In this study, we examine whether changes in the investment opportunityset stemming from interest rate and credit risks are priced in the US, theUK and the Swiss equity premia by estimating both two-factor and three-factor versions of Merton’s ICAPM. The systematic pricing of credit riskis...

In empirical modeling, there have been two strands for pricing in the options literature, namely the parametric and nonparametric models. Often, the support for the nonparametric methods is based on a benchmark such as theBlack-Scholes model with constant volatility. In this paper, we examine...

We are interested in the macroeconomic implications of the separation of ownership and control. An alternative decentralized interpretation of the stochastic growth model is proposed, one where shareholders hire a self-interested manager who is in charge of the firm’s hiring and investment...

We build a two-factor structural model of default where the stock market index is one of the stochastic factors. In the model, we allow the firm to adjust its leverage in response to changes in the firm value and changes in the business climate, for which the return of the stock market index...

Have the euro and accompanying measures of financial integration had a discernable impact on the degree of diversification of European investors? This is an empirical question that this paper tries to answer by exploring four alternative avenues. First we focus on the final outcome: If European...

This paper reassesses, at the light of economic and financial theory, the well-documented recent evolution of the euro area public debt and equity markets. Doing so leads to associating the EMU and the single market with the changes in fundamentals and financial integration with convergence in...

In this study we analyze the performance persistence of hedge funds over different time horizons. Using a non-parametric test, we first observe that the relative value and the specialist credit strategies contain the highest proportion of outperforming mangers. Furthermore, there is no evidence...

n this study, we examine the level of stock market integration and the impact of sovereign risk on the pricing of European equity markets since the introduction of the euro. We use a multivariate GARCH(1,1)-M return generating model allowing for partial market integration in which sovereign risk...

This paper introduces state dependent utility into the standard Mehra and Prescott (1985) economy by allowing the representative agents coefficient of relative risk aversion to vary with the underlying economys growth rate. Existence of equilibrium is proved and its asymptotic properties...

We use an expected utility framework to integrate the hedge funds survival uncertainty into an asset allocation optimizartion model. The addition of investment constraints complicates the resolution of the optimal allocation problem. It is solved using a genetic algorithm that mimics the...