Contains contemporary analysis of three key developments in financial economics: financial integration; the dynamics of financial markets; and the information, computer, and technology revolution and its impact on markets and the economic performance, among others.

1. Risk quantification of retail credit: Current practices and future challenges (W.W. Lang, A.M. Santomero). 2. The comparative performance of classification models: An empirical approach (S. Caiazza). 3. The economics of international monies (G.P. Dwyer Jr., J.R. Lothian). 4. How much do we really know about growth and finance? (P. Wachtel). 5. An empirical test for short termism in the US stock market (R.Y. Chou, W.-C. Guo). 6. Stock price dynamics: An empirical test of the Chartist-Fundamentalist hypothesis (L. Becchetti, M.I.M. Santoro). 7. The new global determinants of FDI flows to developing countries: The importance of ICT and democratization (T. Addison, A. Heshmati). 8. Internet banking in Spain: Some stylized facts (J. Delgado, M.J. Nieto). 9. Consolidation, efficiency and competition in the financial sector: A review of the international evidence (D. Amel, C. Barnes, F. Panetta, C. Salleo). 10. Consolidation of the banking industry, customer relationships and SME financing in France (M. Dietsch, V. Golitin). 11. The dynamics of capital structure (S. Banerjee, A. Heshmati, C. Wihlborg). 12. Contagion and portfolio shift in emerging countries' sovereign bonds (A.D. de los Rios, A.G. Herrero). 13. The Italian overnight market: Microstructure effects, the Martingale hypothesis and the payment system (E. Barucci, C. Impenna, R. Reno). 14. Esitmation risk, complexity and portfolio selection: How much do investors lose? (I. Hasan, A. Siddique, Y. Simaan).