This paper studies the properties of the continuous double auction trading mechanishm using an artificial market populated by heterogeneous computational agents. In particular, we investigate how changes in the population of traders and in market microstructure characteristics affect price...

In this paper, we shed light on the debate about the financial performance of socially responsible investment (SRI) mutual funds by separately analyzing the contributions of before-fee performance and fees to SRI funds' performance and by investigating the role played by fund management...

This paper addresses the problem of conducting a nonparametric test of the dimension of the state variable vector in a continuous-time term structure model. The paper shows that a bivariate diffusion function of the short rate process is a sufficient condition for the term structure to be driven...

This paper compares assets-based portfolio management fees to profits-based fees. Whilst both forms of compensation can provide appropriate risk incentives, fund managers´ limited liability induces more excess risk-taking under a profits-based fee contract. On the other hand, an assets-based...

Gruber (1996) drew attention to the puzzle that investors buy actively-managed funds even though, on average, they underperform index funds. We uncover another puzzling fact about the market for actively-managed equity mutual funds: funds with worse before-fee performance charge higher fees. We...

In this paper, we develop a model of the market for equity mutual funds that captures three key characteristics of this market. First, there is competition among funds. Second, fund managers' ability is not observed by investors before making their investment decisions. And third, some investors...

Oil-linked derivatives are becoming very important in Modern Investment Theory. Accordingly, the analysis of Pricing Techniques and Portfolio Choice Problems involving these securities is a major topic for both managers and researchers. We focus on both the No-Arbitrage Approach and Stochastic...

We propose a new procedure to estimate and test conditional beta pricing models which allows for flexibility in the dynamics of assets' covariances with risk factors and market prices of risk (MPR). The method can be seen as a nonparametric version of the two-pass approach commonly employed in...

In an economy with multiple sources of risk, the short-term interest rate does not capture all the information that determines the conditional distribution of bond yields. This is also true for path-dependent term structure models. In either case, the current short rate level is not a sufficient...