In this paper we show that inflation differentials among the countries in the European Monetary Union (EMU) are an economically significant risk to German firms, which make up the largest economy in the EMU. This risk can be interpreted as real "exchange rate exposure" resulting from trade...

In contrast to the U.S., many executive managers of continental European firms have a PhD. In this paper we analyze if a research-oriented background in the form of a PhD is linked to the corporate decision-making of CFOs in the use of foreign exchange (FX) derivatives in Germany. After...

In this paper I investigate whether the use of foreign exchange (FX) derivatives adds value to German firms, which together make up one of the major export economies in the world. I analyze a unique, hand-collected dataset that includes information on the use of FX derivatives by 391 firms...

This paper analyzes optimal hedge ratios for foreign exchange (FX) rate risk of companies. Our contribution to the literature is twofold: (i) We present a theoretical two-period regret model that allows us to analyze the determinants of the optimal hedge ratio given the outcome of past hedging...

The currency carry trade (CCT) strategy - borrowing in low-interest-rate currencies and investing in high-interest-rate currencies - has been found to generate excess returns that cannot be explained by common risk factors. We argue that companies implicitly execute carry trades, when they have...

This paper considers the realized returns of individual investors in warrants and leverage certificates. First, we derive a general formula that analytically decomposes the return into several economically meaningful components that are related to investor's trading behavior and the issuers'...

This paper is the first to analyze the joint determinants of premiums and spreads in structured financial products, while also focusing on issuers' hedging costs. We evaluate more than 396,000 single stock discount certificates on an intraday basis in the German secondary market. We find that...

This paper explores the extent to which interest risk exposure is priced in bank margins. Our contribution to the literature is twofold: First, we present an extended model of Ho and Saunders (1981) that explicitly captures interest rate risk and returns from maturity transformation. Banks price...

We investigate financial intermediaries’ interest rate risk management as the simultaneous decision of on-balance-sheet exposure and interest rate swap use. Our findings show that both decisions are substitute risk management strategies. A higher likelihood of bank distress makes banks reduce...

This paper studies the empirical early exercise behavior of Individual Investors in non-tradable putable bonds. Analyzing circa 31 million holding and exercise decisions of more than 220,000 Individual Investors over 13 years, our major findings are: (i) Individual Investors use their early...