This series spans the globe presenting leading research in economics. International applications and examples of economic progress are invaluable in a troubled world with economic booms bursting like so many penny balloons. Topics discussed include a comprehensive framework for analyzing the risk management in the agri-food sector; university spin-off programs and economic commercialization in the U.K. and Spain; social economic implications from an intellectual capital perspective in the Netherlands; a new two-stage model and money flows in the Chinese stock market; lessons learned from the collapse of Enron Corporation; modern macroeconomic research on consumption; and the psychology of public spending.