In this note we describe some important default risk mitigation mechanisms employed in derivatives markets. We focus on those mitigation mechanisms that differ across contracts traded in today's derivatives markets. We analyze netting, margining, rehypothecation, and central counterparties

By attaching collateral to a derivatives contract, margining supposedly reduces default risk. In this paper, we first develop a set of testable hypotheses about the effects of margining on banks' welfare, trading volume, and default risk in the context of a stylized banking sector equilibrium...

In this paper, we use a continuous-time contingent claims framework to study managers' incentives to cheat in the presence of equity-based compensation policies. When we consider a fully predictable legal process, we observe that managers will always have incentives to engage in illicit...

In spite of the fact that they can draw on a larger, more liquid and more diversified pool of capital than the equity of reinsurance companies, financial markets have failed to displace reinsurance as the primary risk-sharing vehicle for natural catastrophe risk. We show that this failure can be...

In this study, we first estimate the level of financial integration for twenty five emerging stock markets over the last decade. Using a multivariate GARCH(1,1)-M return generating model allowing for partial market integration as well as for the pricing of systematic emerging market risk, we...

We build a structural two-factor model of default where the stock market index is one of the stochastic factors. We allow the firm to adjust its leverage ratio in response to changes the business climate, for which the past performance of the stock market index acts as a proxy. We assume that...

We build a structural two-factor model of default where the stock market index is one of the stochastic factors. We allow the firm to adjust its leverage ratio in response to changes the business climate, for which the past performance of the stock market index acts as a proxy. We assume that...

This study focuses on a sensible issue in the hedge fund industry, namely the performance persistence of hedge fund managers.We first analyse the existence of relative performance persistence among individual hedge funds on a cumulative return basis. It is shown that the Specialist Credit and...

This study examines the effects on the stock market unitary risk premium and volatility associated with the listing of stock and stock index derivatives in Switzerland. Based on a univariate GARCH (1,1) specification of the stock index variance and a time-varying unitary risk premium...

This study compares the performance of the ISD, the GARCH (1,1), the historical volatility estimates and of two lagged trading volume measures for predicting the Swiss Stock Market Index's (SMI) volatility. The ISD has a superior daily informational content than the GARCH(1,1) estimate and...