Books on the topic 'Financial Decision Support'

The article examines and develops the methodological and methodological basis of corporate finance management in the context of their strategic development, when investment and financing decisions are particularly relevant from the point of view of determining acceptable risks and the financial well-being of the corporation. The conceptual and methodological foundations of analytical support for corporate finance management are developed, based on the definition of investment policy, its implementation through investment business planning and identification and assessment of financial risks in the framework of achieving strategic goals related to the modernization of Russian corporations. The ways of improving the quality of the corporate finance management strategy based on the introduction of budgeting technology and the use of controlling the implementation of the corporation's financial strategy are proposed. It is intended for postgraduates, undergraduates, university teachers, researchers and practitioners, full-time and part-time students studying in the areas of "Economics", "Management", "Finance and Credit" (master's level), as well as anyone interested in the problems of strategic management of corporate finance.

Innumeracy in the Wild explains how numeric ability supports the quality of the decisions we make and, ultimately, the life outcomes we experience. It dissects three ways that people can be good or bad with numbers and how each of these numeric competencies matter to decision making. Furthermore, it delves into how we can use this knowledge to improve decision making. Understanding the roles of numeric ability (often called numeracy) is particularly important today due to widespread innumeracy. In addition, policies in health and financial domains have shifted toward giving consumers and patients more information (which is often numeric). These changes are intended to empower individuals to take charge of their own welfare. The evidence is clear, however, that not everybody is prepared to use this information effectively and that those who are less numerate tend to make worse decisions unless provided adequate support. The book discusses four main points: the complex and systematic psychological mechanisms that underlie objective numeracy’s effects in judgment and decision making; the importance of numeracy to experiencing positive life outcomes especially in health and finances; the decision-making support provided by two additional ways of knowing and using numbers; and the methods that exploit existing evidence and enable those who are less comfortable with numbers to use them more effectively and make better choices in an often numeric world.

Oxford University Press, with a long tradition of publishing scholarly books on English literature, canonical authors, and anthologies of poetry, did not introduce a contemporary poetry list until the 1960s. Under the direction of Jon Stallworthy, himself a noted poet, and with the support of the Delegates, the Press developed a vibrant list that included the work of poets from Britain, Ireland, America, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as English poetic translations of European titles. Despite its critical success the poetry list was not profitable, and, facing serious financial constraints across the business, the Finance Committee decided to discontinue the list in 1998. The chapter discusses the financial considerations behind the decision, the heated debate it provoked both within the University and in the media, and the lasting impact of the controversy on the Press.

This book provides a synthesis of the theoretical and empirical literature on the financial behavior of major stakeholders, financial services, investment products, and financial markets. It offers a different way of looking at financial and emotional well-being and the processing of beliefs, emotions, and behaviors related to money than provided by traditional academic finance. The book provides important insights into how cognitive and emotional biases influence various financial decision makers, services, products, and markets. Because noted scholars and practitioners write on their areas of expertise, readers can gain an in-depth understanding of multiple topic from experts around the world. In today’s financial setting, the discipline of behavioral finance continues to evolve at a rapid pace. This book familiarizes readers with not only the core topics and issues but also the latest trends, cutting-edge research developments, and real-world situations. Additionally, discussion of cognitive and emotional issues is supported with research in the field. Overall, the book covers a critical topic, from the theoretical to the practical, while offering a useful balance of detailed and user-friendly discussions. Those interested in a broad survey will benefit, as will those seeking in-depth coverage of biases and other aspect of behavioral finance. As the seventh book in the Financial Markets and Investment Series, Financial Behavior: Players, Services, Products, and Markets offers a fresh look at this fascinating area of behavioral finance.

This chapter examines public support for different EU reform proposals. Based on a novel experimental approach to survey research, conjoint experiments, it examines the trade-offs that people make when considering reform proposals. In addition, it delves deeper into people’s preferences for reform by means of a novel survey about reform of the Eurozone. The results suggest that, on average, people prefer a Union that is cheaper, takes key decisions via citizen referendums, and focuses on issues relating to peace and security next to economic growth. Important differences exist between different types of support and scepticism, especially in how people want the EU to be governed and what policy objectives should be pursued. When it comes to reform of the Eurozone, unified sceptics and supporters agree that member states in financial trouble should receive tough treatment from the EU, while ambivalent sceptics wish to see more financial assistance for struggling member states.

