Author: Vishaal B. Bhuyan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470508140
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A complete guide to longevity finance As the Baby Boomer population continues to age and the need for the securitization of life insurance policies increases, more financial institutions are looking towards longevity trading as a solution. Consequently, there is now a need for innovative financial products and strategies that have the ability to hedge longevity exposure for pension funds, reinsurance companies, and governments. These products and strategies are currently being developed with the use of life settlements. Here, author Vishaal Bhuyan provides a complete guide to this burgeoning sector. In Life Markets, Bhuyan and a team of expert contributors from leading firms offer an extensive look at how to trade life settlements. Provides practical guidance to the growing field of longevity finance Outlines the innovative financial products that are populating this field Highlights a safe haven for investors seeking returns in troubled times Covering everything from the history of life settlements to making a transaction-pricing, service providers, exchanges, and more-this book contains extensive coverage of the many issues surrounding longevity finance.
Life Markets
Author: Vishaal B. Bhuyan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470508140
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A complete guide to longevity finance As the Baby Boomer population continues to age and the need for the securitization of life insurance policies increases, more financial institutions are looking towards longevity trading as a solution. Consequently, there is now a need for innovative financial products and strategies that have the ability to hedge longevity exposure for pension funds, reinsurance companies, and governments. These products and strategies are currently being developed with the use of life settlements. Here, author Vishaal Bhuyan provides a complete guide to this burgeoning sector. In Life Markets, Bhuyan and a team of expert contributors from leading firms offer an extensive look at how to trade life settlements. Provides practical guidance to the growing field of longevity finance Outlines the innovative financial products that are populating this field Highlights a safe haven for investors seeking returns in troubled times Covering everything from the history of life settlements to making a transaction-pricing, service providers, exchanges, and more-this book contains extensive coverage of the many issues surrounding longevity finance.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470508140
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A complete guide to longevity finance As the Baby Boomer population continues to age and the need for the securitization of life insurance policies increases, more financial institutions are looking towards longevity trading as a solution. Consequently, there is now a need for innovative financial products and strategies that have the ability to hedge longevity exposure for pension funds, reinsurance companies, and governments. These products and strategies are currently being developed with the use of life settlements. Here, author Vishaal Bhuyan provides a complete guide to this burgeoning sector. In Life Markets, Bhuyan and a team of expert contributors from leading firms offer an extensive look at how to trade life settlements. Provides practical guidance to the growing field of longevity finance Outlines the innovative financial products that are populating this field Highlights a safe haven for investors seeking returns in troubled times Covering everything from the history of life settlements to making a transaction-pricing, service providers, exchanges, and more-this book contains extensive coverage of the many issues surrounding longevity finance.
The Inner Lives of Markets
Author: Ray Fisman
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610394933
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
America's economic revolution isn't just driven by technology. It's about markets. The past twenty-five years have witnessed a remarkable shift in how we get the stuff we want. If you've ever owned a business, rented an apartment, or shopped online, you've had a front-row seat for this revolution-in-progress. Breakthrough companies like Amazon and Uber have disrupted the old ways and made the economy work better -- all thanks to technology. At least that's how the story of the modern economy is usually told. But in this lucid, wry book, Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan show that the revolution is bigger than tech: it is really a story about the transformation of markets. From the auction theories that power Google's ad sales algorithms to the models that online retailers use to prevent internet fraud, even the most high-tech modern businesses are empowered by theory first envisioned by economists. And we're all participants in this revolution. Every time you book a room on Airbnb, hire a car on Lyft, or click on an ad, you too are reshaping our social institutions and our lives. The Inner Lives of Markets is necessary reading for the modern world: it reveals the blueprint for how we work, live, and shop, and offers wisdom for how to do it better.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610394933
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
America's economic revolution isn't just driven by technology. It's about markets. The past twenty-five years have witnessed a remarkable shift in how we get the stuff we want. If you've ever owned a business, rented an apartment, or shopped online, you've had a front-row seat for this revolution-in-progress. Breakthrough companies like Amazon and Uber have disrupted the old ways and made the economy work better -- all thanks to technology. At least that's how the story of the modern economy is usually told. But in this lucid, wry book, Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan show that the revolution is bigger than tech: it is really a story about the transformation of markets. From the auction theories that power Google's ad sales algorithms to the models that online retailers use to prevent internet fraud, even the most high-tech modern businesses are empowered by theory first envisioned by economists. And we're all participants in this revolution. Every time you book a room on Airbnb, hire a car on Lyft, or click on an ad, you too are reshaping our social institutions and our lives. The Inner Lives of Markets is necessary reading for the modern world: it reveals the blueprint for how we work, live, and shop, and offers wisdom for how to do it better.
