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We document persistent superior trading performance among a subset of individual investors. Investors classified in the top performance decile in the first half of our sample subsequently earn risk-adjusted returns of about 6% per year. These returns are not confined to stocks in which the investors are likely to have inside information, nor are they driven by illiquid stocks. Our results suggest that skilled individual investors exploit market inefficiencies (or perhaps conditional risk premiums) to earn abnormal profits, above and beyond any profits available from well-known strategies based on size, value, momentum, or earnings announcements. (JEL G11, G14, G40, G51) Received: October 11, 2020 Editorial decision: January 4, 2021 Editor: Jeffrey Pontiff

Die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung analysiert die aktuellen Entwicklungen des Rückversicherungsmarktes und begleitet diese gegebenenfalls durch Forschungsprojekte. Dabei verbindet die Forschungsstelle RV ihre Forschungsaktivitäten mit der Rückversicherungspraxis. Das Jahr 2020 war vor allem durch die weltweite Pandemie Covid-19 geprägt. Es ergaben sich sowohl allgemein als auch speziell für die (Rück-) Versicherungswirtschaft zahlreiche substanzielle Herausforderungen. Natürlich war auch die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung durch die vielen Veranstaltungsausfälle beziehungsweise deren behelfsmäßige Durchführung in Online-Formaten in dem Austausch sowie dem bidirektionalem Wissenstransfer mit der Praxis stark beeinträchtigt. Insbesondere der Ausfall des 17. Kölner Rückversicherungs-Symposiums hat uns sehr geschmerzt. Die 13. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung war in dem gewählten Online-Format durchaus geglückt- aber natürlich möchten wieder so bald wie möglich zu der traditionellen Veranstaltungsform im Clostermannshof zurückkehren. Ein voller Erfolg war mit 178 Teilnehmern dagegen die von der Forschungsstelle RV ausgerichtete Webinar-Reihe zu der EIOPA Initiative bzgl. der Risk Mitigation Techniques, die die Effekte von Rückversicherung unter Solvency II verändern könnte. In der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung sind derzeit zwölf Mitarbeiter*innen beschäftigt. Sämtliche Personal-, Sach- und Reisekosten der Forschungsstelle RV werden vollständig aus Drittmitteln des Förderkreises Rückversicherung finanziert. Die Forschungsarbeit sowie die Kommunikation und Kooperation zwischen den Mitarbeiter*innen der Forschungsstelle RV war durch die besonderen Umstände kaum eingeschränkt. Da die meisten Mitarbeiter*innen ohnehin nicht in Köln leben und arbeiten, war für diese das Remote- und Online-Arbeiten bereits vor den Corona- Zeiten die Regel. Auch für die weiteren Mitarbeiter*innen gelang der Übergang ins Home Office (nahezu) reibungslos. Wie in jedem Jahr gilt unser Dank dem Förderkreis Rückversicherung, der Hochschulleitung und -verwaltung sowie dem Institut für Versicherungswesen für die Unterstützung unserer Forschungsarbeit.

Die 11. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung zum Thema Rückversicherung fand am 13. Juli 2018 in Niederkassel bei Köln statt. Etwa 85 eingeladene Repräsentanten aus dem Förderkreis unterstützenden (Rück-)Versicherungsunternehmen und Gäste nahmen daran teil. Im Rahmen der Jahrestagung wurde zum vierten Mal der Researchers‘ Corner durchgeführt, in dessen Verlauf acht der in der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung beschäftigten Wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter einen Vortrag zu dem jeweilig individuell bearbeiteten Forschungsprojekt hielten. Des Weiteren wurden von Prof. Materne Interviews mit den Herren Dr. Falk Niehörster (Climate Risk Innovations) und Dr. Magnus Kobel (YAS.life) geführt. Dr. Niehörster berichtete über seine Forschungen und Beratungstätigkeit hinsichtlich der maritimen Klimaveränderung und Dr. Kobel über das Geschäftsmodell seines InsurTecs YAS.life und seine allgemeinen Erfahrungen bei Gründung und Entwicklungen von Start-ups. In drei Sessions – mit je 2-3 jeweils drei parallel laufenden Vorträgen mit Poster – wurden die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung präsentiert und diskutiert. Die Heterogenität in den vorgetragenen Themen der wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter spiegelt die Verzahnung der Forschungstheorie mit der Praxistätigkeit wider.

