Written by leading academics and practitioners, this book provides an overview of financial markets and addresses major policy issues using the most advanced tools of theoretical and empirical economic analysis. In particular, the book focuses on financial integration and the structural reforms now taking place in the European financial sector.

PART I FINANCIAL SYSTEMS AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE; PART II FINANCIAL SYSTEMS AND THE CORPORATE SECTOR; PART III FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS; PART IV FINANCIAL MARKETS; PART V FINANCIAL REGULATION AND MACROECONOMIC POLICY

European Monetary Union and the greater financial integration that it helped bring about is a mega "natural experiment" that raises many new interesting research questions. This collection of articles by leading finance scholars provides the most extensive and significant analysis of the transformation of European financial institutions and markets to date. Patrick Bolton, Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business, Columbia Business School There is a need for a timely, detailed book on many aspects of modern European finance. This volume will be an excellent reference for all of us in financial markets. Jim O'Neill, Global Chief Economist, Goldman Sachs Xavier Freixas, Philipp Hartmann and Colin Mayer have provided us with an accessible and much needed and detailed panorama of the European financial integration process. This remarkable collection of articles by leading academics, market participants and policy economists analyzes in a rigorous fashion the challenges for financial reforms in an increasingly integrated market. This impressive handbook will be tremendously useful for policy makers in Europe and beyond. Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank

Comprehensive coverage of financial markets and financial institutions from a European perspective Written by leading names in the field Highly topical issue of immense policy and practical significance

Xavier Freixas, (Ph D. Toulouse 1978) is Dean of the Undergraduate School of Economics and Business Administration, Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (Spain) and Research Fellow at CEPR. He is also Chairman of the Risk Based Regulation Program of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). He is past president of the European Finance Association and has previously been Deutsche Bank Professor of European Financial Integration at Oxford University, Houblon Norman Senior Fellow of the Bank of England and Joint Executive Director Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada FEDEA), 1989-1991, Professor at Montpellier and Toulouse Universities. Dr. Philipp Hartmann is Head of the Financial Research Division in the Directorate General Research of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. His previous positions include that of Principal of the Economic and Financial Research Unit at the ECB and Research Fellow for Financial Regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Philipp Hartmann is also a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR, London) and the Vice-President of SUERF, the European Money and Finance Forum. Professor Colin Mayer is Dean of the Saïd Business School and Professorial Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He has degrees in Engineering Science and Economics (BA, First Class, 1974) and Economics (MPhil, 1976; DPhil, 1981) from the University of Oxford. He was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University (1979/80), a Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England (1989) and the first Leo Goldschmidt Visiting Professor in Corporate Governance at the Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles (2000 and 2001). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Royal Economic Society, and an Inaugural Fellow and Board Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) in Brussels. Colin Mayer has previously been Chairman of the European Science Foundation Network in Financial Markets and Co-Director of the Centre for Economic Policy Research's Network in Financial Markets. He is Chairman of OXERA Holdings Ltd and an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne's College and Oriel College, Oxford.

Comprehensive coverage of financial markets and financial institutions from a European perspective Written by leading names in the field Highly topical issue of immense policy and practical significance