Business and Finance

Business and Finance

Innovative Startups Win NESTA Grants for Creative Business Ideas

A new fashion company making clothes that release complimentary medicines into the skin when worn and a new broadband youth TV channel tailored to the young Asian market, are among the latest creative businesses to win start up grants of up to £35,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts), the organisation that invests in UK creativity and innovation.

The awards were made through NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Programme, which aims to invest over £3 mil

Business and Finance

Capital Quality and Economic Growth Sources in the Euro Area

Europe’s growth slowed in the 1990s, reinforcing the overall impression of a need to catch up with the US regarding standards of living. In reaction, EU leaders adopted the famous Lisbon Agenda in 2000. The Agenda is now under review, the aim being to determine why progress on its pro-growth goals has been unsatisfactory and what can be done about it. The first crucial step in this process is to understand the true sources of the European growth slowdown. Sources-of-growth calculations have al

Business and Finance

Unlock Seamless Mobile Payments Anytime, Anywhere

Do you need to contact your bank to find out whether a payment has been made or would you like to make a purchase? How about using your mobile phone or PDA to access these services wherever you are? This is now possible, thanks to a secure mobile, universal real-time payment service.

The SEMOPS IST programme-funded project is a pioneer in mobile payment methods. This open, secure mobile payment service is based on a cooperative model between banks and mobile network operators.

Business and Finance

U.S. Goods Demand: The Key to Global Instability Explained

A reduction in U.S. consumption, increased savings and the adoption of flexible exchange rates in Asia would trigger global instability, according to a Conference Board analysis released today.

Says Gail Fosler, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of The Conference Board: “Not only would these actions not have the intended effect but they would add to global instability and further slow an already disturbing slowdown in long-term global growth.”

The analysis app

Business and Finance

Eurex US Targets CBOT and CME in Antitrust Complaint Update

Nandapurkar: We welcome the chance to argue our case in Chicago

The fully-electronic futures and options exchange Eurex US has filed its second amended antitrust complaint against the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The amended complaint was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Eurex US had filed an antitrust action against the two exchanges on October 14, 2003 for repeated anticompetitive behavior and unla

Business and Finance

Ecologist Leads First Global Study on Ecosystem Services

Up to 60 percent of “ecosystem services” that support life on earth, such as food, water and climate regulation, are crumbling at an unsustainable rate, members of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) project report here today (March 30). Designed to assist global policy-makers, MA is the first international study to appraise the status of Earth’s diverse ecosystems and their associated impact on human well-being.

Stephen Carpenter, a zoology professor at the University o

Business and Finance

Clearstream rated world’s best Tri-Partite Repo Service Provider

Clearstream has been rated as the leading global provider of Tri-Partite Repo services to the international securities market for 2005 by the closely-watched annual survey undertaken by the respected Global Custodian magazine. The survey conducts a detailed review of a wide range of service elements ranging from collateral optimization through to reporting and communications.

For the fourth time in the last five years, Clearstream has achieved the highest overall scores and has increased

Business and Finance

EU Banking Integration: Report Highlights Key Shortfalls

A new Report published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) examines the changes that have taken place in banking in the European Union over the last few years. The authors of the third title in CEPR’s Monitoring European Deregulation (MED) series ‘Integration of European Banking – The Way Forward’ note that perhaps the most significant development that has taken place in this sector has been the launch of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP).

The goal of the

Business and Finance

Asian Countries Surge in Science and Tech, US Challenges Ahead

The global landscape for science and technology is changing, with increased competition for resources and recognition. That’s beginning to look like bad news for the innovative edge the United States has long enjoyed.

“Will the United States own the technology of the future? Probably not all of it, and only if we compete harder to maintain our current position,” said Diana Hicks, professor and chair of Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Public Policy.

Business and Finance

U.S. Economy Set to Add 4 Million Jobs by Year-End

The U.S. economy, which finally posted job gains last year after three straight years of job losses, will add another 4 million jobs through 2006, say University of Michigan economists.

“The economy lost 2.7 million payroll jobs from February 2001 to May 2003, but by 2004 the ability of employers to tease more and more output out of fewer workers had about had it,” said Saul Hymans, U-M professor emeritus of economics. “That plus renewed business confidence in the strength of

Business and Finance

Redesign Company Websites to Attract Job Seekers

Companies wanting to use the Internet to recruit new employees should spotlight the geographic location of positions on their Web sites and include terms used by searchers, rather than site designers or human resource professionals, say Penn State researchers.

“Users’ primary interest when looking for jobs is location, but company Web sites typically don’t highlight geographical information,” said Jim Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. “Lo

Business and Finance

Finland Innovates Traditional Industries for Future Growth

Home to some of the world’s largest forest products companies, Finland is committed to staying at the front of this sector and others where it is particularly strong, according to a recent study by the country’s National Technology Agency, Tekes.
Introducing new product and business concepts in traditional industries has been identified as one of Finland’s key six application focus areas in the future.

As leaders in the forest products sector, Finnish companies face some to

Business and Finance

Unemployment News: A Hidden Boost for Stock Market Growth

A recent study in The Journal of Finance finds that the way the stock market reacts to unemployment news conveys information about the state of the economy.

Stock prices rise on average on announcement of higher than anticipated unemployment during economic expansions, This is because unemployment news itself is a bundle of three primitive types of news: the level of future interest rates, the growth of corporate earnings and dividends in the future, and the expected return on stocks.

Business and Finance

As Europe Changes, America’s Productivity Edge in Retail, Wholesale Will Erode

Companies in America’s fast-growing retail and wholesale trade sector have been the major drivers of U.S. productivity growth since 1995, and the transformation of U.S. retailing is a major reason the U.S. maintains a substantial productivity lead over Europe.

A comprehensive study by The Conference Board, released today, shows that more than 50% of America’s productivity growth lead over Europe is due to gains in retail and wholesale trade.

The transformation of U.S.

Business and Finance

Public-Private Partnerships: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

Recently, there has been a massive growth, in many countries, in public-private partnerships for the provision of public service infrastructure, such as, roads and health care facilities. Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council confirms the potential benefits of partnerships, but also identifies circumstances under which more traditional forms of procurement are preferable.

The project, conducted by Professor John Bennett and Professor Elisabetta Iossa, Brunel B

Business and Finance

Exploring Employment Data in Seven African Capitals

In most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, few reliable data are available relating to employment, unemployment and the conditions in which occupations are practised. This is in spite of the fact that societies base their economies on work and that reduction of poverty remains the main objective of economic policies. The existing information in any case results from different concepts and methods of analysis peculiar to each national statistics institute, which prevents comparison at the scale

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