We assess whether two classes of bubbles occur in the spot price of gold, rational speculative and periodically bursting bubbles, using gold's' lease rates for the first time in the literature as a measures of its fundamental value. This question is of particular significance as these are the...

The aviation industry is characterized by low profit margins and a constant struggle with skyrocketing fuel costs. Financial and operational hedging strategies serve aviation managers as a tool to counteract high and volatile fuel prices. While most research on fuel hedging has concentrated on...

We find evidence for price clustering in both oil and coal price data. We further find that there is significant evidence that these clusterings represent psychological barriers, and that these affect both the level and the volatility of prices around these barriers.

This paper examines bilateral and multilateral cointegration properties of the German stock market and those of the three major Central European countries which recently attained membership in the European Union. Cointegration tests cover the time period of July 6, 1995 to February 10, 2005....

This study examines the decision by firm owners to apply, or not, for intermediated debt. Based on a sample of SMEs in 9 European countries over the period 2009-2012, we examine firm characteristics, institutional and cultural factors. We focus our analyses on two distinct groups of firms, those...

Employing 90,000 firm-level observations from 13 countries over a seven year period, and controlling for an extensive set of firm-level characteristics, industry effects and country-level institutional variables, we provide a conceptual framework and empirical analysis of how culture influences...

We investigate the information shares of the two main centers of gold trading, over a 25 year period, using non overlapping 4 month windows. We find that neither London nor New York are dominant in terms of price information share, that the dominant market switches from time to time and that...

We examine by means of a survey and subsequent statistical analysis the extent of financial risk tolerance in Irish adults. We administer the (J. Grable & Lytton, 1999) 13 item risk tolerance instrument, and find confirmed a number of stylized facts found elsewhere on age, gender and education...

TWe undertake a first benchmark study of economic literacy in Ireland using a panel of 700+ adults to assess the economic knowledge of respondents. Sources of economic information are analysed and ranked in order of usefulness. Accuracy of response in each section is analysed across each...