Jamshidian and Zhu (1997) propose a discrete grid method for simplifying the computation of Value at Risk (VaR) for fixed-income portfolios. Their method relies on two simplifications. First, the value of fixed income instruments is modeled as depending on a small number of risk factors chosen...

We develop a multiple asset rational expectations model of asset prices to study the determinants of financial market contagion, and to provide an explanation for the pattern of contagion during the Asian financial crisis. Our findings show that the pattern and severity of financial contagion...

We develop a multiple asset rational expectations model of asset prices to explain financial market contagion. Although the model allows contagion through several channels, our focus is on contagion through cross-market rebalancing. Through this channel, investors transmit idiosyncratic shocks...

I study the finite sample distribution of one of Ait-Sahalia's (1996c) nonparametric tests of continuous-time models of the short-term riskless rate. The test rejects true models too often because interest rate data are highly persistent but the asymptotic distribution of the test (and of the...

The growing share of financial assets that are held and managed by large institutional investors whose desired trades move asset prices is at odds with the traditional competitive assumption that investors are small and take prices as given. This paper relaxes the traditional price-taking...

Many large financial institutions compute the Value-at-Risk (VaR) of their trading portfolios using historical simulation based methods, but the methods' properties are not well understood. This paper theoretically and empirically examines the historical simulation method, a variant of...

Nonparametric kernel density estimation has recently been used to estimate and test short-term interest rate models, but inference has been based on asymptotics. We derive finite sample properties of kernel density estimates of the ergodic distribution of the short-rate when it follows a...

We use data from 2001-2007 to assess the impact of mortgage and other forms of asset securitization on the insolvency risk, profitability, and leverage ratios of US bank holding companies. Using 3 different estimation techniques, we find that banks use mortgage securitization to reduce...