The current financial market crisis has impressively demonstrated the importance of aneffective credit risk management for financial institutions. At the same time, the use and thevaluation of credit derivatives has been widely criticised as a result of the crisis. Over the pastdecade, credit...

Banks and other lenders often transfer credit risk to liberate capital for further loan intermediation. This paper aims to explore the design, prevalence and effectiveness of credit risk transfer (CRT). The focus is on the costs and benefits for the efficiency and stability of the financial...

We use portfolio theory to quantify the efficiency of state-level sectoral patterns of production in the United States. On the basis of observed growth in sectoral value-added output, we calculate for each state the efficient frontier for investments in the real economy. We study how rapidly...

This paper extends Merton’s continuous time (instantaneous) mean-varianceanalysis and the mutual fund separation theory. Given the existence of a Marko-vian state price density process, the optimal portfolios from concave utility max-imization are instantaneously mean-variance efficient...

When comparing investment in an immediate life annuity with a payout-equivalentinvestment fund decumulation plan (self-annuitization), previous research focusedon shortfall probabilities of self-annuitization. Chances of self-annuitization (i.e.,bequests) typically have not been addressed. We...

This paper analyzes the current use of incentive-fee-concepts for mutual funds inGermany. Following an empirical analysis about the relevance of these methods,the different methods of calculation and the influence of different parameters aredescribed. Further on it explains the impacts of...

In the last few years it has been possible to observe decreasing interest margins forGerman universal banks. At the same time, institutions increasingly moved partof their business from interest to fee-earning activities. This study analyzes thedeterminants of non-interest income and its impact...

It is well known that asset allocation policy is the major determinant of fundperformance. However, there is substantial disagreement about the exactmagnitude of the contribution of asset allocation. Following the approach inIbbotson and Kaplan (2000), we use German and Swiss balanced mutualfund...

We study the influence of systematic probability misestimation on complexfinancial investment decisions on the context of structured financialproducts. Structured products have in recent years become more and morecomplex. We study the question whether this complexity might be a...

Es wird dargelegt, dass das im Rahmen des Asset-Liability-Managements häufiggewählte Immunisierungsverfahren des Durationsmatch unter Verwendung der traditionellen Yieldbeta-Methode nur dann sachgerecht eingesetzt werden kann, wenn das betrachtete Unternehmenkeinen sicheren realen und damit...