This chapter presents the main elements of central banks’ traditional functions as gatekeepers of monetary and broader financial and economic stability and outlines some emerging considerations relating to central banks’ enhanced role as guardians of public interest. With regard to the...

On regulating financial innovations / Eduardo Pol -- Important structural trends and developments in the foreign exchange and OTC derivative markets / Harvey Arbel(c)Øaez, E.K. Gatzonas -- The subprime market crisis, structured products in the securities credit markets, and hedge funds /...

Value-at-Risk (VaR) is used to analyze the market downside risk associated with investments in six key individual assets including four precious metals, oil and the S&P 500 index, and three diversified portfolios. Using combinations of these assets, three optimal portfolios and their efficient...

We document the phenomenon of under-pricing initial public offerings (IPOs) for 47 Gulf firms that went public between 2001 and 2006. The IPOs had, on average, initial abnormal returns of 290 percent, far exceeding those documented for both developed and emerging markets. In aftermarket...

This article presents evidence that the European Monetary System (EMS) bands for the Italian lira and the pound sterling were not credible for most of the period 1990–1992, and especially during the week prior to their withdrawal from the EMS system. Using a simple test, developed by...

The problem of maximum likelihood estimation of time-varying parameters is considered. A hierarchical approach is proposed that involves, first, the estimation of the model order and parameters when they are assumed time-invariant. Second, for each parameter, an autoregressive (AR) model, with...

The paper introduces a new method for the estimation of time-varying regression coefficients employed in financial modeling. We use Malliavin calculus (stochastic calculus of variations) to estimate the time-varying regression coefficients that appear in linear regression models, and the...

In evaluating their foreign exchange exposure, international investors often compare actual portfolios with those calculated under the assumption that the variability of returns on various currency assets is time invariant. This paper uses autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (ARCH) models...