We quantify the role of financial factors behind the sluggish post-crisis performance of European firms. We use a firm-bank-sovereign matched database to identify separate roles for firm and bank balance sheet weaknesses arising from changes in sovereign risk and aggregate demand conditions. We...

In this paper we present the most compelling empirical evidence yet of a low-risk anomaly in fixed income markets. We show that portfolios invested in bonds with the lowest risk would have delivered the largest positive alpha and highest Sharpe ratios and portfolios invested in riskier bonds...

The central issue of this paper is analysis and resulting proposals to help unsophisticated pension participants achieve pension portfolios that match their level of risk aversion when there is a large amount of unexplained heterogeneity in risk aversion. Target date funds are commonly used as...

On September 3-4, 2009 SUERF and Utrecht University School of Economicsorganized the Colloquium "The Quest for Stability" in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium.

During the recent financial crisis, governments in many countries around the world took on the role of an agency responsible for calming down market upheavals. This global trend has found expression in the adoption of measures designed to save systemically important financial institutions, in...

Capital markets perform two distinct functions: provision of capital and facilitation of good governance through information production and monitoring. I argue that the governance function has more impact on the efficiency with which resources are utilized within the firm. Based on industry...

Using a large panel of firms across the world from 1991-2006, we show that the median foreign firm has lower idiosyncratic risk than a comparable U.S. firm. Country characteristics help explain variation in the level of idiosyncratic risk, but less so than firm characteristics. Idiosyncratic...

Sukuk issues by Japanese companies are still few. Aeon Credit Service Malaysia became the first Japanese company to issue sukuk in 2007, and Toyota Financial Services' Malaysian subsidiary, UMW Toyota Capital (UMWTC, now called Toyota Capital Malaysia) was next with an issuance in 2008. Both...