As U.S. Treasury securities carry the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, they are free of default risk. Thus, their yields are risk-free rates of return, which allows the most recently issued U.S. Treasury securities to be used as a benchmark to price other fixed-income instruments....

The challenge of modeling, estimating, testing, and forecasting financial volatility is both intellectually worthwhile and also central to the successful analysis of financial returns and optimal investment strategies. In each of the three primary areas of volatility modeling, namely,...

We consider a metric entropy capable of detecting deviations from symmetry that is suitable for both discrete and continuous processes. A test statistic is constructed from an integrated normed difference between nonparametric estimates of two density functions. The null distribution (symmetry)...

In this paper the Financial Development Index (FDI) is used to rank 57 of the world's leading financial systems. Its calculation is based on the following 7 economic pillars: (1) Institutional environment, (2) Business environment, (3) Financial stability, (4) Banking financial services, (5)...