We study the possibility for international diversification of catastrophe risk by the insurance sector. Adopting the argument that large insurance losses may be a [`]globalizing factor' for the industry, we study the dependence of geographically distant insurance markets via equity returns. In...

We propose an observation-driven dynamic factor model for mixed-measurement and mixed-frequency panel data. Time series observations may come from a range of families of distributions, be observed at different frequencies, have missing observations, and exhibit common dynamics and...

We develop a new simultaneous time series model for volatility and dependence in daily financial return series that are subject to long memory (fractionally integrated) dynamics and heavy-tailed densities. Our new multivariate model accounts for typical empirical features in financial time...

We introduce a new international model for the systematic distress risk of financial institutions from the US, the European Union, and the Asia-Pacific region. Our proposed dynamic factor model can be represented as a nonlinear, non-Gaussian state space model with parameters that we estimate...

We propose a new class of observation-driven time-varying parameter models for dynamic volatilities and correlations to handle time series from heavy-tailed distributions. The model adopts generalized autoregressive score dynamics to obtain a time-varying covariance matrix of the multivariate...

We propose an empirical framework to assess the likelihood of joint and conditional sovereign default from observed CDS prices. Our model is based on a dynamic skewed-<italic>t</italic> distribution that captures all salient features of the data, including skewed and heavy-tailed changes in the price of CDS...

We show that the annual excess return of the S&P 500 is almost 10 percent higher during the last two years of the presidential cycle than during the first two years. This pattern cannot be explained by business-cycle variables capturing time-varying risk premia, differences in risk levels, or by...

We show that if an agent is uncertain about the precise form of his utility function, his actual relative risk aversion may depend on wealth even if he knows his utility function lies in the class of constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility functions. We illustrate the consequences of this...

Various economic theories are available to explain the existence of credit and default cycles. There remains empirical ambiguity, however, as to whether these cycles coincide. Recent papers suggest by their empirical research set-up that they do, or at least that defaults and credit spreads tend...