It is well known that returns on foreign exchange rates are not normal and tend to have fat-tailed distributions. Although the precise magnitude of the tail-fatness is crucial for applications such as risk analysis, little consensus exists in this respect due to estimation problems. In this...

This paper complements the existing scarce literature on financial cooperatives in various ways. First, we describe the background and evolution of European Cooperative Banking Groups (ECBGs). Second, we summarize the main reasons for the past disregard and recent revaluation of the cooperative...

This article investigates the building blocks to successful investment strategies for institutional investors. It presents the results of a worldwide survey of investment beliefs, and finds striking differences in how pension funds and commercial asset managers view capital markets. Asset...

This paper analyzes purchasing power parity (PPP) for the euro area. We study the impact of the introduction of the euro in 1999 on the behavior of real exchange rates. We test the PPP hypothesis for a panel of real exchange rates within the euro area over the period 1973-2003. Our methodology...

Financial well-being is distinct from income. Some people with high incomes suffer low financial well-being, as their incomes fall short of their aspirations. Such people feel propelled to reach their aspirations by taking risk and willing to bear losses. Conversely, some people with low incomes...

A significant number of institutional investors publicly state the belief that corporate stakeholder relations are associated with firm value in a manner that the financial market fails to understand. We investigate whether stakeholder information predicted risk-adjusted returns due to errors in...

A segmentation of the socially responsible investing (SRI) movement by values-versus-profit orientation solves the puzzling evidence that both socially responsible and controversial stocks produce superior returns. We derive that the segment of values-driven investors, who are willing to...

We investigate the building blocks for institutional investors' successful investment strategies. We focus on organizations which formulate investment beliefs and define clear views on how the capital markets work. We present the results of a world wide survey of investment beliefs. We find...

An increase in correlation during turbulent market conditions implies a reduction in the benefits arising from portfolio diversification. Unfortunately, it is exactly then that these benefits are most needed. We investigate the robustness of recent empirical results that indicate correlation...

Copulas offer financial risk managers a powerful tool to model the dependence between the different elements of a portfolio and are preferable to the traditional, correlation-based approach. In this paper we show the importance of selecting an accurate copula for risk management. We extend...