This chapter assesses the key international instruments for cross-border insolvency, primarily the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (the MLCBI), and the related cross-border aspects of insolvency addressed in the Insolvency Standard. It also tentatively analyses the developments of additional instruments regarding enterprise groups and the enforcement of insolvency-related judgments. It considers how the MLCBI and complementary instruments fit into the normative framework proposed in the book. It asks to what extent the instruments follow modified universalism norms, thus contributing to the crystallization and development of customary international law (CIL). It also assesses: the choice of instrument; whether there are any issues with the design of the instruments taking into account the bounds on decision-making; and whether the instruments support the required levels of targeted harmonization to incentivize compliance. This chapter also assesses the specific instruments and measures that attempt to address the cross-border insolvency of multinational financial institutions (MFIs), particularly the Key Attributes, supporting principles, and contractual solutions.

CORFO was one of the first national development banks in Latin America, and played a decisive role in Chile’s national development strategy. In recent decades, its relative scale has diminished significantly. Its financial support currently represents only 1% of Chile’s GDP and has switched from giving credit directly to becoming a second-tier institution whose main instruments are not loans but guarantees. Its support for strategic sectors has been decisive to incentivize innovative, value-added activities, such as the Start-Up programme or renewable energy projects. Nonetheless, its limited scale severely reduces its potential ability to transform Chile’s economy or deploy a countercyclical role in a crisis scenario. This study suggests that CORFO could take advantage of Chile’s mature capital market, by raising additional funds through bond issues.

The administration of President Richard Nixon presents several examples of how Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, used food aid as a tool to advance foreign policy goals that Congress was attempting to foreclose. This chapter discusses two such examples: (1) food aid to Thailand in 1971, intended to free other financial resources in support of Southeast Asian military purchases, and (2) White House intervention in food aid decisions involving East Pakistan/Bangladesh and India in the months after Pakistani leader General Yahya Kahn unleased military reprisals against East Pakistan that led to the latter’s war of independence and a consequent flood of millions of East Pakistani refugees into India. Nixon’s support of Yahya Kahn and reluctance to assist India and the food aid-related repercussions of that support are described in this chapter.

Governments increasingly require that firms address a wide range of corporate social responsibility (CSR) stakeholder demands, rather than narrow shareholder needs. This chapter explores implications for corporate governance of mandatory CSR reporting requirements, focusing in particular on non-financial disclosure, and tax transparency in extractives. Non-financial disclosure requirements are overwhelmingly soft, while tax transparency reporting requirements are hard. Firms typically manage soft CSR programmes in non-core support functions such as communications or health, safety and environment. Soft CSR reporting criteria have limited impact on the internal governance of firms and top-level management decisions. In contrast, hard CSR reporting criteria constitute a key element of corporate governance. Firms manage tax transparency in core corporate functions such as the audit committee, and it is the responsibility of the chief financial officer, who usually sits on the executive board. Top-level management is more likely to take CSR programmes seriously that impose mandatory hard requirements.

The United States played an active role in the response to the euro crisis and decisions on the involvement of the International Monetary Fund. U.S. policymakers supported the use of the Fund in order to assist Europe and prevent contagion across the Atlantic. But the United States conditioned its support on euro-area-wide policies to extinguish the crisis, including creating the European Financial Stability Facility and European Stability Mechanism, using the European Central Bank balance sheet fully, and committing to banking union. This chapter traces the evolution of U.S. strategy during the crisis and the conversion of officials in Washington to the cause of completing the architecture of the euro area. The IMF staff also advocated deepening the euro area, and did so more strongly than many euro-area member states. The Fund’s advocacy, which is puzzling from the standpoint of its bureaucratic interest, reflects the preferences of the United States and other non-European members.

This book examines the role of the United States of America in the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process. It assesses Northern Ireland as both an international and a domestic issue in the United States during the years of conflict there. It looks at how US figures engaged with Northern Ireland, as well as the wider issue of Irish partition, in the years before the outbreak of what became known as the “troubles”. From there, it considers early interventions on the part of Congressional figures such as Senator Edward Kennedy and the Congressional hearings on Northern Ireland that took place in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, 1972. It analyses the causes and consequences of the State Department decision to ban the sale of weapons to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, before considering the development of the US role in Northern Ireland through the Reagan administration and the onset of US financial support for conflict resolution in the form of the International Fund for Ireland. It then assesses the dynamics behind the role that President Clinton assumed following his election in 1992, before examining how Presidents Bush and Obama attempted to seize on the momentum of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement

