We construct a model to show that active financial intermediation can induce economic fluctuations. We embed a financial sector in a simple overlapping generation model with a single stock of capital. Individuals are risk averse agents that face idiosyncratic risks in their business activities:...

This paper characterizes the optimal insurance contract in an environment where an informed agent can misrepresent the state of the world to a principal who cannot credibly commit to an auditing strategy. Because the principal cannot commit, the optimal strategy of the agent is not to tell the...

This paper examines the role of institutions (including civil law origin), financial deepening and degree of regime authority on growth rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using panel data through a fixed effect model. The results reveal that English civil law origin and...

This paper develops a general stochastic framework and an equilibrium asset pricing model that make clear how attitudes towards intertemporal substitution and risk matter for option pricing. In particular, we show under which statistical conditions option pricing formulas are not...

In this paper, we analyze hyper-return periods from 1976 to 1994 for 20 emerging stock markets. We define a hyper-return period as a calendar year during which a cumulative geometric return in excess of 70% is observed. According to this definition, the hyper-return periods represent 23% of the...

This paper assesses the empirical performance of an intertemporal option pricing model with latent variables which generalizes the Hull-White stochastic volatility formula. Using this generalized formula in an ad-hoc fashion to extract two implicit parameters and forecast next day S&P 500 option...

Dans cet article, nous proposons des tests sur la forme de la distribution des erreurs dans un modèle de régression linéaire multivarié (RLM). Les tests que nous développons sont fonction des résidus obtenus par moindres carrés multivariés, lesquels sont standardisés de façon à ce que...

We analyze the economic consequences of disclosure and regulation within a context of significant information asymmetry and lenient regulation. In Canada, firms can enter the stock market at a pre-revenue stage by fulfilling each of the requirements of an initial public offerings or using...

In this paper, we propose several finite-sample specification tests for multivariate linear regressions (MLR) with applications to asset pricing models. We focus on departures from the assumption of i.i.d. errors assumption, at univariate and multivariate levels, with Gaussian and non-Gaussian...

Stochastic volatility models, aka SVOL, are more difficult to estimate than standard time-varying volatility models (ARCH). Advances in the literature now offer well tested estimators for a basic univariate SVOL model. However, the basic model is too restrictive for many economic and finance...