Recent data show substantial increases in the size of gross external asset and liability positions. The implications of these developments for optimal conduct of monetary policy are analyzed in a standard open economy model which is augmented to allow for endogenous portfolio choice. The model...

Two shrinkage estimators for the global minimum variance portfolio that dominate the traditional estimator with respect to the out-of-sample variance of the portfolio return are derived. The presented results hold for any number of observations n = d 2 and number of assets d = 4. The...

Currently, many monetary and fiscal policy measures are aimed at preventing the financial market meltdown that started in the US subprime sector and has spread worldwide as a great recession. Although some slow recovery appears to be on the horizon, it is worthwhile exploring the fragility and...

Die empirische Überprüfung von steuerlich bedingten Marktsegmentationen (Steuer-Klientel- Effekten) ergab an den DM-Anleihemärkten asymmetrische Ergebnisse für Anleihen in Abhängigkeit von deren Kurshöhe. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden diese Resultate durch Friktionen bei der Bildung von...

In the last months, the world's economies were confronted with the largest economic recession since the Great Depression. The occurrence of a worldwide financial market meltdown as a consequence originally stemming from of the crisis in the US subprime housing sector was only prevented by...

Zuweilen wird die Meinung vertreten, dass es Investoren um jeden Preis vermeiden sollten, Steuern zu zahlen. Im Rahmen eines einfachen Portfoliomodells mit Steuern wird untersucht, ob Steuervermeidung tatsächlich auf μ-σ2-effiziente Lösungen führt. Für vier verschiedene Konzepte der...

Starting from the Merton framework for firm defaults, we provide the analytics and robustness of the relationship between default correlations. We show that loans with higher default probabilities will not only have higher variances but also higher correlations between loans. As a consequence,...

Financial provision for old age is a serious issue. This paper therefore begins by outlining the pension situation in Germany, arriving at the conclusion that, as matters stand at present, none of the three "pillars" of pension provision - state and occupational pensions and private pension...