While the relationship between volatility and risk is central to much of thefinancial literature it has not been incorporated systematically into assessment ofsovereign debt sustainability. This paper attempts to fill this gap by studying how the probability distribution of sovereign debt to GDP...

We consider asymmetric kernel density estimators and smoothed histogramswhen the unknown probability density function f is defined on [0, +∞). Uniform weak consistency on each compact set in [0, +∞) is proved for these estimators when "f" is continuous on its support. Weak convergence in L...

We study product innovation and imitation in the market of corporate underwriting with a dynamic model where client switching costs and the bankers’ expertise in deal structuring characterize the life cycle of a security. While the clientele loyalty allows positive rent extraction, the superior...

This paper studies the impact of cash constraints on equilibrium research intensities in a patent race between a current owner of the “state of the art” technology (the incumbent) and entrants. We develop a simple model, where players need to raise funds from imperfectly informed creditors to...

During the last decade, a surprisingly high percentage of U.S. companies has fulfilled or beatenanalysts´ earnings per share forecasts. One of the most frequently cited reasons for this growingtendency is a change in the nature of U.S. executive compensation structure. As stock options...

In June 2003 Swiss banks held over CHF 500 billion in mortgages. This important segment accounts for about 63% of all loan portfolios of Swiss banks. Since default insurance is not common in Switzerland, the corresponding risks are a severe threat for the health of the financial system. We...

We suggest a simple asset market model in which we analyze competitive and strategic behavior simultaneously. If two-fund separation is found to hold across periods for competitive behavior, it also holds for strategic behavior. In this case the relative prices of the assets do not depend on...

The book-building procedure for selling initial public offerings to investors hascaptured significant market share from auction alternatives in recent years, despitesignificantly lower costs in both direct fees and initial underpricing when using theauction mechanism. This paper shows that in...

In this article the problem of the American option valuation in a L´vy process setting is analyzed. The perpetual case is first considered. Without possible discontinuities (i.e. with negative jumps inthe call case), known results concerning the currency option value as well as the exercise...

While the debate on how economic agents form expectations and how these expectationsshould be modelled has been key to modern macroeconomics, money illusion has been ananathema to macroeconomists until recently. The rational expectations revolution in the1970's thoroughly banned the study of...