This thesis presents and compares the performance of two recently developed classification methods namely the Spatial Stagewise Aggregation procedure and Support Vector Machines. Both techniques are convenient for the application to corporate bankruptcy analysis, in terms of calculation of...

Apart from an extensive survey of the literature on the economics of corporate bankruptcy law, this thesis contains three own contributions: First, a model is presented where a firm's manager acquires some private information about whether a firm should be liquidated or stay in business....

The potential for economic agents to minimize risk through diversification is central to the study of finance. This dissertation analyzes the ability to diversify risks in an international context by studying risk sharing opportunities on two dimensions, consumption growth and portfolio wealth....

Traditional time series or cross-sectional regression procedures yield mixed evidence on maintained hypotheses about the determinants of international equity returns. This paper re-examines how three theory-suggested factors affect equity returns and how the test results may differ between...

At the turn of the century, the role of culture in society is changing. One facet of this change is the relation between culture and finance. Globalisation has led to an increasing competition between financial centres worldwide and culture has become one determinant of competitiveness. But,...

In July 1944, representatives of the Allied nations gathered in BrettonWoods, New Hampshire and signed an agreement to rebuild the internationalmonetary system. From 1946 until August 15, 1971, major currencies were fixed tothe US dollar, and the dollar was, at the same time, convertible to gold...

This Article, a sequel to earlier articles by the author on financial regulation and global finance, retrieves and updates J. M. Keynes’s original International Clearing Union plan for what ultimately became the International Monetary Fund (“IMF,” “Fund”).  Its motives are not...

The new Basel Capital Adequacy Accord (Basel III) is an agreement among countries' central banks and bank supervisory authorities on the amount of capital banks must hold as a cushion against losses and insolvency. Basel III is of concern to Congress mainly because it could put U.S. financial...