The two decades of post reform period in India witnessed transformation of the economy in to a higher growth plane signaling the arrival of the country in the global stage. But this robust growth failed to translate the economic well being of the large number of marginalized and excluded...

Since World War II, direct stock ownership by households across the globe has largely been replaced by indirect stock ownership by financial institutions. We argue that tax policy is the driving force. Using long time-series from eight countries, we show that the fraction of household ownership...

SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is a new step in the move towards financial integration in Europe. SEPA will harmonise the use of payment instruments (credit transfers, direct debits and card payments) throughout SEPA (the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland)....

We review the theories on how liquidity affects the required returns of capital assets and the empirical studies that test these theories. The theory predicts that both the level of liquidity and liquidity risk are priced, and empirical studies find the effects of liquidity on asset prices to be...

Trillions of dollars are invested through index funds, exchange-traded funds, and other index derivatives. The benefits of index-linked investing are well-known, but the possible broader economic consequences are unstudied. I review research which suggests that index-linked investing is...

Although financial development is good for long-term growth, not all countries pursue policies that render full financial development. This paper builds on an extensive political economy literature to construct a theoretical model showing that the intensity of opposition to financial development...

Insurance Industry is going through a very important stage of its transformation - the transition from the classical system of management into a risk-based management. These changes were launched in Europe by international organizations which deal with the development of the necessary...

New theories have emerged over the past 10 years that reveal CEFs to be an important and efficient organizational device. This review surveys the old and current literature on closed-end funds (CEFs) in general and theories of discounts in particular. Among the topics reviewed are liquidity...