Short-sale bans have been frequently utilized globally as a regulatory tool during periods of financial crisis. This paper is a review of the observed intended and unintended effects. We see that short-sale bans have pervasive effects spanning many financial markets that include options,...

The paper constitutes a discussion of the rise of Peer to Peer loans as alternative investments. Peer to Peer loans are being incorporated into portfolios in the interest of diversification. This paper outlines the strategy and provides a guided tour to this new alternative asset class, along...

This paper examines the determinants of cross-sectional variation in post-merger mutual fund performance. Mergers between funds with similar management objectives, as reflected by average portfolio book-to-market ratio, price-earnings ratio, beta and market capitalization values, outperform...

In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed, New York City's municipal government decided to levy new taxes on stock gains to generate funds needed to support the city in those difficult economic times. Faced with pressure from brokers, stock traders, and...

We develop an intensity-based model of municipal yields, making simultaneous use of the CDS premiums of the insurers and both insured and uninsured municipal bond transactions. We estimate the model individually for 61 municipal issuers by exploiting the dramatic decline in credit quality of the...

This presentation was given to the MIT Alumni Association of Orange County. The goal was to deliver an educational presentation to demystify the world of hedge funds and quantitative investing. We discussed the money management industry and briefly described what quants do, how they do it, and...