The standard vector error correction (VEC) model assumes the iid normal distribution of disturbance term in the model. This paper extends this assumption to include GARCH process. We call this model as VEC-GARCH model. However as the number of parameters in a VEC-GARCH model is large, the...

This paper evaluates if and how speculation affects the volatility of commodity futures: it distinguishes between short term and long term measures of speculation and investigates if the impact on volatility is different. Speculation is measured by means of four indexes: scalping, Working’s T,...

Options should play an important role in asset allocation. They allow for kernel spanning and provide access to additional (priced) risk factors such as stochastic volatility and negative jumps. Unfortunately, traditional methods of asset allocation (e.g. mean-variance optimization) are not...

This paper discusses the key characteristics of the U.S. financial crisis 2007-2009 and focuses on the Federal Policy Response to the lack of liquidity in the financial sector known as the “Credit Crunch”. The surprising depth of the crisis required unprecedented policy measures to be used...

This paper examines the e-learning strategies adopted by universities, from the perspective of three common objectives: widening access to educational opportunity; enhancing the quality of learning; and reducing the cost of higher education. The discussion is illustrated by drawing on case...

In this essay, we test the presence of the contagion phenomenon during the US sub-prime crisis. We adopt the test of adjusted correlation coefficients between markets and propose a new procedure which involves testing the non-linearity of the propagation mechanisms shocks, estimated with a model...

Quantitative Easing (QE) has been widely used by major central banks in the recent economic and financial crisis that started in 2007. However, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) already applied QE between 2001 and 2006. This paper tries to examine the differences between BoJ-type QE and QE applied by the...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of international equity returns and correlations using the discrete-time Markov-switching model and the impact of this behaviour on international portfolio choices. We take the perspective of a US-based global investor who considers...