This article applies a multivariate model to uncover the dynamic mean and volatility interdependence across the markets of Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arabic Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Oman from June 2005 to January 2012. Results show that the...

Repeated turmoil in equity indices in developed and emerging markets puts pressures on market participants to deal with the intense volatility of returns. After examining the normality of daily returns in Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) from June 1999 to May 2011 with Jarque-Berra test (1980), we...

This study seeks to trace dimensions through which corporate governance characteristics influence the financial performance of family owned businesses. Between the periods of 2009-2011, we examined 160 Lebanese family owned firms that were equally divided between a control and an experimental...

Unlike previous research which had focused solely on principal-agent conflicts in the Middle East, this paper enriches corporate governance literature of privately-held family firms in an emerging economy with inadequate legislative and enforcement framework, by examining conflicts between...

This paper investigates Seasoned Equity Offering (SEO) cost differences between Europe and the US in the period 1990 to 2011. We find that the direct costs for the US companies are around 40% higher than those for the European companies. Results of this paper are consistent with strategic...

Bitcoin is an open source peer-to-peer electronic money and payment system. It is traded at several exchanges and high-frequency trade data are publicly available. We study the contributions of Bitcoin exchanges to price discovery. Our results show that Mt.Gox and BTC-e are the market leaders...

We study multiunit uniform price auctions where the seller is allowed to decrease the quantity supplied in order to maximize his profit. We show that he never chooses to do so in equilibrium. However, the existence of this option eliminates such equilibria where objects for sale are sold for too...

Cooper and Nyborg (2008) derive a tax-adjusted discount rate formula under a constant proportion leverage policy, investor taxes and risky debt. However, their analysis assumes zero recovery in default. We extend their framework to allow for positive recovery rates. We also allow for differences...

Volatility is not directly observable and must be estimated. Estimator based on daily close data is imprecise. Range-based volatility estimators provide significantly more precision, but still remain noisy volatility estimates, something that is sometimes forgotten when these estimators are used...

We examine the information content of the CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index (OVX) when forecasting realized volatility in the WTI futures market. Additionally, we study whether other market variables, such as volume, open interest, daily returns, bid-ask spread and the slope of the futures curve,...