Normal distribution of the residuals is the traditional assumption in the classicalmultivariate time series models. Nevertheless it is not very often consistent with the real data.Copulae allows for an extension of the classical time series models to nonelliptically distributedresiduals. In this...

Controllability of longer-term interest rates requires that the persis-tence of their deviations from the central bank's policy rate (i.e. thepolicy spreads) remains suffciently low. This paper applies fractionalintegration techniques to assess the persistence of policy spreads ofeuro area money...

Motivated by a recent demographic study establishing a link betweenmacroeconomic fluctuations and the mortality index kt in the Lee-Cartermodel, we assess the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on the solvencyof a life insurance company. Liabilities in our stochastic simulationframework are...

Modeling the portfolio credit risk is one of the crucial issues of the last yearsin the financial problems. We propose the valuation model of Collateralized DebtObligations based on a one- and two-parameter copula and default intensities estimatedfrom market data. The presented method is used to...

This paper proposes a novel approach to the combination of conditional covariancematrix forecasts based on the use of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Itis shown how the procedure can be generalized to deal with large dimensional systemsby means of a two-step strategy. The finite sample...

This paper studies how dierent unionisation structures aect rm productivity, rmperformance, and consumer welfare in a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneousrms and free entry. While centralised bargaining induces tougher selection among hetero-geneous producers and thus increases...

Lack of transparency in securitization transactions significantly contributed to thesevere financial crisis of 2007–2009. To increase transparency we—based on arecent idea by Markowitz (2009)—propose an incentive compatible mechanismfor future securitization transactions: financial claims...

In semiparametric models it is a common approach to under-smooth the nonparametric functions inorder that estimators of the finite dimensional parameters can achieve root-n consistency. The requirementof under-smoothing may result as we show from inefficient estimation methods or technical...

In this paper we develop several regression algorithms for solvinggeneral stochastic optimal control problems via Monte Carlo. Thistype of algorithms is particularly useful for problems with a highdimensionalstate space and complex dependence structure of the underlyingMarkov process with...

A firm’s current leverage ratio is one of the core characteristicsof credit quality used in statistical default prediction models. Based on thecapital structure literature, which shows that leverage is mean-reverting to atarget leverage, we forecast future leverage ratios and include them in...