Analyzing social systems, particularly financial markets, using a complex network approach has become one of the most popular fields within econophysics. A similar trend is currently appearing within the econometrics and finance communities, as well. In this study, we present a state-of-the-artmethod for analyzing the structure and risk within stockmarkets, treating them as complex networks using model-free, nonlinear dependency measures based on information theory. This study is the first network analysis of the stockmarket in Shanghai using a nonlinear network methodology. Further, it is often assumed that markets outside the United States and Western Europe are inherently riskier. We find that the Chinese stock market is not structurally risky, contradicting this popular opinion. We use partial mutual information to create filtered networks representing the Shanghai stock exchange, comparing them to networks based on Pearson’s correlation. Consequently, we discuss the structure and characteristics of both the presented methods and the Shanghai stock exchange. This paper provides an insight into the cutting edge methodology designed for analyzing complex financial networks, as well as analyzing the structure of the market in Shanghai and, as such, is of interest to both researchers and financial analysts.

In this paper, we study the impact of extreme events on the loan portfolios of the Greek banking system. These portfolios are grouped into three separate groups based on the size of the bank to which they belong, in particular, large, medium, and small size. A series of extreme scenarios was performed and the increase in capital requirements was calculated for each scenario based on the standardized and internal ratings approach of the Basel II accord. The results obtained show an increase of credit risk during the crisis periods, and the differentiation of risk depending on the size of the banking organization as well as the added capital that will be needed in order to hedge that risk. The execution of the scenarios aims at studying the effects which may be brought about on the capital of the three representative banks by the appearance of adverse events.

It is commonly believed that women are more likely to seek advice than men, for example, on aspects of health or asking for directions when lost. This paper investigates whether women’s relatively greater propensity for advice seeking extends to important business decisions, specifically those involving corporate takeovers. Consistent with the evidence from other contexts, we show that the presence of female directors on target boards is positively and significantly associated with target boards seeking advice from top-ranked financial advisors. In contrast, we do not observe any significant association between the presence of female directors on bidder boards and their engagement of top-ranked financial advisors. We argue that the presence of a gender effect for target boards but not for bidder boards is consistent with less overconfident female versus male directors on bidder boards initiating fewer bids, higher litigation risk facing target boards for accepting too little, and the different type of advice sought by bidders and target firms.

The statistical distribution of financial returns plays a key role in evaluating Value-at-Risk using parametric methods. Traditionally, when evaluating parametric Value-at-Risk, the statistical distribution of the financial returns is assumed to be normally distributed. However, though simple to implement, the Normal distribution underestimates the kurtosis and skewness of the observed financial returns. This article focuses on the evaluation of the South African equity markets in a Value-at-Risk framework. Value-at-Risk is estimated on four equity stocks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, including the FTSE/JSE TOP40 index and the S &amp, P 500 index. The statistical distribution of the financial returns is modelled using the Normal Inverse Gaussian and is compared to the financial returns modelled using the Normal, Skew t-distribution and Student t-distribution. We then estimate Value-at-Risk under the assumption that financial returns follow the Normal Inverse Gaussian, Normal, Skew t-distribution and Student t-distribution and backtesting was performed under each distribution assumption. The results of these distributions are compared and discussed.

This paper investigates the dynamic evolution of tail risk interdependence among U.S. banks, financial services and insurance sectors. Life and non-life insurers have been considered separately to account for their different characteristics. The tail risk interdependence measurement framework relies on the multivariate Student-t Markov switching (MS) model and the multiple-conditional value-at-risk (CoVaR) (conditional expected shortfall (CoES)) risk measures introduced in Bernardi et al. (2013), accounting for both the stylized facts of financial data and the contemporaneous multiple joint distress events. The Shapley value methodology is then applied to compose the puzzle of individual risk attributions, providing a synthetic measure of tail interdependence. Our empirical investigation finds that banks appear to contribute more to the tail risk evolution of all of the remaining sectors, followed by the financial services and the insurance sectors, showing that the insurance sector significantly contributes as well to the overall risk. We also find that the role of each sector in contributing to other sectors’ distress evolves over time according to the current predominant financial condition, implying different interdependence strength.

