This paper studies the joint impact of smoothing and fat tails on the risk-return properties of hedge fund strategies. First, we adjust risk and performance measures for illiquidity and the non-Gaussian distribution of hedge funds returns. We use two risk metrics: the Modified Value-at-Risk and...

Portfolio managers claim to be able to generate abnormal returns through either superior asset selection or market timing. The Treynor and Mazuy (TM) model is the mostly used return-based approach to isolate market timing skills, but all existing corrections of the regression intercept can be...

This paper proposes a methodology to analyze the implications of the Advanced Measurement Approach (AMA) for the assessment of operational risk put forward by the Basel II Accord. The methodology relies on an integrated procedure for the construction of the distribution of aggregate losses,...

This article studies sovereign credit spreads using a contingent claims model and a balance sheet representation of the sovereign economy. Analytical formulae for domestic and external debt values as well as for the financial guarantee are derived in a framework where recovery rate is...

In this paper, we examine the opportunity to create a Central Agency of European Debt (CAED) to improve the coordination between the issuances of sovereign debt in the EMU, by allowing the Agency to issue euro - bonds and determine the optimal proportion of foreign currency denominated debt and...

Currency total return swaps (CTRS) are hybrid derivatives instruments that allow to simultaneously hedge against credit and currency risks. We develop a structural credit risk model to evaluate CTRS premia. Empirical test on a sample of 23,005 price observations from 59 underlying issuers yields...