auction formats, along with the seller's strategic incentives to organize one auction format over the other. The book emphasizes game-theoretic tools, so students can apply similar tools to other auction formats. Also included are several exercises based on published articles, with the model reduced to its main elements and the question divided into several easy-to-answer parts. Little mathematical background in algebra and calculus is assumed, and most algebraic steps and simplifications are provided, making the text ideal for upper undergraduate and graduate students.

The book begins with a discussion of second-price auctions, which can be studied without using calculus, and works through progressively more complicated auction scenarios: first-price auctions, all-pay auctions, third-price auctions, the Revenue Equivalence principle, common-value auctions, multi-unit auctions, and procurement auctions. Exercises in each chapter are ranked according to their difficulty, with a letter (A-C) next to the exercise title, which allows students to pace their studies accordingly. The authors also offer a list of suggested exercises for each chapter, for instructors teaching at varying levels: undergraduate, Masters, Ph.D.

Revised and updated for the second edition, this textbook includes new and expanded exercises as well as a mathematical appendix to help students review basic math and statistical properties frequently used throughout the book. Providing a practical, customizable approach to auction theory, it is appropriate for students of economics, finance, and business administration. This book may also be used for related classes such as game theory, market design, economics of information, contract theory, or topics in microeconomics.