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For the first time in an era, new investment products for smaller ("retail ") investors are emerging. These products are mutual funds that engage in the types of trading and investment activities that have long been the province of sophisticated investors. Accordingly, the new funds (called "alternative funds") promise to reduce the gulf between retail investors and their sophisticated counterparts, in terms of portfolio diversification and investment results. This Article describes the complex mix of factors that spawned alternative funds and critically evaluates the funds' potential, the first scholarly work to do so. It additionally unearths the paradox that impedes the realization of that potential: although financial advisers counsel that portfolio diversification reduces investment risk, taking advantage of the opportunities that now make diversification possible could unduly increase that risk. This result, moreover, arises not from alternative funds themselves. Rather, it is a product of the fact that the primary regulatory tool for protecting investors—disclosure—is particularly ineffective in the alternative fund context. In addition, the profit-driven financial professionals that assist retail investors with their investment decisions need not, in many cases, do so in furtherance of their customers' best interests and, in any event, may not have sufficient expertise about alternative funds to be useful. The Article contends that regulatory solutions should center not on disclosure, as the usual target of securities regulatory reform, but, rather, on the processes by which mutual fund shares are marketed and sold to investors. It proposes politically feasible reforms that would dissolve the paradox, enabling retail investors to take better advantage of the new investment universe.

Recent regulatory approaches in crowdfunding democratize capital markets. Adverse wealth effects may arise because of information asymmetry. Firoozi et al. (2017) argue that crowdfunding has wealth-reducing effects on crowd investors because they systematically assign less value to good ventures, and more to bad ventures. This paper aims to take a more differentiated perspective by incorporating two dimensions of uncertainty determining ventures' value. It further takes into account that different investor types learn different information. This yields new findings concerning the assessment of venture value by crowd investors and sophisticated investors. Crowd investors' may be able to better assess venture value, even though they have inferior information processing skills. This may enable crowd investors to make better investment decisions, compared to sophisticated investors.

While Coronavirus somewhat overshadowed the Brexit transition period last year, the UK continues to embark on 'post-Brexit Britain' with a Free-Trade Agreement. In the years leading up to the UK's departure from the EU, the possibility of a no-deal Brexit caused great economic and political uncertainty, especially amongst investors.

Der vorliegende Beitrag beleuchtet das Thema der regenerativen Energien in Bayern aus der Sicht eines Investors. Die aktuelle Situation in Bezug auf Potenzial, Genehmigung, Förderung und Besonderheiten für Wasserkraft, Photovoltaik, Biomasse Holz, Biogas, Windkraft und tiefe Geothermie wird skizziert. Bei Erneuerbaren-Energien-Projekten in Bayern handelt es sich um Investitionsalternativen, die gegen andere Investitionsmöglichkeiten zur regenerativen Energieerzeugung konkurrieren. Neben einer monetären Förderung wird hierbei entscheidend sein, mit welchem Widerstand Energieprojekte künftig konfrontiert werden. Die Politik muss neben stabilen Rahmenbedingungen und positivem Investitionsklima auch den Boden für Realisierung "vor Ort" bereiten. Die Raumordnung hätte die Kompetenz und den notwendigen Überblick, eine führende Rolle in der strukturellen Gestaltung der erneuerbaren Energieerzeugung einzunehmen. ; This paper sheds light on the topic of renewable energy in Bavaria from the perspective of an investor. The current situation is outlined for water energy, photovoltaic, biomass wood, biogas, wind energy and deep geothermal energy in terms of potential, licensing, funding and particularities. Renewable energy projects in Bavaria represent investment options that have to compete with other opportunities to invest in renewable energy production. In addition to financial funding, a decisive role will be played by the resistance with which future energy projects are confronted. Policies have to ensure not only stable framework conditions and a positive investment climate but also have to prepare the ground for local implementation. Spatial planning has the competence and necessary breadth of perspective to play a leading role in the structuring of renewable energy production.

In the midst of the international financial crisis, the German federal government passed the Risk Limitation Act in autumn 2007. In spring 2008 the Bundestag has finally decided on the law. The domestic private equity/buyout providers, which have not previously been subject to banking supervision, are among the main addressees of the act. Among others, "objectionable macroeconomic activities of financial investors" are to be hindered or prevented, without simultaneously "impairing efficient financial and corporate transactions". In short, the regulation of activities is intended to have a stabilizing effect in the midst of turbulent times. Private equity funds can particularly be regarded as a supplement to the traditional instruments of corporate financing. In a study recently presented by DIW Berlin, it was determined that private equity funds generally do not swarm in on German companies "like locusts". Their macroeconomic significance has so far tended to be minor. An expansion of commitment by private equity funds would be welcomed. Particularly SMEs can profit from it.

