The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a cap and trade system to curb CO2 emissions. It has caused both direct costs (CO2 allowances) and indirect costs (higher electricity prices) to energy-intensive industries. Moreover, as there is no global CO2 agreement, the ETS could distort the...

In the present paper an empirical analysis will point out that austerity measures due to high levels of government debt as a percentage of GDP have (among others) a positive impact on social unrest measured by the number of strikes. The empirical findings of the present paper support the view of...

In the present paper an empirical analysis will point out that government debt as a percentage of GDP has a negative impact (among others) on banking profitability. This impact will be even worse when this debt as a percentage of GDP exceeds a certain critical level. The sample covers during the...

We construct portfolios with an alternative selection criterion, the Omega function, which can be expressed as the ratio of two partial moments of a portfolio's return distribution. The main purpose of the paper is to investigate the empirical performance of the selected portfolios, especially...

We study currency risk management in the context of scenario analysis. We develop scenario-based optimization models that jointly determine the portfolio composition and the hedging strategy within each currency. Thus the model prescribes optimal selective hedging policies. We then study...

Employing main and sector-specific CDS indices from the North American and European CDS market and performing mean-variance out-of-sample analyses for conservative and aggressive investors over the period from 2006 to 2014, this paper analyzes portfolio benefits of adding corporate CDS indices...

We prove an anticipative sufficient stochastic minimum principle in a jump process setup with initially enlarged filtrations. We apply the result to several portfolio selection problems like mean and minimal variance hedging under enlarged filtrations. We also investigate utility maximizing...

This paper addresses the following question: How can a financial institution, which has issued a European option, optimally hedge the payoff of this option by investing into the underlying stock and into the option itself? Here, optimality is measured in terms of minimal variance and the...

The recently published Household Finance and Consumption Survey has revealed large differences in wealth inequality between the countries of the Euro area. We find a strong negative correlation between wealth inequality and homeownership rates across countries. We use two decomposition methods...

The Eurozone fiscal crisis has created pressure for institutional harmonization, but skeptics argue that cultural predispositions can prevent convergence in behavior. Our paper derives a robust cultural classification of European countries and utilizes unique data on natives and immigrants to...