This book is about the nature of crisis responses and the politics of financial sector reform leading to their adoption. Studying both French and German participation in international banking reforms and the responses implemented to the global financial crisis domestically, it shows that they cannot be separated from the institutional and the specific socio-economic context in which they emerged. Whereas France pushed for greater independence from the banks by strengthening financial disintermediation and non-bank intermediation, Germany supported classic bank intermediation. Analysing the reasons for this puzzling difference, the book shows that the main lessons drawn from the crisis were the consequence of differing patterns of social learning, which led to changes in widely shared beliefs of specific aspects of banking. While these related to the conditions of bank lending and the limits of bank intermediation in France, in Germany, they were linked to the risks of financial innovation and financial sector concentration. The book builds on an in-depth analysis of French and German banking with a focus on the decade prior to the crisis, crisis management, and the reforms implemented in response to the crisis. It features extensive interview data with over 70 professionals from the financial industry, regulatory agencies, and senior political decision-makers, complemented by profound document and data analysis. Contrary to other accounts of the post-crisis reforms concentrating on regulatory change only, this book focuses on how evolving financial practices and reform priorities mutually condition each other over time, forming distinctive developmental paths.

Seniors face complex legal concerns that are often different from what they faced when they were younger. A range of federal protections and laws exist offering guidance and regulatory structure to the aging population. Examples reviewed in this chapter include federally supported financial assistance for healthcare and benefits, such as Medicare, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP); elder abuse reporting and interventions; consumer protections; and decision-making for aging and incapacitated persons. Elder law attorneys focus their practice on the legal needs of seniors and work with a variety of legal tools and techniques to specifically meet the goals of the older client, in order to maximize their autonomy and quality of life.

Hayes and Williams’ Family Law, now in its sixth edition, provides critical and case-focused discussion of the key legislation and debates affecting adults and children. The volume takes a critical approach to the subject and includes ‘talking points’ and focused ‘discussion questions’ throughout each chapter which highlight areas of debate or controversy. The introductory chapter within this edition provides a discussion of the law’s understanding of ‘family’ and the extent to which this has changed over time, a detailed overview of the meaning of private and family life within Article 8 of the ECHR, and a discussion of the Family Justice Review and subsequent developments. Part 1 of this edition, supplemented by the ‘Latest Developments’ section, outlines the most up-to-date statistics on the incidence of marriage, civil partnerships and divorce, discusses recent case law on the validity of marriage such as Hayatleh v Mofdy [2017] EWCA Civ 70 and K v K (Nullity: Bigamous Marriage) [2016] EWHC 3380 (Fam), and highlights the recent Supreme Court decision (In the Matter of an Application by Denise Brewster for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2017] 1 WLR 519) on the pension rights of unmarried cohabitants. It also considers the litigation concerning the prohibition of opposite-sex civil partnership registration from the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Steinfeld and Keidan v Secretary of State for Education [2017] EWCA Civ 81 to the important decision of the Supreme Court in R (on the application of Steinfeld and Keidan) (Application) v Secretary of State for International Development (in substitution for the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary) [2018] UKSC 32. This edition also provides an in-depth discussion of the recent Supreme Court decision in Owens v Owens [2018] UKSC 41 regarding the grounds for divorce and includes discussion of Thakkar v Thakkar [2016] EWHC 2488 (Fam) on the divorce procedure. Further, this edition also considers the flurry of cases in the area of financial provision on divorce such as Waggott v Waggott [2018] EWCA Civ 722; TAB v FC (Short Marriage: Needs: Stockpiling) [2016] EWHC 3285; FF v KF [2017] EWHC 1903 (Fam); BD v FD (Financial Remedies: Needs) [2016] EWHC 594 (Fam); Juffali v Juffali [2016] EWHC 1684 (Fam); AAZ v BBZ [2016] EWHC 3234 (Fam); Scatliffe v Scatliffe [2016] UKPC 36; WM v HM [2017] EWFC 25; Hart v Hart [2017] EWCA Civ 1306; Sharp v Sharp [2017] EWCA Civ 408; Work v Gray [2017] EWCA Civ 270, and Birch v Birch [2017] UKSC 53. It also considers the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Mills v Mills [2018] UKSC 38 concerning post-divorce maintenance obligations between former partners, and the Privy Council decision in Marr v Collie [2017] UKPC 17 relating to the joint name purchase by a cohabiting couple of investment property.Part 2 focuses on child law, examining the law on parenthood and parental responsibility, including the parental child support obligation. This edition includes discussion of new case law on provision of child maintenance by way of global financial orders (AB v CD (Jurisdiction: Global Maintenance Orders)[2017] EWHC 3164), new case law and legislative/policy developments on section 54 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (parental orders transferring legal parenthood in surrogacy arrangements), and new cases on removing and restricting parental responsibility (Re A and B (Children: Restrictions on Parental Responsibility: Radicalisation and Extremism) [2016] EWFC 40 and Re B and C (Change of Names: Parental Responsibility: Evidence) [2017] EWHC 3250 (Fam)). Orders regulating the exercise of parental responsibility are also examined, and this edition updates the discussion with an account of the new Practice Direction 12J (on contact and domestic abuse), and controversial case law addressing the tension between the paramountcy of the child’s welfare and the protected interests of a parent in the context of a transgender father’s application for contact with his children (Re M (Children) [2017] EWCA Civ 2164). Part 2 also examines the issue of international child abduction, including in this edition the Supreme Court’s latest decision, on the issue of repudiatory retention (Re C (Children) [2018] UKSC 8). In the public law, this edition discusses the Supreme Court’s clarification of the nature and scope of local authority accommodation under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 (Williams v London Borough of Hackney [2018] UKSC 37). In the law of adoption, several new cases involving children who have been relinquished by parents for adoption are examined (Re JL & AO (Babies Relinquished for Adoption),[2016] EWHC 440 (Fam) and see also Re M and N (Twins: Relinquished Babies: Parentage) [2017] EWFC 31, Re TJ (Relinquished Baby: Sibling Contact) [2017] EWFC 6, and Re RA (Baby Relinquished for Adoption: Final Hearing)) [2016] EWFC 47).

