In this paper we study the effect of institutional reform on the decision to hold risky assets at the extensive and the intensive margin. We therefore make use of the natural experiment of German Division and Reunification and, based on savings bank customer data from German savings banks, study...

Investors have different preferences for portfolio skewness and kurtosis, i.e. return asymmetry and tail fatness. We build up a new equilibrium model with three types of investors whose preferences can be characterized by "MV", "MVS" and "MVSK". (M: Mean V: Variance S: Skewness K: Kurtosis) and...

The purpose of this article is to identify the role of population size, population growth and population ageing in models of endogenous economic growth. While in exogenous growth models demographic variables are linked to economic prosperity mainly via the population size, the structure of the...

The purpose of this article is to identify the role of population size, population growth and population ageing in models of endogenous economic growth. While in exogenous growth models demographic variables are linked to economic prosperity mainly via the population size, the structure of the...

Minority shareholdings have been on the regulatory agenda of competition authorities for some time. Recent empirical studies, however, draw attention to a new, thought provoking theory of harm: common ownership by institutional investors holding small, parallel equity positions in several...

This paper undertakes the issue of portfolio insurance from the perspective of a risk-averse agent requiring his financial wealth to grow at a floored rate in excess of an equity benchmark. The suggested solution is a generalization of the CPPI approach within a two-equity asset framework. The...

This paper analyzes the relevance of a set of some performance measures for optimal portfolios including hedge funds. Four criteria are considered: the Sharpe Ratio, the Returns on VaR and on CVaR, and the Omega performance measure. The results are illustrated by an allocation on several...

This paper estimates the effect of competition from low-cost index funds on fees in the money management industry. A difference-in-differences analysis exploiting the staggered entry of index funds finds that while actively managed funds sold directly to retail investors reduce fees by six...

We study if and how intermediary capitalization affects asset demand and prices. We introduce a model with strategic but capital-constrained intermediaries to show that lower capitalization or weaker capital requirements lead intermediaries to demand more of the asset at higher prices because it...