Planar Maximally Filtered Graphs (PMFG) are an important tool for filtering the most relevant information from correlation based networks such as stock market networks. One of the main characteristics of a PMFG is the number of its 3- and 4-cliques. Recently in a few high impact papers it was...

The premium pricing process and the reserve stability under uncertainty are very challenging issues in the insurance industry. In practice, a premium which is sufficient enough to cover the expected claims and to keep stable the derived reserves is always required. This paper proposes a premium...

Lending rate policy via an appropriate investment strategy for an interacted portfolio of loans into discrete stochastic framework is examined in this paper. A bank optimization model with several control variables, stochastic inputs and a smoothness criterion described by a quadratic functional...

In this study, we produced biodiesel by utilising waste cooking oil as a raw material, unrefined methanol produced by a chemical plant as a transesterification agent and sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. The yield and heating value of the biodiesel produced with unrefined methanol were...

We investigate whether skilled hedge fund managers are more likely to pursue unique investment strategies that result in superior performance. We propose a measure of the distinctiveness of a fund's investment strategy based on historical fund return data. We call the measure the "Strategy...

The asymmetrical distribution of debris-flow velocity in a cross-section has long been observed and is currently regarded as one of the most essential issues in debris-flow research. Due to a lack of quantitative models for the velocity distributions of debris flows, most studies consider only...

Subsequent rainfall after a strong earthquake can easily trigger landslides. Aerial photography is always available after a strong earthquake but not always available in a timely manner after a subsequent rainfall following the earthquake. Sometimes, only panchromatic imagery is available...

We study a significant innovation with widespread consequences for the mutual fund industry: the introduction of multiple-class funds that give investors a choice among alternative load and fee structures. The transition to a multiple-class structure represents an important step in the evolution...

Despite extensive disclosure requirements, mutual fund investors do not observe all actions of fund managers. We estimate the impact of unobserved actions on fund returns using the return gap, which is defined as the difference between the reported fund return and the return of a portfolio that...