Life in the Financial Markets
Author: Daniel Lacalle
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118914872
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325
Book Description
An accessible and thorough review of the international financial markets Life in the Financial Markets—How They Really Work And Why They Matter To You offers the financial services professional, and anyone interested in knowing more about the profession, an entertaining and comprehensive analysis of the financial markets and the financial services industry. Written by Daniel Lacalle—a noted portfolio manager with EcoFin and well-known media personality—the book goes beyond a simple summary and offers solid advice on the future of the global financial markets. This great resource also includes a review of effective strategies and forecasts the trends that represent potential opportunities for investors. The book reviews the recent history of the financial crisis and includes information on hot topics such as derivatives and high frequency trading. An in-depth section on investment banking is written from the perspective of a successful practitioner and provides clarity on several complex and overly politicized elements of the banking system. The author gives an expert's perspective on the debt markets, monetary policies, and quantitative easing, and helps explain the various issues surrounding sovereign debt, the Euro crisis, and austerity versus growth policies. Comprehensive in scope, this resource also offers an analysis of investment styles, from hedge funds to "long only" investments, as well as an in-depth look at corporate communication and its impact on markets and investments. Offers an engaging and comprehensive analysis of the financial services industry Includes information on the workings of the global financial system following the economic crisis Contains a review of complex banking systems Analyzes the various investment styles and answers the most common questions pertaining to investing
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118914872
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325
Book Description
An accessible and thorough review of the international financial markets Life in the Financial Markets—How They Really Work And Why They Matter To You offers the financial services professional, and anyone interested in knowing more about the profession, an entertaining and comprehensive analysis of the financial markets and the financial services industry. Written by Daniel Lacalle—a noted portfolio manager with EcoFin and well-known media personality—the book goes beyond a simple summary and offers solid advice on the future of the global financial markets. This great resource also includes a review of effective strategies and forecasts the trends that represent potential opportunities for investors. The book reviews the recent history of the financial crisis and includes information on hot topics such as derivatives and high frequency trading. An in-depth section on investment banking is written from the perspective of a successful practitioner and provides clarity on several complex and overly politicized elements of the banking system. The author gives an expert's perspective on the debt markets, monetary policies, and quantitative easing, and helps explain the various issues surrounding sovereign debt, the Euro crisis, and austerity versus growth policies. Comprehensive in scope, this resource also offers an analysis of investment styles, from hedge funds to "long only" investments, as well as an in-depth look at corporate communication and its impact on markets and investments. Offers an engaging and comprehensive analysis of the financial services industry Includes information on the workings of the global financial system following the economic crisis Contains a review of complex banking systems Analyzes the various investment styles and answers the most common questions pertaining to investing
Morals and Markets
Author: Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545428
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Life insurance—the promise of an insurer to pay a sum upon a person's death in exchange for a regular premium—is a bizarre enterprise. How can we monetize human life? Should we? What statistics do we use, what assumptions do we make, and what behavioral factors do we consider? First published in 1979, Morals and Markets Is a pathbreaking study exploring the development of life insurance in the United States. Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer combines economic history and a sociological perspective to advance a novel interpretation of the life insurance industry. The book pioneered a cultural approach to the analysis of morally controversial markets. Zelizer begins in the mid-nineteenth century with the rise of the life insurance industry, a contentious chapter in the history of American business. Life insurance was stigmatized at first, denounced in newspapers and condemned by religious leaders as an immoral and sacrilegious gamble on human life. Over time, the business became a widely praised arrangement to secure a family's future. How did life insurance overcome cultural barriers? As Zelizer shows, the evolution of the industry in the United States matched evolving attitudes toward death, money, family relations, property, and personal legacy.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545428
