This paper studies how the state of the banking sector influences stock returns of nonfinancial firms. We consider a two-factor pricing model, where the first factor is the traditional market excess return and the second factor is the change in the average distance to default of the banking...

We compare the performance of local versus foreign institutional investors using a comprehensive data set of equity holdings in 32 countries during the 2000-2010 period. We find that foreign institutions perform as well as local institutions on average, but only domestic institutions show a...

We study the determinants of Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads through quantile regressions. The results indicate that CDS spreads are strongly determined not only by traditional theoretical variables, such as the implied volatility and put skew, but also by illiquidity costs. However, contrary...

There is an ongoing trend of deregulation and integration of electricity markets in Europe and North America. This change in market structure has naturally affected the interaction between agents and has contributed to an increasing commoditization of electric power. This paper focuses on one...

This paper studies how the state of the banking sector influences stock returns of nonfinancial firms. We consider a two-factor pricing model, where the first factor is the traditional market excess return and the second factor is the change in the average distance to default of commercial...

This paper investigates the motivations of Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) to change their ratings, and the consequences of those changes. We propose a new measure of ratings stability that summarizes the information in a ratings transition matrix into a single scalar number. We find that the...

This paper offers a rational explanation for the puzzling empirical fact that stock returns decrease in the volatility of liquidity. We model liquidity as a stochastic price impact process and define the liquidity premium as the additional return necessary to compensate a multi-period investor...

This paper studies the relation between liquidity and optimal portfolio allocations. Given that the portfolio problem of a constant relative risk aversion investor does not have a closed-form solution, we use a nonparametric approach to estimate the optimal allocations. Using a sample of NYSE...

The Portuguese stock market provides a natural experiment to analyze theories of optimal price per share. The particular characteristics of this market suggest that prices per share should be very low. Using a sample of 20 stocks from the main Portuguese Stock Index (PSI20) in Jan/1999-Jun/2010,...