LOS ANGELES — Restructuring Regulation and Financial Institutions, a book analyzing financial market regulations in the United States, was released this week by Kluwer Academic Publishers as the first in a set of publications analyzing financial innovations and technologies.
The books in the Milken Institute Series on Financial Innovation and Economic Growth will look at such areas as emerging domestic markets, corporate mergers, financial markets in developing countries, and ways to use capital markets to finance conservation.
Restructuring Regulation and Financial Institutions, which is edited by three Institute scholars, contains 10 papers from distinguished economists that examine in-depth the primary aspects of U.S. financial market regulation, including banks, securities markets, pension policies and mutual funds, life insurance company investments and derivatives. It was previously published by the Milken Institute, but went out of print. Kluwer has republished it as the first book in the new series.
With barriers to global capital markets dropping rapidly thanks to new technologies and changing political realities, countries around the world are looking to the United States for guidance on how to structure and regulate their financial systems. Restructuring Regulation and Financial Institutions looks at how the United States regulates its capital markets, what effect these regulations have on the economy and what regulations it should change — and how.
"More and more, the world is looking to the United States for help in deciding how to restructure financial markets," said Glenn Yago, one of the co-editors of the book. "So it′s important that we understand how the U.S. regulates its markets and what it can do differently to ensure efficient capital markets around the world."
Yago, Director of Capital Studies at the Milken Institute, edited the book along with Senior Fellows R. Dan Brumbaugh, Jr. and James R. Barth. All are experts in financial markets and regulatory issues.
Each paper looks at how regulation enhances or impedes the efficiency of a particular financial sector, and is followed by comments from two or three noted experts. The result is a wealth of information that can be used by anyone involved with financial institutions in the United States and around the world.
Restructuring Regulation and Financial Institutions offers a cogent assessment of the contemporary regulatory environment in U.S. financial markets — and a blueprint for action in evolving global financial markets. It is of interest to anyone involved in financial markets and their regulation not only in the United States, but worldwide.
Choice magazine said of the book: "A starting point for research in this field, yet accessible to both general readers and undergraduates interested in economics and/or political science, this volume certainly belongs on the shelves of libraries of undergraduate institutions. Recommended for academic and professional collections."
The authors whose papers are presented in the book:
o Randall S. Kroszner, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business
o Cara S. Lown and Stavros Peristiani, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Kenneth J. Robinson, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
o Susan E. Woodward, Stanford Law School
o Gordon J. Alexander, University of Minnesota, Department of Finance, Jonathan D. Jones, Office of Thrift Supervision, and Peter J. Nigro, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
o Richard Ippolito, George Mason University School of Law
o Christopher L. Culp, CP Risk Management LLC
o William C. Hunter and David Marshall, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
o Philip F. Bartholomew, Committee on Banking and Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, and Gerard Caprio Jr., World Bank
o George W. Fenn, Milken Institute
o John C. Weicher, Hudson Institute
The book raises critical questions, such as:
o How much regulation of financial markets is needed or desired?
o What are the barriers that impede the development of efficient global financial markets?
o What is the appropriate level of direct and indirect government involvement in financial markets?
o Is economic regulation being used to benefit those who are regulated at the expense of appropriate competition?
o What role does regulation play in stabilizing — or destabilizing — financing markets?
Restructuring Regulation and Financial Institutions. Edited by James R. Barth, R. Dan Brumbaugh, Jr. and Glenn Yago. Kluwer Academic Publishers. August 2001. 496 pages. $99.95 ISNB Number 0-7923-7364-2.