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322
Book Description
Life insurance—the promise of an insurer to pay a sum upon a person's death in exchange for a regular premium—is a bizarre enterprise. How can we monetize human life? Should we? What statistics do we use, what assumptions do we make, and what behavioral factors do we consider? First published in 1979, Morals and Markets Is a pathbreaking study exploring the development of life insurance in the United States. Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer combines economic history and a sociological perspective to advance a novel interpretation of the life insurance industry. The book pioneered a cultural approach to the analysis of morally controversial markets. Zelizer begins in the mid-nineteenth century with the rise of the life insurance industry, a contentious chapter in the history of American business. Life insurance was stigmatized at first, denounced in newspapers and condemned by religious leaders as an immoral and sacrilegious gamble on human life. Over time, the business became a widely praised arrangement to secure a family's future. How did life insurance overcome cultural barriers? As Zelizer shows, the evolution of the industry in the United States matched evolving attitudes toward death, money, family relations, property, and personal legacy.
What Money Can't Buy
Author: Michael J. Sandel
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429942584
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
In What Money Can't Buy, renowned political philosopher Michael J. Sandel rethinks the role that markets and money should play in our society. Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? In his New York Times bestseller What Money Can't Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets? Over recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can't Buy, he provokes a debate that's been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429942584
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
In What Money Can't Buy, renowned political philosopher Michael J. Sandel rethinks the role that markets and money should play in our society. Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? In his New York Times bestseller What Money Can't Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets? Over recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can't Buy, he provokes a debate that's been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?
Turkey
Author: International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475576927
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 81
Book Description
This paper presents an assessment of the observance of IAIS (International Association of Insurance Supervisors) insurance core principles in Turkey. During the last five years, the government of Turkey has made a significant effort to improve regulation and supervision of insurance and to improve adherence to international standards. The efficiency of information reporting, insurer monitoring, and supervision has greatly increased. Solvency tests have been strengthened. Reserving and investment practices have been improved. Improvements have been made in international cooperation and information exchange. However, major regulatory and supervisory challenges remain for Turkey to increase confidence in the sector and benefit from its continued growth.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475576927
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 81
Book Description
This paper presents an assessment of the observance of IAIS (International Association of Insurance Supervisors) insurance core principles in Turkey. During the last five years, the government of Turkey has made a significant effort to improve regulation and supervision of insurance and to improve adherence to international standards. The efficiency of information reporting, insurer monitoring, and supervision has greatly increased. Solvency tests have been strengthened. Reserving and investment practices have been improved. Improvements have been made in international cooperation and information exchange. However, major regulatory and supervisory challenges remain for Turkey to increase confidence in the sector and benefit from its continued growth.
