This paper seeks to draw lessons from the IMF’s experience in handling financial crises around the globe over the past ten years that are relevant to the challenges faced by countries in Latin America, especially in the wake of the recent crisis in Argentina. Experience suggests that...

Currency mismatches in corporate balance sheets have been singled out as an important factor underlying the severity of recent financial crises. We propose several structural models for measuring default risk for firms with currency mismatches in their asset/liability structure. The proposed...

This paper examines the role of accounting, market and macroeconomic information in explaining the cross-sectional variation of credit default swap spreads. The study proposes a panel FAVAR methodological approach to combine the additional predictions from a long list of accounting, market and...

This study uses factor analysis to simplify the complex relationships among stock markets and to reduce the number of markets required for portfolio construction. Our sample consists of the US and 11 Asia-Pacific stock markets. We find that the reduced portfolio obtained from factor analysis has...

This research addresses an important problem in finance, which is the portfolio selection and management problem. Modern portfolio theory and Markowitz efficient frontier start with a set of assets (securities) and generate an optimal weight combination for the optimal risky portfolio that lies...

This paper addresses the problem of portfolio selection under a multifactor asset return model, using Bayesian analysis to deal with uncertainties in parameter estimation and model specification. These sources of error are ignored in the classical mean-variance method. We apply two approaches:...

In today's financial system, complex financial institutions are connected through an opaque network of financial exposures. These connections contribute to financial deepening and greater savings allocation efficiency, but are also unstable channels of contagion. Basel III and Solvency II should...

This technical note focuses on the Austrian banking system that exhibits considerable resilience against shocks determined by stress tests. The main sources of risk lie in the credit risk arising from exposures to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (CESE) and the Commonwealth of...

This paper presents in a systematic (normative) manner the salient features of a SWF‘s governance structure, in relation to its objectives and investment management that can ensure its efficient operation and enhance its financial performance. In this context, it distinguishes among the...