This paper examines heterogeneity in exchange rate expectations. Whereas agents' heterogeneity is key in modern exchange rate models, evidence on determinants of heterogeneity is weak thus far. Our sample, covering expectations from about 300 forecasters over 15 years, shows remarkable time...

The aim of this study is the analysis of so called socially responsible investments (SRI). First, the performance of SRI equity investment funds and equity indices is investigated using Jensen´s alpha as performance measure. The analysis considers market timing strategies of the fund management...

As a group, market forecasters are egregiously overconfident. In conformity to the dynamic model of overconfidence of Gervais and Odean (2001), successful forecasters become more overconfident. What?s more, more experienced forecasters have ?learned to be overconfident,? and hence are more...

Do financial market analysts use structural economic models when forecasting exchange rates? This is the leading question analysed in this paper. In contrast to other studies we use expectations data instead of observable variables. Therefore we analyse the implicit structural models forecasters...

This study focuses on the diversification benefits of the most developed equity markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). To evaluate these benefits of diversification we use so-called spanning tests based on a stochastic discount factor approach and estimated by General Methods of Moments...

This paper examines the determinants of the inclusion of European companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index. In doing so, the paper contributes to the micro-econometric literature analyzing the determinants and economic effects of...

Im Zusammenhang mit den neuen Basel-II-Regelungen, die die Kreditvergabe an Unternehmen verändern, wächst das Interesse besonders kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen an hybriden Finanzierungsinstrumenten. Diese Finanzierungsform wird auch als Mezzanine-Finanzierung bezeichnet. Je nach...

We study the pass-through of exchange rate changes to consumer prices for the euro area by estimating vector error correction models for Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Using the weights of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) we compute a weighted average of the...

This paper attempts to assess the Europe-wide systemic risk in banking. We employ a bivariate GARCH model to estimate conditional correlations between European bank stock indices. These correlations are used as an indication for the interdependencies amongst the banking business in Europe and...

We analyze four economic sentiment indicators for the German economy regarding their ability to forecast economic activity. Using cross correlations and Granger causality tests we find that the ifo business expectations (ifo), the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) and the ZEW Indicator of Economic...