We consider the choices available to a defined contribution (DC) pension plan member at the time of retirement for conversion of his pension fund into a stream of retirement income...

Annual minimum rate of return guarantees are analyzed together with rules: for the distribution of excess return, i.e., annual return above the guarantee. The set of, in a specific sense, fair contracts is charactcrizcd with and without a bonus account consisting of accumulated...

Die Geburten starken Nachkriegsgenerationen profitieren vom jahrzehntelangen wirtschaftlichem Abschwung und haben einen beträchtlichen Wohlstand erarbeitet und erspart. Im Vergleich zu jüngeren und älteren Generationen ist ein subsantieller Teil ihres Vermögens in Immobilien gebunden. In den...

The last year has seen a transition inCASE’s activities, with the completionof our long-term programme for theEconomic and Social Research Council(ESRC) in January, results from whichwere brought together in a conferenceto celebrate the Centre’s tenthanniversary in January, with...

We analyze how investment into the pipeline system supplying Russian natural gas to WesternEurope is distorted for strategic reasons. We use a two stage multilateral bargaining game amongheterogenous players, some lacking the ability to make long-term commitments. At the first stagethe players...

Shareholder agreements govern the relations among shareholders in privately-held firms, such as joint ventures or venture capital-backed firms. We provide an explanation for the use of put and call options, tag-along rights, drag-along rights, demand rights, piggy-back rights, and catch-up...

With its standards FAS 141 and 142 the Financial Accounting Standard Board has revo-lutionized the accounting for business combinations. One of the major changes is theabolishment of goodwill-amortization, which has been replaced by an annual impairmenttest at the level of a reporting unit....

This paper introduces a framework for analyzing the role of financial factors as a source of instability in small open economies. Our basic model is a dynamic open economy model with a tradeable good produced with capital and a country-specific factor. We also assume that firms face credit...

We study the dispersion of month-end valuations placed on identical corporatebonds by different mutual funds. Such dispersion is related to bond-specificcharacteristics associated with liquidity and market volatility. TRACE may havecontributed to the general decline in dispersion over our sample...

We examine the role of hedge funds as primary lenders to corporate firms. We investigate boththe reasons and the implications of hedge funds’ activities in the primary loan market. Weexamine the characteristics of firms that borrow from hedge funds and find that borrowers areprimarily firms...