Understanding Ponzi Schemes: Can Better Financial Regulation Prevent Investors from Being Defrauded? (New Horizons in Money and Finance series) - Softcover

Lewis, Mervyn K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786433400 ISBN 13: 9781786433404

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

A Ponzi scheme is one of the simplest, albeit effective, financial frauds to engineer, and new schemes keep coming forward. Despite this, however, people continue to invest in them. How are we to account for the seemingly never-ending lure of such schemes? In providing answers to this central question, this concise and well-researched book examines how Ponzi schemes operate, how they differ from pyramid schemes, Ponzi finance and other financial arrangements.

The author questions whether the victims have only themselves to blame, why fraudsters think that they can avoid detection, and what important insights behavioural finance theory and psychology can add. Particular attention is paid to the reasons behind the failure of financial regulation, and the types of regulatory changes needed to protect investors and avoid repetitions. The analysis is informed by case studies of 11 Ponzi schemes in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Finance and business academics interested in the operation of Ponzi schemes, and how they differ from pyramid schemes, will find this book invaluable, as will students of economics, finance, behavioural decision-making and psychology. Lawyers, psychologists, regulatory agencies and financial institutions will also benefit considerably from the analysis.

About this title

About the Author

Mervyn K. Lewis, Emeritus Professor, University of South Australia and Emeritus Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

Edition details

• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1786433400
• ISBN 13: 9781786433404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200