In designing a derivative contract, an exchange carefully considers how its attributes affect the expected profits of its members. On November 3, 1997, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange doubled its tick size of its S&P 500 futures contract and halved the denomination, providing a rare opportunity...

In November 2012, a process for regular cash transfers between the Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility Fund Limited (APF) and Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) was established. The size and timing of these transfers depends on a number of uncertain factors, including the future path of Bank...

Beliefs about future inflation play a major role in determining the rate of inflation, and so it is important for the Monetary Policy Committee to take them into account when making their policy decisions. A number of measures of central expectations for inflation are available, such as surveys...

Large movements in the oil price have had significant effects on UK CPI inflation over the past few years. In order to produce an inflation forecast, it is necessary to assume a path for oil and other commodity prices. The Monetary Policy Committee assumes that oil prices follow the path given...

Regulation FD, imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in October 2000, was designed to create a level playing field by prohibiting selective disclosure of material private information to particular groups. Exactly what advantage these groups gain is unclear. If multiple insiders...

Evidence of dividend yield return predictability has been presented so widely and consistently that the result has tended to be generally accepted. This paper shows that return predictability of the dividend yield is a spurious result that is due to dividend persistence and finds that standard...

Evidence of dividend yield return predictability has been presented so widely and consistently that the result has tended to be generally accepted. This paper shows that return predictability of the dividend yield is a spurious result that is due to dividend persistence and finds that standard...