Markets in the Making
Author: Michel Callon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1942130589
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270
Book Description
Slicing through blunt theories of supply and demand, Callon presents a rigorously researched but counterintuitive model of how everyday market activity gets produced. If you’re convinced you know what a market is, think again. In his long-awaited study, French sociologist and engineer Michel Callon takes us to the heart of markets, to the unsung processes that allow innovations to become robust products and services. Markets in the Making begins with the observation that stable commercial transactions are more enigmatic, more elusive, and more involved than previously described by economic theory. Slicing through blunt theories of supply and demand, Callon presents a rigorously researched but counterintuitive model of market activity that emphasizes what people designing products or launching startups soon discover—the inherent difficulties of connecting individuals to things. Callon’s model is founded upon the notion of “singularization,” the premise that goods and services must adapt and be adapted to the local milieu of every individual whose life they enter. Person by person, thing by thing, Callon demonstrates that for ordinary economic transactions to emerge en masse, singular connections must be made. Pushing us to see markets as more than abstract interfaces where pools of anonymous buyers and sellers meet, Callon draws our attention to the exhaustively creative practices that market professionals continuously devise to entangle people and things. Markets in the Making exemplifies how prototypes, fragile curiosities that have only just been imagined, are gradually honed into predictable objects and practices. Once these are active enough to create a desired effect, yet passive enough to be transferred from one place to another without disruption, they will have successfully achieved the status of “goods” or “services.” The output of this more ample process of innovation, as redefined by Callon, is what we recognize as “the market”—commercial activity, at scale. The capstone of an influential research career at the forefront of science and technology studies, Markets in the Making coherently integrates the empirical perspective of product engineering with the values of the social sciences. After masterfully redescribing how markets are made, Callon culminates with a strong empirical argument for why markets can and should be harnessed to enact social change. His is a theory of markets that serves social critique.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1942130589
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270
Book Description
Slicing through blunt theories of supply and demand, Callon presents a rigorously researched but counterintuitive model of how everyday market activity gets produced. If you’re convinced you know what a market is, think again. In his long-awaited study, French sociologist and engineer Michel Callon takes us to the heart of markets, to the unsung processes that allow innovations to become robust products and services. Markets in the Making begins with the observation that stable commercial transactions are more enigmatic, more elusive, and more involved than previously described by economic theory. Slicing through blunt theories of supply and demand, Callon presents a rigorously researched but counterintuitive model of market activity that emphasizes what people designing products or launching startups soon discover—the inherent difficulties of connecting individuals to things. Callon’s model is founded upon the notion of “singularization,” the premise that goods and services must adapt and be adapted to the local milieu of every individual whose life they enter. Person by person, thing by thing, Callon demonstrates that for ordinary economic transactions to emerge en masse, singular connections must be made. Pushing us to see markets as more than abstract interfaces where pools of anonymous buyers and sellers meet, Callon draws our attention to the exhaustively creative practices that market professionals continuously devise to entangle people and things. Markets in the Making exemplifies how prototypes, fragile curiosities that have only just been imagined, are gradually honed into predictable objects and practices. Once these are active enough to create a desired effect, yet passive enough to be transferred from one place to another without disruption, they will have successfully achieved the status of “goods” or “services.” The output of this more ample process of innovation, as redefined by Callon, is what we recognize as “the market”—commercial activity, at scale. The capstone of an influential research career at the forefront of science and technology studies, Markets in the Making coherently integrates the empirical perspective of product engineering with the values of the social sciences. After masterfully redescribing how markets are made, Callon culminates with a strong empirical argument for why markets can and should be harnessed to enact social change. His is a theory of markets that serves social critique.
Markets without Limits
Author: Jason F. Brennan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317815629
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 376
Book Description
May you sell your vote? May you sell your kidney? May gay men pay surrogates to bear them children? May spouses pay each other to watch the kids, do the dishes, or have sex? Should we allow the rich to genetically engineer gifted, beautiful children? Should we allow betting markets on terrorist attacks and natural disasters? Most people shudder at the thought. To put some goods and services for sale offends human dignity. If everything is commodified, then nothing is sacred. The market corrodes our character. Or so most people say. In Markets without Limits, Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski give markets a fair hearing. The market does not introduce wrongness where there was not any previously. Thus, the authors claim, the question of what rightfully may be bought and sold has a simple answer: if you may do it for free, you may do it for money. Contrary to the conservative consensus, they claim there are no inherent limits to what can be bought and sold, but only restrictions on how we buy and sell.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317815629
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 376
Book Description
May you sell your vote? May you sell your kidney? May gay men pay surrogates to bear them children? May spouses pay each other to watch the kids, do the dishes, or have sex? Should we allow the rich to genetically engineer gifted, beautiful children? Should we allow betting markets on terrorist attacks and natural disasters? Most people shudder at the thought. To put some goods and services for sale offends human dignity. If everything is commodified, then nothing is sacred. The market corrodes our character. Or so most people say. In Markets without Limits, Jason Brennan and Peter Jaworski give markets a fair hearing. The market does not introduce wrongness where there was not any previously. Thus, the authors claim, the question of what rightfully may be bought and sold has a simple answer: if you may do it for free, you may do it for money. Contrary to the conservative consensus, they claim there are no inherent limits to what can be bought and sold, but only restrictions on how we buy and sell.
