Based on individual price records collected for the computation of the Austrian CPI, average frequencies of price changes and durations of price spells are estimated to characterize price setting in Austria. Depending on the estimation method, prices are unchanged for 10 to 14 months on average....

In this paper a data set with price records collected for the computation of the Austrian CPI is used to estimate the average frequency of price changes and the duration of price spells to provide empirical evidence on the degree and characteristics of price rigidity in Austria. Depending on the...

The last few decades have seen a decline in the household saving rate in Austria and other industrial countries. Using an error correction model, this paper shows that in Austria personal saving decisions are influenced by income growth, real interest rates, inflation, social security...

The growing theoretical and empirical literature suggests that globalization may have reduced inflation, particularly in high-income countries. Austria’s integration in the world economy has made a quantum leap over the past decade. Has this development dampened inflation in Austria? This...

This study addresses the question of whether the price adjustment process in Austria has changed since the changeover to euro notes and coins at the beginning of 2002. For this purpose, we analyze the frequency and size of price adjustments, sectoral and seasonal differences as well as the...

In credit risk modelling, the correlation of unobservable asset returns is a crucial component for the measurement of portfolio risk. In this paper, we estimate asset correlations from monthly time series of Moody's KMV asset values for around 2,000 European firms from 1996 to 2004. We compare...

We study the risk of holding credit default swaps (CDS) in the trading book. In particular, we compare the Value at Risk (VaR) of a CDS position to the VaR for investing in the respective firm's equity. Our sample consists of CDS – stock price pairs for 86 actively traded firms over the period...

This paper applies regression analysis to investigate the fundamental factors of the variation of CDS index tranches. The sample comprises daily data on the tranche premia of the European iTraxx and North American CDX index from the start of the market in summer 2004 to January 2008. I estimate...

We investigate the risk of holding credit default swaps(CDS) in the trading book and compare the Value at Risk (VaR) of a CDS position to the VaR for investing in the respective firm’s equity using a sample of CDS – stock price pairs for 86 actively traded firms over the period from March...

Implied volatility indices should have information about risk parameters, once they are cleansed of the influence of normal volatility dynamics and macro-economic uncertainty. Building on intuition from the dynamic asset pricing literature, we uncover unobserved risk aversion and fundamental...