Theory of financial intermediation gives contradicting answers to the question whether banks should diversify or focus their loan portfolios. Our aim is to find out which of the two strategies is predominant in the German banking market. To this end we measure diversification for all German...

Banks face a tradeoff between diversifying and focusing their loan portfolio. In this paper we carry out an empirical study for the German market to shed light on the question whether or not the benefits of risk sharing outweigh those of specialization. We use data from the Bundesbank's...

Schiffsinvestitionen haben in Deutschland eine lange Tradition und stellen für private Anleger — meist über geschlossene Fonds — und zunehmend auch für institutionelle Anleger eine bedeutende Form der Kapitalanlage dar. Trotz ihrer schon lange anhaltenden Beliebtheit und des hohen...

A new empirical reduced-form model for credit rating transitions is introduced. It is a parametric intensity-based duration model with multiple states and driven by exogenous covariates and latent dynamic factors. The model has a generalized semi-Markov structure designed to accommodate many of...

Using a unique data set on German banks' sector specific loan exposures to the real economy and the corresponding write-offs and write-downs, we examine the impact of loan portfolio sector concentration on credit risk. By controlling for common risk factors, we separate the bank-specific...

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the behaviour of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sector indices. Specifically, the paper analyzes the returns correlation, serial correlation and heteroscedasticity on the NSE All-share Index, Banking Index, Consumer Goods Index, Oil & Gas Index, NSE 30...

Due to the constantly growing interest in alternative investments, the art market has become the subject of numerous studies. By publishing sales data, many services and auction houses provide a foundation for further research on the latest trends. Determining the definition of the artistic...

Die Konstruktion eines Performanceindexes für geschlossene Schiffsfonds Geschlossene Schiffsfonds stellen für private Anleger seit vielen Jahren eine bedeutende Form der Kapitalanlage dar und bildeten in der Vergangenheit das erfolgreichste Finanzierungsinstrument für die deutschen...

An information transaction entails the purchase of information. Formally, it consists of an information structure together with a price. We develop an index of the appeal of information transactions, which is derived as a dual to the agent's preferences for information. The index of information...

Consider any investor who fears ruin facing any set of investments that satisfy no-arbitrage. Before investing, he can purchase information about the state of nature in the form of an information structure. Given his prior, information structure 'a' is more informative than information structure...