The aim of this work is to compare the German, Italian, Swedish and English law as to see the principal policies and regulatory cornerstones that will lead us to understand and comprehend the way in which Hedge Funds and their relationship with retail investors is developing. To attain our goal...

We study the specific corporate governance problems of central banks in their complex role of inflation guardians, bankers' banks, financial industry regulators/supervisors and, in some cases, competition authorities and deposit insurance agencies. We review the current institutional...

The problem in default probability estimation for low-default portfolios is that there is little relevant historical data information. No amount of data processing can fix this problem. More information is required. Incorporating expert opinion formally is an attractive option

In a pure-exchange, continuous-time economy, agents, who have different subjective discount rates and heterogenous beliefs on the fundamentals, trade with each other motivated not only by the benefit of risk sharing but also by speculation. This aggressiveness in trading can increase stock price...

This paper presents new evidence on the role of macroeconomic and institutional factors in equity market development and on the sources of equity market growth. Using panel data on 33 countries, I find that development of financial intermediaries and trade openness are positively associated with...

We use Monthly Interest Rate Survey (MIRS) data for April 1997 through May 2003 to estimate the effect of conforming status on the effective interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. We show that plausible econometric refinements materially affect the jumbo-conforming spread as measured in...

We examine the properties of firms' forecasting records and whether the accuracy of their prior earnings forecasts affects investor response to their subsequent forecasts. Within the context of a Bayesian model of investor learning, we find that the stock price response to management forecast...

Employing a new method of industry tests we examine investment bank governance. Most of the findings reject the view that banks are governed suboptimally over a sample period from 1990 through 2003. CEO pay is large and significantly sensitive to stock price performance, and stock price...

Many college and university 403(b) plans restrict investment choices to the funds offered by TIAA-CREF, the current manager of over half of all 403(b) contributions. In the face of 2006 Internal Revenue Code changes some sponsors are dropping alternatives to TIAA-CREF. Using historical data, we...

We examine the role of sell-side financial analysts in generating commission revenues. Using a data set from 1997-2002 for America, Europe and Japan, we find that both the quality and quantity of equity research contribute to sell-side firm revenues. The perceived quality of investment bank...