We study a communication game of common interest in which the sender observes one of infinite types and sends one of finite messages which is interpreted by the receiver. In equilibrium there is no full separation but types are clustered into contiguous cells. We give a full characterization of...

This paper studies a contest in which players with unobservable types may form an alliance in a pre-stage of the game to join their forces and compete for a prize. We characterize the pure strategy equilibria of this game of incomplete information. We show that if the formation of an alliance is...

We prove that under very weak conditions optimal financial products have to be co-monotone with the inverted state price density. Optimality is meant in the sense of the maximization of an arbitrary preference model, e.g. Expected Utility Theory or Prospect Theory. The proof is based on methods...

We extend the original form of Prospect Theory by Kahneman and Tversky from finite lotteries to arbitrary probability distributions, thus paving the way for applications in economics and finance. Moreover, we suggest a method how to incorporate a crucial step of the quot;editing phasequot; into...

Structured investment products, also known as equity- or index-linked notes, have become immensely popular among retail investors in the last ten years. In this paper, however, we show that for classical rational investors the utility gains from structured products are typically much smaller...

We study the influence of systematic probability misestimation on complex financial investment decisions on the context of structured financial products. Structured products have in recent years become more and more complex. We study the question whether this complexity might be a sophisticated...

Based on the APARCH model and two outlier detection methods, we compute reliable time series of volatility asymmetry for 49 countries with relatively few observations. Results show a steady increase in the asymmetry over the years for most countries. We find that economic development and market...