The hedge fund industry has risen in 2007 to the top of the international political agenda, yet the debate surrounding it is limited by a lack of understanding of how the industry functions, or even how it is to be defined. The industry consists largely of investment funds operating from...

We analyse the potentially vulnerable and systemically relevant financial intermediation chain established by hedge funds and prime brokers. Our dataset covers the 306 largest global hedge funds and their prime brokers over the period July 2001 to December 2011. The study illustrates that hedge...

One feature of the global economy in recent years has been the increasing number and importance of new investment funds (private equity (PE), hedge funds (HFs), and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)), which are sometimes referred to as alternative investment funds (AIFs). This increase has...

This report examines whether investment funds – in particular, private equity, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds – help to revive underperforming companies and thereby contribute to employment growth or whether, on the contrary, they strive to maximise financial returns at the expense...

On the request of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection five briefing papers have been prepared by a panel of experts to serve as a background to the Public Hearing on Financial Education and to an expert panel discussion on the same topic. Hereunder a summary of the main...