We develop networks of international stock market indices using information and correlation based measures. We use 83 stock market indices of a diversity of countries, as well as their single day lagged values, to probe the correlation and the flow of information from one stock index to another taking into account different operating hours. Additionally, we apply the formalism of partial correlations to build the dependency network of the data, and calculate the partial Transfer Entropy to quantify the indirect influence that indices have on one another. We find that Transfer Entropy is an effective way to quantify the flow of information between indices, and that a high degree of information flow between indices lagged by one day coincides to same day correlation between them.

The aim of this article was to define, quantify and compare the significant attributes of business risk for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the selected regions of Slovakia. The data was collected through a questionnaire. The whole research was conducted in the Bratislava region on a sample of 102 SMEs, in the region of Trencin on a sample of 105 SMEs and in the Zilina region on a sample of 168 SMEs. Thus we compared important factors of business risk in the most economically developed region of the Slovak capital to the average regions of Trencin and Zilina. On the basis of the results of our research, we can conclude that the most important business risk is market risk in all regions. The average value of perceived market risk was higher than 50%. For this reason entrepreneurs have indicated the existence of negative trends in performance and profitability of their companies.

This study investigates the valuation impact of a firm’s decision to cross list on a more (or less) prestigious stock exchange relative to its own domestic market. We use a network analysis methodology to derive broad market-based measures of prestige for 45 country or regional stock exchange destinations between 1990 and 2006. We find that firms cross listing in a more prestigious market enjoy significant valuation gains over the five-year period following the listing. In contrast, firms cross listing in less prestigious markets experience a significant valuation discount over this post-listing period. The reputation of the cross-border listing destinations is therefore a useful signal of firm value going forward. Our findings are consistent with the view that cross listing in a prestigious market enhances firm visibility, strengthens corporate governance, and lowers informational frictions and capital costs.

Research Paper Number: 225 Abstract: This paper examines a simple basis risk model based on correlated geometric Brownian motions. We apply quadratic criteria to minimize basis risk and hedge in an optimal manner. Initially, we derive the Follmer-Schweizer decomposition of a European claim. This allows pricing and hedging under the minimal martingale measure, corresponding to the local risk-minimizing strategy. Furthermore, since the mean-variance tradeoff process is deterministic in our setup, the minimal martingale- and variance-optimal martingale measures coincide. Consequently, the mean-variance optimal strategy is easily constructed. Simple closed-form pricing and hedging formulae for put and call options are derived. Due to market incompleteness, these formulae depend on the drift parameters of the processes. By making a further equilibrium assumption, we derive an approximate hedging formula, which does not require knowledge of these parameters. The hedging strategies are tested using Monte Carlo experiments, and are compared with recent results achieved using a utility maximization approach.

The 2008 credit crisis changed the manner in which derivative trades are conducted. One of these changes is the posting of collateral in a trade to mitigate the counterparty credit risk. Another is the realization that banks are not risk-free and, as a result, cannot borrow at the risk-free rate any longer. The latter led banks to introduced the controversial adjustment to derivative prices, known as a funding value adjustment (FVA), which is interlinked with the posting of collateral. In this paper, we extend the Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (CRR) discrete-time model to include collateral and FVA. We prove that this derived model is a discrete analogue of Piterbarg's partial differential equation (PDE), which describes the price of a collateralized derivative. The fact that the two models coincide is also verified by numerical implementation of the results that we obtain. Full article

How to forecast next year's portfolio-wide credit default rate based on last year's default observations and the current score distribution? A classical approach to this problem consists of fitting a mixture of the conditional score distributions observed last year to the current score distribution. This is a special (simple) case of a finite mixture model where the mixture components are fixed and only the weights of the components are estimated. The optimum weights provide a forecast of next year's portfolio-wide default rate. We point out that the maximum-likelihood (ML) approach to fitting the mixture distribution not only gives an optimum but even an exact fit if we allow the mixture components to vary but keep their density ratio fix. From this observation we can conclude that the standard default rate forecast based on last year's conditional default rates will always be located between last year's portfolio-wide default rate and the ML forecast for next year. As an application example, then cost quantification is discussed. We also discuss how the mixture model based estimation methods can be used to forecast total loss. This involves the reinterpretation of an individual classification problem as a collective quantification problem., Comment: 16 pages, 2 tables, some corrections, section on cost quantification inserted

