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January 2020

Robert C. Merton and the Science of Finance

By Zvi Bodie Starting with his 1970 doctoral dissertation and continuing to today, Robert C. Merton has revolutionized the theory and practice of finance. In 1997 Merton shared a Nobel Prize in Economics “for a new method to determine the value of derivatives.” His contributions to the science of finance, however, go far beyond that. In this essay I describe Merton’s main contributions. They include the following: 1. The introduction of continuous-time stochastic models (the Ito calculus) to the theory...

Economics of Crisis

By Julia M. Puaschunder According to Semmler (2019), for speculations, currency and financial crises, the economic literature can be divided into three generations of models: (1) Focus on macroeconomic fundamentals (such as differences in economic growth rates, productivity and price levels, short-term interest rates as well as monetary policy actions) causing exchange rate movements. (2) Speculative forces – such as self-fulfilling expectations, which destabilize exchange rates without deterioration of fundamentals. (3) Following the theory of imperfect capital markets, self-fulfilling...

December 2019

Fintechs and financial inclusion

By Gayatri Murthy, Maria Fernandez-Vida As Fintech companies targeting poor and underserved customers grow and scale, there is a lack of granularity on how their business models solve pain points in financial inclusion and what the industry can learn from the iterations in their business models. CGAP launched a fintech initiative in 2016 to better understand these innovations and draw clear linkages to financial inclusion, where they existed. We worked with 18 fintechs in Africa and South Asia that...

Exploring Wealth Inequality

By Cato Institute, Ryan Bourne, Chris Edwards Many political leaders and pundits consider wealth inequality to be a major economic and social problem. They complain about a shift of wealth to the top at everyone else’s expense and about plutocrats dominating policymaking in Washington. Is wealth inequality the crisis that some people believe? This study examines six aspects of wealth inequality and discusses the evidence for the claims being made. Section 1 describes how wealth inequality has risen in...

November 2019

Essentials of Pension Economics

By Sergio Nisticò This Palgrave Pivot provides a concise overview of pension systems which, whether paid by governments or by private companies, are the sole source of income for millions of people around the world. By 2050, two billion elderly people will have to be ensured some form of income while, at the same time, the prospect facing younger generations is of a gloomy future. This book breaks down the jargon, investigates different designs and analyses these designs'...

Financial Behavior: Players, Services, Products, and Markets

By University Professor of Finance and Kogod Research Professor H Kent Baker, Samuel P Black III Professor of Finance and Risk Management Director Black School of Business Greg Filbeck, Assistant Professor of Financial Management Victor Ricciardi Financial Behavior: Players, Services, Products, and Markets provides a synthesis of the theoretical and empirical literature on the financial behavior of major stakeholders, financial services, investment products, and financial markets. The book offers a different way of looking at financial and...

Social Protection in Developing Countries: Reforming Systems

By Katja Bender, Markus Kaltenborn, Christian Pfleiderer, Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona Providing universal access to social protection and health systems for all members of society, including the poor and vulnerable, is increasingly considered crucial to international development debates. This is the first book to explore from an interdisciplinary and global perspective the reforms of social protection systems introduced in recent years by many governments of low and middle-income countries. Although a growing body of literature has been concerned with the...

Sharpening the Teeth of EU Social Fundamental Rights? The Case of State Pension Age in the UK

By Hans van Meerten In this contribution I want to discuss an important and very topical EU Law element of the judgment regarding two claimants (Delve and Glynn), backed by BackTo60, versus the UK Department of Work and Pensions (hereafter: Delve and Glynn). Claimants argued inter alia that the UK State Pension Age (SPA)was discriminatory. I want to focus here not if SPA is discriminatory, but whether the (SPA) falls in the ambit of EU law. Didn’t the UK...

The Disruptive Impact of FinTech on Retirement Systems

By Julie Agnew, Olivia S. Mitchell This volume examines how technology is transforming financial applications, and how FinTech promises a similar revolution in the retirement planning processes. Robo-advisors and mobile savings apps are a few harbingers of innovations to come. Nevertheless, these changes will bring with them new ethical and regulatory considerations, design challenges related to promoting adoption by an older population less trusting of technology, and concerns over data security and privacy. Our contributors take stock of the disruptive...

October 2019

Increasing Decision Making Capacities of Local Governments: Mexico’s Quest for Economic Growth

By Heidi Jane Smith (Economics Professor and Public Policy Coordinator, Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana) This paper examines the relationship between fiscal autonomy and a municipalities’ commitment to and the impact upon economic development activities. This article evaluates quantitatively, using a panel dataset from 1989-2014, the relationship of fiscal capacity to a city’s economic development. It tests the hypothesis that if a municipality is more fiscally autonomous in collecting their own revenue and also discretion in making their...