This paper analyzes optimal investment policies for pension funds of a defined benefit (DB) type. The nature of a DB fund induces a natural modeling of preferences being of the mean-downside risk type. With compensation for inflation as an explicit goal of a pension fund, a natural reference...

This paper reports on the findings of a survey among Dutch households (as part of the DNB Household Survey in 2003) about many aspects (expectations, concerns, attitude and preferences) of their pensions and the old-age-arrangements in the Netherlands. We explore whether the outcomes are related...

This paper presents an analysis of the financial behaviour of Dutch households on the basis of the DNB Household Survey. The results of this survey provide insight into the backgrounds and consequences of the persistent rise of household debt. The increase in mortgage debt is related to mortgage...

This paper presents an analysis of the financial behaviour of Dutch households on the basis of the DNB Household Survey. The results of this survey provide insight into the backgrounds and consequences of the persistent rise of household debt. The increase in mortgage debt is related to mortgage...

An empirical investigation of the relationship between market share or concentration and return on equity or assets provides evidence for the existence of a profit-structure relationship in the European banking sector. Testing several market-power and efficient-structure theories reveals that...

This study analyses the transmission of monetary policy in Germany for the EMS period in the framework of a structural vector error correction model (S-VECM) analysis. Three stable cointegration relationships are found: a money demand relation, an interest rate spread and a stationary real...

In this study we build two forecasting models to predict inflation for the Netherlands and for the euro area. Inflation is the yearly change of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). The models provide point forecasts and prediction intervals for both the components of the HICP and the...

In this paper various Value-at-Risk techniques are applied tot the Dutch stock market index AEX and to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. the main conclusions are: (1) Changing volatility over time is the most important characteristic of stock returns when modelling value-at-risk; (2) For high...

In this report we examine time-varying correlations of asset returns using the Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) models, recently proposed by Engle (2002), that are estimated by a two-step procedure. First, we conclude that correlations vary considerably over time. Secondly, the conditional...

In this paper various Value-at-Risk techniques are applied to the Dutch stock market index AEX and to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The main conclusion are: (1) Changing volatility over time is the most important characteristic of stock returns when modelling value-at-risk; (2) For low...