Fooled by Randomness
Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588367673
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes. Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you think about business and the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb–veteran trader, renowned risk expert, polymathic scholar, erudite raconteur, and New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan–has written a modern classic that turns on its head what we believe about luck and skill. This book is about luck–or more precisely, about how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill–the world of trading–Fooled by Randomness provides captivating insight into one of the least understood factors in all our lives. Writing in an entertaining narrative style, the author tackles major intellectual issues related to the underestimation of the influence of happenstance on our lives. The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: the baseball legend Yogi Berra; the philosopher of knowledge Karl Popper; the ancient world’s wisest man, Solon; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Odysseus. We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life but falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness. However, the most recognizable character of all remains unnamed–the lucky fool who happens to be in the right place at the right time–he embodies the “survival of the least fit.” Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru’s insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained by chance. Are we capable of distinguishing the fortunate charlatan from the genuine visionary? Must we always try to uncover nonexistent messages in random events? It may be impossible to guard ourselves against the vagaries of the goddess Fortuna, but after reading Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared. Named by Fortune One of the Smartest Books of All Time A Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588367673
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes. Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you think about business and the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb–veteran trader, renowned risk expert, polymathic scholar, erudite raconteur, and New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan–has written a modern classic that turns on its head what we believe about luck and skill. This book is about luck–or more precisely, about how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill–the world of trading–Fooled by Randomness provides captivating insight into one of the least understood factors in all our lives. Writing in an entertaining narrative style, the author tackles major intellectual issues related to the underestimation of the influence of happenstance on our lives. The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: the baseball legend Yogi Berra; the philosopher of knowledge Karl Popper; the ancient world’s wisest man, Solon; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Odysseus. We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life but falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness. However, the most recognizable character of all remains unnamed–the lucky fool who happens to be in the right place at the right time–he embodies the “survival of the least fit.” Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru’s insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained by chance. Are we capable of distinguishing the fortunate charlatan from the genuine visionary? Must we always try to uncover nonexistent messages in random events? It may be impossible to guard ourselves against the vagaries of the goddess Fortuna, but after reading Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared. Named by Fortune One of the Smartest Books of All Time A Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year
Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption
Author: Stephanie O'Donohoe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136758356
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
It takes more than a baby to make a mother, and mothers make more than babies. Bringing together a range of international studies, Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption examines how marketing and consumer culture constructs particular images of what mothers are, what they should care about and how they should behave; exploring how women's use of consumer goods and services shapes how they mother as well as how they are seen and judged by others. Combining personal accounts from many mothers with different theoretical perspectives, this book explores: How advertising, media and consumer culture contribute to myths and stereotypes concerning good and bad mothers How particular consumer choices are bound up with women’s identities as mothers The role of consumption for women entering different phases of their mothering lives: such as pregnancy, early motherhood, and the "empty nest"
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136758356
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
It takes more than a baby to make a mother, and mothers make more than babies. Bringing together a range of international studies, Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption examines how marketing and consumer culture constructs particular images of what mothers are, what they should care about and how they should behave; exploring how women's use of consumer goods and services shapes how they mother as well as how they are seen and judged by others. Combining personal accounts from many mothers with different theoretical perspectives, this book explores: How advertising, media and consumer culture contribute to myths and stereotypes concerning good and bad mothers How particular consumer choices are bound up with women’s identities as mothers The role of consumption for women entering different phases of their mothering lives: such as pregnancy, early motherhood, and the "empty nest"