In this paper we formulate the Risk Management Control problem in the interest rate area as a constrained stochastic portfolio optimization problem. The utility that we use can be any continuous function and based on the viscosity theory, the unique solution of the problem is guaranteed. The numerical approximation scheme is presented and applied using a single factor interest rate model. It is shown how the whole methodology works in practice, with the implementation of the algorithm for a specific interest rate portfolio. The recent financial crisis showed that risk management of derivatives portfolios especially in the interest rate market is crucial for the stability of the financial system. Modern Value at Risk (VAR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVAR) techniques, although very useful and easy to understand, fail to grasp the need for on-line controlling and monitoring of derivatives portfolio. The portfolios should be designed in a way that risk and return be quantified and controlled in every possible state of the world. We hope that this methodology contributes towards this direction.

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) has been a key theory in financial economics since the 1960s. One of its main contributions is to attempt to identify how the risk of a particular stock is related to the risk of the overall stock market using the risk measure Beta. If the relationship between an individual stock’s returns and the returns of the market exhibit heteroskedasticity, then the estimates of Beta for different quantiles of the relationship can be quite different. The behavioral ideas first proposed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), which they called prospect theory, postulate that: (i) people exhibit “loss-aversion” in a gain frame, and (ii) people exhibit “risk-seeking” in a loss frame. If this is true, people could prefer lower Beta stocks after they have experienced a gain and higher Beta stocks after they have experienced a loss. Stocks that exhibit converging heteroskedasticity (22.2% of our sample) should be preferred by investors, and stocks that exhibit diverging heteroskedasticity (12.6% of our sample) should not be preferred. Investors may be able to benefit by choosing portfolios that are more closely aligned with their preferences.

This paper applies the mean-variance portfolio optimization (PO) approach and the stochastic dominance (SD) test to examine preferences for international diversification versus domestic diversification from American investors’ viewpoints. Our PO results imply that the domestic diversification strategy dominates the international diversification strategy at a lower risk level and the reverse is true at a higher risk level. Our SD analysis shows that there is no arbitrage opportunity between international and domestic stock markets; domestically diversified portfolios with smaller risk dominate internationally diversified portfolios with larger risk and vice versa ; and at the same risk level, there is no difference between the domestically and internationally diversified portfolios. Nonetheless, we cannot find any domestically diversified portfolios that stochastically dominate all internationally diversified portfolios, but we find some internationally diversified portfolios with small risk that dominate all the domestically diversified portfolios.

This study examines the impact of changes in homestead exemption levels upon the consumer bankruptcy filing rate. This relationship is examined through the creation of an interrupted time-series multiple regression model. Regression analyses were implemented using several predictor variables to detect any relationship between changes in homestead exemption levels and their effect on the applicable dependent variable. Four dependent bankruptcy variables were employed: per capita total consumer-bankruptcy filings, per capita Chapter 7 consumer-bankruptcy filing rate, per capita Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing rate, and Chapter 7 consumer-bankruptcy filings as a percentage of aggregate consumer-bankruptcy filing rates. Analyses indicate that consumers clearly prefer utilizing a Chapter 7 discharge method over Chapter 13. Additionally, these consumers do not find changes in homestead exemption levels as a source of wealth insurance to the extent that filings are significantly increased. Finally, consumer filing rates do not appear to be positively affected by the wealth effect that a risk-averse consumer might choose in bankruptcy choice.

The recent market crises have focused interest on methods to improve the functioning of financial markets. Before implementing new regulations, it is necessary to evaluate the effects of previous regulations. Regulatory changes such as Fair Disclosure have an effect on information dissemination and price discovery. This paper uses the information share of individual markets, to measure changes in the information contribution of markets before and after implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure. Most of the existing studies focus on the price discovery process and the information contribution or share of the individual markets. This paper uses this information share as a metric to test the effect of a particular regulation. Employing cointegration analysis, this study measures the changes in the information share, impulse response functions, and tests whether Regulation Fair Disclosure has achieved its intended goal of greater informational parity and market integration. Results show that Fair Disclosure has increased the information share of satellite markets and achieved greater market integration.

