This innovative new teaching text provides an introduction to personal investment in a world defined by uncertainty. With a focus on risk, socio-economic change and the regulatory framework, and a wealth of international case studies, the book covers all the key issues that affect personal investment decisions and their ultimate success or failure.

MARIANA MAZZUCATO is Professor of Economics of Innovation at The Open University. She is the coordinator of a European Commission collaborative project on Finance, Innovation and Growth, and Director of The Open University's research centre on Innovation, Knowledge and Development. Her work on the relationship between technological innovation and stock price volatility has been published in various journals. She is the author of Firm Size, Innovation and Market Structure: The Evolution of Market Concentration and Instability (Edward Elgar, 2000) and co-editor of Knowledge Accumulation and Industry Evolution: Pharma-Biotech (Cambridge University Press, 2006).    JONQUIL LOWE is a Lecturer in Personal Finance at The Open University and a personal finance practitioner, specialising in consumer research and financial capability resources. Her recent book publications include The Pension Handbook (Which?, 2006), Save and Invest (Which?, 2008), The Personal Finance Handbook (Child Poverty Action Group, 2009) and, with Sara Williams, The Financial Times Guide to Personal Tax (Pearson Education, 2009).   ALAN SHIPMAN is a Lecturer in Economics at The Open University. A former emerging-markets analyst and consultant, his publications include The Market Revolution (Routledge, 1999), The Globalization Myth (Icon, 2002) and Knowledge Monopolies (Imprint Academic, 2006).    ANDREW TRIGG is Senior Lecturer in Economics at The Open University. He is co-editor of Economics and Changing Economies (Thomson, 1996) and Microeconomics: Neoclassical and Institutionalist Perspectives on Economic Behaviour (Thomson, 2001); and author of Marxian Reproduction Schema: Money and Aggregate Demand in a Capitalist Economy (Routledge, 2006).