The article addresses the issue of the business climate in Russia from the Swedish investors' perspective and relates its to a general theoretical debate in the field. Statistical tests suggests that the majority of variables relating to the business climate has deteriorated between 2012 and 2014. The findings support several mainstream theories regarding the business climate but also demonstrate some contradictions that would require further investigation. These include the reaction of Swedish business to the escalation of political tensions between Russia and the West and the factor of corruption, which is not viewed as serious enough to fully discourage foreign investors from staying in Russia.

This thesis investigates how investors as shareholders can seek to have corporations respect human rights. This is an important question because corporations play a key role in the global economy. They can provide employment and thereby enhance the enjoyment of human rights. They can also adversely impact on the human rights of others, although they are not accountable for these adverse human rights impacts in international law. It is therefore necessary to investigate how investors can become the 'regulators' of corporations with respect to human rights. This is made more important because, through their own investment practices, investors can adversely impact on the human rights of others. This thesis undertakes its investigation through an examination of the current and historical practices of investors, using their position as shareholders, to seek to have corporations respect human rights. This thesis examines the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ('the Guiding Principles') as a framework to enable investors to determine whether investee corporations respect human rights. This thesis also undertakes an examination of the practices of two significant institutional investors with respect to human rights and draws comparisons between their practices and the Guiding Principles. Those two investors are the Government Pension Fund Global of Norway and the California Public Employees' Retirement System in the United States of America. By this means, this thesis identifies a model for investors to seek to have corporations respect human rights. This model is made up of four components. They are a mandate for human rights, expertise, transparency and collaboration. This thesis identifies consistency between this model and what this thesis refers to as 'Regulatory Theory'. Although this thesis focuses on investors as regulators of their investee corporations, the model advanced encompasses the regulation of investors to play this role through the application of the Guiding Principles to them and in the context of Regulatory Theory. This thesis proposes that other types of investors, apart from shareholders, could potentially adopt this model for humanising capital.

The article deals with one of the modern tendencies in public administration: private intervention in quotidian activities of entities which are obliged by law to fulfill all social necessities. For better understand this idea, first, we shall examine private intervention in the period of dictatorship; second, try to determine few principles of this operation in democracy. As the 1990s made the issue of democracy the center of political discourses, finally we shall examine what is politically correct in the area. All this debate must be seen from the second direction: national private investors and state policy to encourage themselves (first aspect) and foreign investors as a second direction. Our paper tries to determine those rules which must be applied for those different kinds of investors.

In recent years, most sectors have benefited from an explosion in the creation of startups in different entrepreneurial environments. Along these lines, there has been a growing interest in the role of informal investors in the creation of new companies with the aim of identifying the characteristics that could help governments and regulators to promote different measures that help economic growth. Various studies identified that informal investments (that is, those that cover the financing needs of business plans in their entrepreneurial stage) contribute to entrepreneurial activity at national level. The objective of this analysis is to identify the factors that characterize the female informal investors in Europe. The analysis will be performed using data from the website "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor" (GEM) from the year 2015 at the individual level for different regions in Europe (South Europe, Central Europe and North Europe). The purpose is to evaluate characteristics of female informal investors in different European countries with the objective of facilitating the identification of potential measures or actions that could be implemented by national and local organisms to promote informal investment, and in general to support entrepreneurship.

Doing business in Nigeria has never been easy. Delays and frustrations are commonplace. Coupled with recent political changes, these formidable considerations may dissuade many potential investors from entering Nigeria. Nigeria, however, has an important role in international economics, which is sure to increase in significance. Thus, American businessmen may find that they cannot afford to ignore Nigeria, despite their inclination to do so. Nigeria's government has taken positive and far-reaching steps to encourage and protect foreign investment in order to better meet the country's economic, social, and political needs. Innovative American businessmen sensitive to local needs can certainly find their own profitable role.

This paper investigates the relationship between subjective financial literacy, i.e. self-reported by investors, and trading behavior. In particular, we use the level of financial knowledge and experience reported in the MiFID tests by retail investors. Such tests are implemented in the EU from the so-called MiFID directive since November 2007. We show that subjective financial literacy helps explain cross-sectional variations in retail investors' behavior. Investors who report higher levels of financial literacy seem to invest smarter, even after controlling for gender, age, portfolio value, trading experience and education. They trade more and are less prone to the disposition effect. They tend to concentrate their portfolios on a small set of stocks and achieve diversification through investment funds holding. Their trading behaviors allow them to display higher gross and net returns as well as higher excess Sharpe ratios. Our findings are relevant for both policy making and understanding retail investors' behavior.