Setting the bidding price is made according to the settlement of profit margin and indirect tax volume and company trade markup. The manufacturer is interested in obtaining the product with the smallest cost and must use the analysis of design costs. In the market economy, the manufacturer is interested in obtaining the product with the lowest possible cost and for this he must use the analysis of design costs whose object is to eliminate the unreal costs. Setting the bidding price is concomitantly made with setting the profit margin and the indirect tax volume and the company trade markup. The profit remains a variable size which is defined in the bidding price depending on the strategy that the company promotes in the market. The other elements that characterize the product can be determined, starting from the total profit per company and the total costs afferent to the performed production.

During this period, in which the economical environment must face a significant effort to adapt to market conditions, the activity is conducted in a strong uncertainty and risks. So, the advanced and emerging economies, in which the Romanian economy is included must take with priority some measures, which lead to restoring confidence, ensuring a viable financial system, reviving economy with a direct impact on commerce sector. More than ever, the greatest challenge for the commerce sector is to continue to be efficient, competitive and sustainable, recognizing the fact that, on long-term, performance depends on durability. In this context, the diagnosis and the evaluation of an enterprise, through calculated indicators, are meant to highlight the economic agent’s ability to adapt and to survive in the market, in which it is acting, in a fierce competition and of course in the current conditions of instability.

The environment in which the accounting and auditing firms operate is changing. The economic, technological and financial contexts directly affect their business. In addition, the customers have become more fastidious in terms of the nature, the speed and the precision of the required services. All these developments force the firms to improve their organization by incorporating appropriate performance measurement systems. The objective of this paper is to examine how the organizational performance it is perceived in accounting and auditing firms. In this sense, we checked the perspectives of the balanced scorecard model in a Big Four office and in a small office. The sample consists of 10 Romanian auditors. Eight of auditors are working in one of the Big Four. To achieve this study, were selected only managers. The other two auditors operate in a small office, they being, at the same time, also associates. The sample is homogeneous in terms of the training, the sector of activity and experience. To enable an objective analysis of results, the name of the offices will not be made public. The results showed that in the Big Four office all four perspectives of the balanced scorecard model are checked, while in the small office the number of perspectives is lower, because learning is informal and not materialized. On this perspective, the Big Four office, periodically analyzes the results and try to identify the causes that led to differences in the objectives set. Possible causes that were invoked: overloading of the auditor, additional works, not included in the letter of assignment and the lack of competence of the auditor. Regarding the internal perspective, each office has its own mode, but obviously the Big Four office has human, logistics and financial resources more important, that enabling it to keep its reputation in the market. Instead, the financial goals are the same for both offices analyzed: profitability increasing.

Success of the company is influenced by the ability to use disposal sources effectively and at the same time to adapt to the changes in its environment. Prediction of changes and their including to the future goals achievement in various time horizons is part of the planning. Company that uses planning increases effectiveness of its business. Importance of planning lies in the decreasing of bad decisions risk and by this way also increasing of possibilities for successful goals achievement. Success of business has its reflection in the financial situation of the company, according which company builds the system of financial planning. Paper deals with research of planning in conditions of Slovakian companies according their volume and functional parts of the plan with resulting of recommendation for plans improving.

The nature and indicators of financial stability of the state are presented. An issue of innovative development of the state is considered, its main difficulties and contradictions are defined. Trends and economic conditions for financial stability of the state in supporting innovation are substantiated. Special attention was paid to the factors to accelerate economic dynamics based on innovative mechanism, with appropriate set of direct financial, fiscal, legal, infrastructural, economic and political measures. It is proved that all the above measures are effective in their balanced unity under conditions of government providing with single framework for further innovative development.