The conduct of foreign affairs is an executive act of government in which neither the Queen nor Parliament has any part. It is the Government which represents the State and determines its policy, though Parliament has the right and the power to control the Executive, to withhold confidence in it, to refuse to grant the financial resources required to carry out its decisions, and thus to deprive the Government's foreign policy of efficacy. Hence the Government must be certain that its foreign policy has the support of Parliament. The affairs which the Crown conducts comprise the whole catalogue of relations with foreign nations which includes the declaration of war and peace, of belligerency and neutrality, and the recognition of foreign States and of their extinction. The law can control the conduct of foreign affairs if and in so far as the prerogative has been superseded by legislation, but even where this has happened there usually remains a residue of prerogative power vested in the Executive.

Most countries in South-East Asia have established smallholder dairy farming industries through social welfare and rural development programs to provide a regular cash flow for poorly resourced farmers. These farms are now being treated as accepted rural industries and require a more business-minded approach based on changes to farm profitability. Business Management for Tropical Dairy Farmers gives smallholder dairy farmers the business management skills they will need to remain sustainable. Drawing on detailed financial analyses of smallholders in countries such as Pakistan, Thailand and Malaysia, it shows how to budget cash inputs to match cash outflows during different seasons of the year, and how to invest wisely in improving cattle housing and feeding systems. If farmers make greater use of formats and structures for farm costs and returns, it will increase their awareness of the relative importance of all their financial inputs in terms of cost of production per kilogram of milk produced on the farm. It will also allow them to make more meaningful and timely decisions by correctly costing planned changes to their routine farming practices. The book will also be of use to support organisations to more clearly define the key drivers of profit on smallholder farms, and to government departments and national dairy organisations to routinely evaluate and update their industry policies.

This book addresses the institutions that were deployed to fight the euro crisis, re-establish financial stability, and prevent contagion beyond Europe. It addresses why European leaders chose to include the International Monetary Fund and provides a detailed account of the decisions of the institutions that make up the “troika” (the European Commission, European Central Bank, and IMF). The study explains the institutions’ negotiating strategies, the outcomes of their interaction, and the effectiveness of their cooperation. It also explores the strategies of the member states, including Germany and the United States, with respect to the institutions and the advantages they sought in directing them to work together. The book locates the analysis within the framework of regime complexity, clusters of overlapping and intersecting regional and multilateral institutions. It tests conjectures spawned by that literature against the seven cases of financial rescues of euro-area countries that were stricken by crisis during 2010–15. The book concludes that regime complexity is the consequence of a strategy by key states to control “agency drift.” States mediate conflicts among institutions, through informal as well as formal mechanisms, and thereby limit fragmentation of the regime complex and underpin substantive efficacy. In so doing, the book answers several key puzzles, including why (a) Germany and other northern European countries supported IMF inclusion despite substantive positions opposed to their economic preferences, (b) crisis-fighting arrangements endured intense conflicts among the institutions, and (c) the United States and the IMF promoted further steps to “complete” the monetary union.

