We study properties of structured financial products optimizing a utility functional of a customer. The conventional method may have the disadvantage that the a priori restriction to a certain number of assets could make it impossible to find the optimal portfolio. So instead of optimizing the...

We propose an equity finance model with agency problems and investigate the relationship between dividend taxation and inefficient investments. Contrary to both the old and the new view of dividend taxation, a fall in the dividend tax rate is found to improve corporate governance by increasing...

This paper sheds light on the influence of exchange rate volatility on foreign direct investment (FDI), both at the theoretical and the empirical level. The novelty of the empirical analysis, which is based on a panel of 27 OECD countries over the period 1982-2002, is to provide evidence of a...

We revisit the debt overhang question. We first use non-parametric techniques to isolate a panel of countries on the downward sloping section of a debt Laffer curve. In particular, overhang countries are ones where a threshold level of debt is reached in sample, beyond which (initial) debt ends...

The Swiss Banking Institute, a department of the University of Zurichhas published its biennial Private Banking Survey. The report, co-authored by Dr Teodoro Cocca and Dr Hans Geiger, is based onanalysis of 253 institutions focusing on private banking from 11countries and looks at data from 1990...

Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) has recently been discussed in the financial literature as an effective way to account for model uncertainty. In this paper we compare BMA to a new model uncertainty framework introduced by Yang (2004), called Aggregate Forecasting Through Exponential Reweighting,...

Theories of investment suggest that the option value of waiting to invest is significant in many branches of economics, where investment is irreversible. The existing literature has generally failed to account for the general equilibrium feedback effects of lumpy investments on optimal...

This paper extends the standard human capital model with real options. Real options influenceinvestment behavior when risky investments in human capital are irreversible and individualscan affect the timing of the investment. Option values make individuals more reluctant toinvest in human...

In Anlehnung an das originäre US-amerikanische Vorbild ist seit Ende der 1990er Jahreinternational ein deutlicher Zuwachs an Real Estate Investment Trust- (REIT-) Regimenzu verzeichnen. 1 So ist es ab 2003 auch zu einer deutlichen Zunahme von REITRegimeninnerhalb der Europäischen Union (EU)...

Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier ist eine Ergänzung zum Bericht der wissenschaftlichenBegleiter im Rahmen der Kommission „Klimaschutzpolitik der Bundesregierung und derEuropäischen Union – Auswirkungen auf die Immobilien- und Wohnungswirtschaft“, eingesetztunter dem Dach des Deutschen...