This paper examines the impact of MIB30 Index Futures on the volatility of the Italian Stock Exchange. The results suggest that the onset of futures trading may have led to diminished daily volatility. They also suggest that the nature of the volatility itself has not changed between the...

In 2008, AIG found itself on the brink of failure and required the Federal Reserve to step in with billions of dollars of taxpayer money. The causes of AIG's collapse have been described in numerous articles and official reports since then. Albeit some nuances, all analyzes point to AIG's credit...

Im Rahmen der Aufarbeitung des Wirecard-Skandals wird ebenfalls eine Änderung der Kriterien zur Aufnahme in den deutschen Leitindex DAX diskutiert. Die bislang von der Deutschen Börse vorgelegten Vorschläge zur Reformierung des DAX gehen in die richtige Richtung, sind aber nicht weitreichend...

Finance is a vital ingredient for economic growth, but there can also be too much of it. This study investigates what fifty years of data for OECD countries have to say about the role of the financial sector for economic growth and income inequality and draws policy implications. Over the past...

This paper shows that finance has been a key ingredient of long-term economic growth in OECD and G20 countries over the past half-century, but that there can be too much finance. The evidence indicates that at current levels of household and business credit further expansion slows rather than...

Using 1994-2009 data, we document that All-American (AA) analysts' buy and sell recommendations outperform those of non-AAs by over 7% per annum after risk-adjustments. This performance differential exists both before and after AAs are elected, does not exhibit long-run reversal, and is not...

Much empirical research has been conducted concerning the effect of short-selling on market quality and volatility. However, the evidence is inconclusive and still a matter of debate. Using intraday data in a pure order-driven market we show that allowing for short-selling decreases the adverse...

In this paper I test for and model volatility jumps for the General Index (GD) of the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), expanding the previous literature on the ASE in various ways. Using intraday data I first construct various state-of-the-art realized volatility estimators which I then use in...

Using 1994–2009 data, we find that All-American (AA) analysts' buy and sell portfolio alphas significantly exceed those of non-AAs by up to 7% per annum after risk-adjustments for investors with advance access to analyst recommendations. For investors without such access, top-rank AAs still...