The Federal Reserve, created more than a century ago, is the most powerful central bank in the world. The Fed’s power to alter the money supply, move interest rates, and to intervene to save Wall Street and large corporations helps many Americans, but not equally. Specific industries in finance and large businesses reap lopsided and often concealed benefits while homeowners, workers, and Americans of color slip further behind. The substantial expansion of the Fed’s power circumvents America’s constitutional checks and contributes to economic inequality and racial disparities. The second edition of Lawrence R. Jacobs and Desmond King’s Fed Power extends their decisive account of the Fed’s favoritism toward Wall Street and big business during the 2008–2009 financial crisis to the Fed’s unprecedented responses to the economic collapse sparked by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. In five chapters, Jacobs and King discuss the origins of the Federal Reserve System, its maneuvering to advance its capacity and autonomy to act independent of Congress and the presidency, and unprecedented support for Wall Street and big business during in the crises in 2008–2009 and 2020. Fed Power analyses how the scale of the Fed’s economic interventions since 2008 is provoking public unease, organized protests and advocacy, and congressional pressure for reform. The deadly coronavirus and the Movement for Black Lives are intensifying the push for democratic accountability, stringent regulation of banks, and new policies to reduce economic inequality and Black-White disparities. Fed Power is a corrective to both the Bank’s self-serving claims of serving the public even as it favors the best-off, and the reluctance of researchers to recognize the Fed’s role in America’s racial and economic inequalities.

Climate change adaptation is the ability of a society or a natural system to adjust to the (changing) conditions that support life in a certain climate region, including weather extremes in that region. The current discussion on climate change adaptation began in the 1990s, with the publication of the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Since the beginning of the 21st century, most countries, and many regions and municipalities have started to develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies and plans. But since the implementation of adaptation measures must be planned and conducted at the local level, a major challenge is to actually implement adaptation to climate change in practice. One challenge is that scientific results are mainly published on international or national levels, and political guidelines are written at transnational (e.g., European Union), national, or regional levels—these scientific results must be downscaled, interpreted, and adapted to local municipal or community levels. Needless to say, the challenges for implementation are also rooted in a large number of uncertainties, from long time spans to matters of scale, as well as in economic, political, and social interests. From a human perspective, climate change impacts occur rather slowly, while local decision makers are engaged with daily business over much shorter time spans.Among the obstacles to implementing adaptation measures to climate change are three major groups of uncertainties: (a) the uncertainties surrounding the development of our future climate, which include the exact climate sensitivity of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the reliability of emission scenarios and underlying storylines, and inherent uncertainties in climate models; (b) uncertainties about anthropogenically induced climate change impacts (e.g., long-term sea level changes, changing weather patterns, and extreme events); and (c) uncertainties about the future development of socioeconomic and political structures as well as legislative frameworks.Besides slow changes, such as changing sea levels and vegetation zones, extreme events (natural hazards) are a factor of major importance. Many societies and their socioeconomic systems are not properly adapted to their current climate zones (e.g., intensive agriculture in dry zones) or to extreme events (e.g., housing built in flood-prone areas). Adaptation measures can be successful only by gaining common societal agreement on their necessity and overall benefit. Ideally, climate change adaptation measures are combined with disaster risk reduction measures to enhance resilience on short, medium, and long time scales.The role of uncertainties and time horizons is addressed by developing climate change adaptation measures on community level and in close cooperation with local actors and stakeholders, focusing on strengthening resilience by addressing current and emerging vulnerability patterns. Successful adaptation measures are usually achieved by developing “no-regret” measures, in other words—measures that have at least one function of immediate social and/or economic benefit as well as long-term, future benefits. To identify socially acceptable and financially viable adaptation measures successfully, it is useful to employ participatory tools that give all involved parties and decision makers the possibility to engage in the process of identifying adaptation measures that best fit collective needs.