Assumptions about the dynamic and distributional behavior of risk factors are crucial for the construction of optimal portfolios and for risk assessment. Although asset returns are generally characterized by conditionally varying volatilities and fat tails, the normal distribution with constant...

We show that the use of correlations for modeling dependencies may lead to counterintuitive behavior of risk measures, such as Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Short- fall (ES), when the risk of very rare events is assessed via Monte-Carlo techniques. The phenomenon is demonstrated for mixture...

Empirical evidence suggests that asset returns correlate more strongly in bear markets than conventional correlation estimates imply. We propose a method for determining complete tail-correlation matrices based on Value-at-Risk (VaR) estimates. We demonstrate how to obtain more effi cient...

We investigate consequences of overleveraging and financial-sector stress on real economic activities. When banks become vulnerable, due to high leveraging, and there is a strong feedback between the real and the financial sector, a regime of high financial stress may arise. The vulnerability of...

Regelmäßige Veröffentlichungen makroökonomischer Kennzahlen, die von den Erwartungen der Marktteilnehmer abweichen, wirken sich in rund zwei Drittel der Fälle sofort auf den deutschen Aktienmarkt aus. Vor allem Daten zu Investitionen, Zahlen über die realwirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten oder...

Since their introduction, quanto options have steadily gained popularity. Matching Black-Scholes-type pricing models and, more recently, a fat-tailed, normal tempered stable variant have been established. The objective here is to empirically assess the adequacy of quanto-option pricing models....

In this paper we construct a model of stock market, interest rate and output interaction which is a generalization of the well known 1981 model of Blanchard. We allow for imperfect substitutability between stocks and bonds in the asset market and for lagged portfolio adjustment. The reaction of...

This paper investigates the problem of testing for the symmetry of linear time series driven by asymmetric innovations. In particular, we examine the performance of alternative symmetry tests when innovations are fat tailed. Among the tests considered, only the test based on the tail estimator...

In recent years, with the availability of high-frequency financial market data modeling realized volatility has become a new and innovative research direction. The construction of “observable” or realized volatility series from intra-day transaction data and the use of standard time-series...