Chapter 1 is joint work with Günter Franke, University of Konstanz, and Markus Herrmann, HSBC London, and addresses the question how collateralized debt obligation (CDO-) transactions are designed. An important issue is the information asymmetry about the quality of securitized debt between...

This paper investigates the role of currency denomination in the the intertemporal risk-return relation among G7 countries. Similar to the findings of previous studies, our estimation also shows that the financial markets of the G7 countries are integrated. We obtain significant pricing...

We study the impact of time-varying macroeconomic conditions on optimal dynamic capital structure and the aggregate dynamics of firms in a cross-section. Our structural-equilibrium framework embeds a contingent-claim corporate financing model within a standard consumption-based asset- pricing...

European farmers face increasing income uncertainty and the debate is growing on the role of insurance schemes and of public support in this field. This debate is further stimulated by the perspective of introducing instruments to cope with risk also in the Common Agricultural Policy. Therefore,...

This paper develops theoretical and empirical models to understand how farmers formulate their participation strategies when deciding to enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) under uncertainty. A theoretical model is employed to obtain the impacts of various factors on the optimal...

The objective of this study is to investigate how professional traders in futures and optionsmarkets behave under risk and uncertainty. Our preliminary findings suggest that most tradersexhibit concave utility functions for gains and convex utility functions for losses, while theirweighting...

This paper examines the optimal location of a competitive firm in response to environmental costs imposed by the abatement investment and taxes when the cost of the environmental regulation varies spatially under uncertainty. It contributes to the literature by incorporating the spatial setting...

The functional specification of mean-standard deviation approach is examined under location and scale parameter condition. Firstly, the full set of restrictions imposed on the mean-standard deviation function under the location and scale parameter condition are made clear. Secondly, the...

This paper develops a framework to link the expected utility analysis to real options models in order to capture the joint effects of risk aversion and irreversibility associated with real investments. It aims at modifying the theory of investment under uncertainty by incorporating decision...