Traditional economic wisdom claims that - while global economic integration is beneficial for economic performance - a country's trade specialization pattern has no impact on its economic performance. In this paper, we seek to cast doubt on this aspect of mainstream economics using a very...

An overview of modern and historical interest rate model theory is given with thespecific aim of derivative pricing. A variety of stochastic interest rate models arediscussed within a South African market context. The various models arecompared with respect to characteristics such as mean...

The use of options on various stock markets over the world has introduced a unique opportunity for investors to hedge, speculate, create synthetic financial instruments and reduce funding and other costs in their trading strategies.The power of options lies in their versatility. They enable an...

This study set out to draw a pricing comparison between two similar contracts in the South African derivatives market. These contracts, a normal option and a warrant on the same underlying stock are considered. The research shows that although the two derivatives are the same in all respects,...

Consider an exchange economy with multiple competitive equilibria. Agents know the set of equilibria, but not which will be selected. To insure against unfavorable equilibrium outcomes, they trade on markets for commodities contingent on the equilibrium price vector. Such price-contingent...

When a stock is added into the S&P 500 Index, it is automatically "cross-listed" in the index derivative markets (i.e., S&P 500 Index futures and Index options). I examined the effects of such cross-listing on the trading volume and return volatility of the underlying component stocks....

This study attempts to resolve two important issues. First, it investigates the diversification benefit of crude oil for equities. Second, it examines whether or not crude oil derivatives transactions by oil and gas producers can change shareholders' wealth. With these two major goals in mind, I...

A Synthetic Repurchase is an open market share repurchase program enhanced with sales of put derivatives on the firm’s own stock. Microsoft, in 1999, using a synthetic repurchase program sold put derivatives on its own stock and received $766 million in premiums and, at the same time, signaled...

This dissertation is composed of three essays considering the role of private information in economic environments. The first essay considers efficient investments into technologies such as auditing and enforcement systems that are designed to mitigate information and enforcement frictions that...

Drawing on the theoretical and empirical evidence that private information risk is priced in the expected returns of equities, we hypothesize that information risk premium is an important component of the risk premium that leads to the violation of uncovered interest rate parity (UIRP). Using an...