In economics, rank-size regressions provide popular estimators of tail exponents of heavy-tailed distributions. We discuss the properties of this approach when the tail of the distribution is regularly varying rather than strictly Pareto. The estimator then over-estimates the true value in the...

In the paper we test for the different reactions of stock markets to the current financial crisis. We focus on Central European stock markets, namely the Czech, Polish and Hungarian ones, and compare them to the German and U.S. benchmark stock markets. Using wavelet analysis, we decompose a time...

Using a recently introduced method to quantify the time varying lead-lag dependencies between pairs of economic time series (the thermal optimal path method), we test two fundamental tenets of the theory of fixed income: (i) the stock market variations and the yield changes should be...

We review estimation methods of the tail dependence coefficient (TDC), simulating their finite-sample performance. With our chosen semi-parametric and non-parametric estimators, we estimate TDCs of major U.S. stocks. We have three aims. The first is to establish the “stylized facts” about...

The paper constructs measures of intra-day realized volatility for 17 European and USA stock indices. We utilize a model-free de-noising method by assembling the realized volatility in sampling frequency selected according to the volatility signature plot which minimizes the micro-structure...

The question of whether empirical models are able to forecast the equity premium more accurately than the simple historical mean is intensively debated in the financial literature. The low prediction power is disappointing, even when using nonparametric models that make use of typical predictor...

We develop a conditional factor model for the term structure of treasury bonds, which unifies non parametric curve estimation with cross-sectional asset pricing. Our factors correspond to the optimal non-parametric basis functions spanning the discount curve. They are investable portfolios...

This essay explores various components of a measure of pretax U.S. family income after adjusting for the size of the family in the U.S. in 1975 and 2000. Using data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, an important stylized fact is revealed: The rising inequality of property incomes,...

Financial contagion and systemic risk measures are commonly derived from conditional quantiles by using imposed model assumptions such as a linear parametrization. In this paper, we provide model free measures for contagion and systemic risk which are independent of the specifcation of...