In order to analyse the interest rate transmission mechanism, we study daily Euro-rates term structure for the US, Germany, and the UK between 1983 and 1997. We estimate multivariate VECM-GARCH models, which take into account moste of the usual features of financial data (non-stationarity,...

In this paper, we study the reward-to-risk ratio, using monthly euro-dollar, euro-mark and euro-franc term structures between 1975 and 1997. We test the relationship between excess holding return and volatility in an ARCH-in-Mean framework. We first obtain that the conditional volatility...

Building on work about stock markets in industrialized countries, we analyze volatility of stock returns in South-East Asia using the ARCH methodology. Our goal is to highlight specific features of Asian stock market, concerning the statistical properties of returns as well as the volatility...

In this paper, we evaluate the information content of the yield curve as regards future interest rates and inflation in France and Germany. An original data set of long-term zero-coupon interest rates for French and German government bonds was constructed for the period 1980-97. Empirical...

Swaps are one of the major innovations of the 80s but there are little empirical studies on interest rates swaps (IRS), especially on US and European markets. To understand how swap pricing works, we estimate IRS valuation models for the US, German and French swap markets. On one hand, we derive...

Correlations between international equity markets are often claimed to increase during periods of high volatility, therefore the benefits of international diversification are reduced when they are most needed, i.e. during crises. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between...

In this paper, we estimate two small, forward-looking, macroeconomic models for the US and Germany and we compare the implied optimal monetary policy rules. Both models have a standard structure: an I-S curve, a Phillips curve, a short term interest-rate rule and a long term interest rate...

Estimating a forward-looking monetary policy rule by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) has become a popular approach since the influential paper by Clarida, Gali, and Gertler (1998). However, an abundant econometric literature underlines the unappealing small-samples properties of GMM...

This paper investigates the implications of cross-country heterogeneity within the euro area for the design of optimal monetary policy. We build an optimizing-based multi-country model (MCM) describing the euro area in which differences between structural parameters across countries are allowed....

This note estimates several constrained versions of an optimization-based multi-country model to test the sources of heterogeneity within the euro area. We show that the main source is the asymmetry of shocks affecting the economies and that the heterogeneity of behaviors does not seem to be of...