This paper proposes the new concept of stochastic leverage in stochastic volatility models.Stochastic leverage refers to a stochastic process which replaces the classical constant correlation parameter between the asset return and the stochastic volatility process. We provide a systematic...

Actual portfolios contain fewer stocks than are implied by standard financial analysis that balances the costs of diversification against the benefits in terms of the standard deviation of the returns. Suppose a safety first investor cares about downside risk and recognizes the heavy tail...

Using Merton's (1974) structural model corporate debt default, this paper argues that correlation between firm level corporate bond yield changes and stock returns should be informative about firm level default risk of this corporate debt. In particular, as the absolute value of the correlation...

Theoretical and empirical research has shown that a sound and effective financial system is critical for economic development and growth. The financial system, however, is also subject to boom and bust cycles and fragility, with negative repercussions for the real economy. Further, the political...

We use changes in Brazil's tax on capital inflows from 2006 to 2011 to test for direct portfolio effects and externalities from capital controls on investor portfolios. The analysis is structured based on information from investor interviews. We find that an increase in Brazil's tax on foreign...

We investigate whether the effect of liquidity on equity returns can be attributed to the liquidity level, as a stock characteristic, or a market wide systematic liquidity risk. We develop a CAPM liquidity-augmented risk model and test the characteristic hypothesis against the systematic risk...

The current financial crisis has made it abundantly clear that business cycle modeling can no longer abstract from financial factors. It is also clear that the current standard approach of modeling labor markets without explicit unemployment has its limitations. We extend what is becoming the...

A comparative analysis of the existing model of financial market regulation and the model put forth by the Bank of Russia within the framework of the Draft Federal Law ‘On Self-Regulating Organizations in the Field of Financial Markets' indicates that the Bank of Russia is creating a new...

A growing share of the world's trading activity is generated by algorithmic investment strategies. Algorithms require development, backtesting, and investors that assume the initial performance risk. Evaluating the likelihood that backtested strategies will maintain their risk return profile in...

Calibrating a trading rule using a historical simulation (also called backtest) contributes to backtest overfitting, which in turn leads to underperformance. In this paper we propose a procedure for determining the optimal trading rule (OTR) without running alternative model configurations...