I had the pleasure to hear Dr. Soheil Mahmoodzadeh discuss his job market paper (Mahmoodzadeh & Gençay, 2015) recently at the University of Victoria Department of Economics seminar. The paper studies the effect of changes to tick size from pip to decimal pip for major currency pairs by the...

Foreign aid has evolved considerably over the last five decades in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. This paper takes a retrospective look at this process and discusses whether aid has been effective in furthering economic growth and development. The...

Tail hedging is a portfolio management strategy meant to reduce the risk of large losses. For an investor who holds a stock market index fund, the strategy entails buying out of the money put options on the index. Research suggests the strategy works well in practice and I explore the returns to...

Exploration is a costly activity that helps a business improve their understanding of a potential mineral deposit. Yet, even with strong exploration results, the business faces uncertainty over the value of the mine. I model this situation as a game of chance. The game starts by giving an agent...

The design of an adequate pension system is a very complex because it must contemplate multiple objectives. Must be inclusive, reduce poverty in old age, providing appropriate incentives in the labor market, increasing the aggregate savings of the economy, the ability to smooth consumption...

This paper develops a model of valuation of investment projects which includes nano-medical scientific and industrial dynamics, and its regulation. First critically analyzes the literature on valuation of investments, arguing that the methodology of real options is the most appropriate. It is a...

Consider an agent who holds a stock, but is allowed to buy and hold some quantity of at-the-money put options on the stock. Such an agent must decide the optimal use of financial derivatives under trade restrictions. This paper uses simulation to compare the optimal quantity when the agent...

This paper analyzes a source of financing for commodity producers known as a streaming loan, where the producer makes periodic payments in proportion to their level of production. Streaming loans functions like a cropshare contract, whereas fixed rate debt is like a wage contract. Thus,...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the state of case study research in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) literature that account for different management streams. It also recommends directions for future research and suggests fruitful guidelines for establishing better research rigor...

We present new data documenting medieval Europe’s Commercial Revolution” using information on the establishment of markets in Germany. We use these data to test whether medieval universities played a causal role in expanding economic activity, examining the foundation of Germany’s first...