Interest rates behaved highly atypically from 2004 to 2006. While the US central bank raised its policy rate at every meeting, long-term interest rates remained so remarkably stable that former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan described their behaviour as a "conundrum". Comparing long-term rates to...

This paper examines how credit derivatives have changed the construction of an efficient portfolio. Credit derivatives provide a way of gaining exposure to credit risk alone, to the exclusion of interest rate risk. They also permit a relatively easy use of leverage. We examine two types of...

This paper takes full advantage of daily quoted prices of microfinance stocks from their issuance, and draws a global picture of worldwide microfinance equity from the viewpoint of a profit-oriented investor. We construct microfinance country equity indices and an international global...

This paper is the first to draw a global picture of worldwide microfinance equity by taking full advantage of daily quoted prices. We revisit previous findings showing that investors should consider microfinance as a self-standing sector. Our results are threefold. First, microfinance has become...