There has been environmental pollution across the globe. Environmental activists are condemning manufacturing companies of environmental pollution. This has led to the establishment of environmental regulations and standards by government authorities across the globe. In complying with environmental regulations companies have found themselves incurring additional cost when compared to those companies which do not comply. However, the effect of compliance to environmental regulations on the financial performance is not clear. This study explores the effects of environmental compliance on the financial performance for listed manufacturing companies in Tanzania. Five listed manufacturing companies were surveyed to obtain data used for the purpose of this study. Specifically, the study intended to establish: the relationship between environmental compliance and financial performance and the effect of environmental compliance on the financial performance. Regression analysis was done to establish the relationship between environmental compliance and financial performance. Findings suggest that there is no significant relationship between environmental compliance and financial performance among listed manufacturing firms in Tanzania. This study concludes that environmental compliance has no significant effect on the financial performance for listed manufacturing firms in Tanzania.

The beginning of the world economic crisis and the decrease in the financial intermediaries profits (both banks and insurance companies), made intermediaries rethink their offer in such a way as to obtain favourable results. In this context, bancassurance activity got a boost, being stimulated by the superior revenues of the bancassurance products and services in respect to the classical ones. The present paper is an empirical study that shows the recent evolutions in bancassurance at world level and underlines the factors that stimulate the development of bancassurance products and services such as the GDP per capita, the need to save, the degree of development of the banking and assurance.

The recent international financial crisis has shown that financial and banking problems of a country may have an impact worldwide. Governments have been faced the difficult decisions to save several major banks with taxpayers' money or accept their bankruptcy, which would have meant financial loss to millions of customers. Per total, state aid to banks during the crisis amounts to 13% of EU gross domestic product. The European Union has proposed a new framework for crisis management in the banking and financial sector to prevent any new crisis. The European Commission has established a system of coordination of supervisory activities that allow governments and regulators to identify banks in difficulty and act accordingly. Therefore, no bank is "too big" or "too connected" to fail. The reform objectives are to ensure stability and to prevent financing with public money the private banks.

Сравнительный анализ действующей модели регулирования финансовых рынков и модели, предлагаемой Банком России в рамках проекта федерального закона «О саморегулируемых организациях в сфере финансовых рынков» показывает, что Банк России выстраивает новую систему регулирования деятельности саморегулируемых организаций на финансовых рынках с активным участием регулятора. При этом степень такого участия определяется самим регулятором, что может негативно отразиться на интересах саморегулируемых организаций и их членов, поскольку проект не предусматривает никаких гарантий, что Банк России в полной мере допустит саморегулируемые организации к разработке и установлению стандартов и правил или надзору.

A comparative analysis of the existing model of financial market regulation and the model put forth by the Bank of Russia within the framework of the Draft Federal Law ‘On Self-Regulating Organizations in the Field of Financial Markets’ indicates that the Bank of Russia is creating a new system of regulating the activity of self-regulating organizations operating in Russia’s financial markets, which significantly increases the powers of the state regulator. According to the Draft Law, the state regulator is to become free to unilaterally determine the scope of its own participation in the regulatory process. The unfettered discretion given to the state regulator may significantly undermine the interests of self-regulating organizations and their members, because the Draft Law fails to put forth any formal guarantees that the Bank of Russia should indeed permit such organizations to adequately participate in the process of setting standards and guidelines, or in monitoring the compliance therewith.

“One basic formula for understanding the Community is this: Take five broken empires, add the sixth one later, and make one big neo-colonial empire out of it all.”[Professor Johan Galtung, Norwegian sociologist] The EU represents a unique economic and political partnership, formally recognised on 1 November 1993 through the Maastricht Treaty, uniting 27 States around common political, economic, cultural and social values – a Community which evolves towards the Economic and Monetary Union, based on internal and external policy cooperation between States. Based on these priorities, but being aware of the numerous differences between Member States/regions regarding the level of development, the EU assumes the task of reducing the existing gaps through a common regional policy, aiming to reinforce economic and social cohesion. This paper intends to examine the effects of the economic crisis on the cohesion policy 2007-2013 and the measures adopted by the EU in order to reduce them.

The Bohai Economic Rim plays an important role in supporting China’s economic growth. For this research, we selected nine main ports in the region to study whether intra-port competition or corporatization would improve efficiency. Using a panel fixed effect model and stochastic frontier model, we found that the technical efficiency of selected ports is significantly influenced by the time of the initial public offering than by regional competition. The results are supportive and encouraging for policy makers to move toward the decentralized port governance in China.

This paper employs weighted least squares to examine the risk-return relation by applying high-frequency data from four major stock indexes in the US market and finds some evidence in favor of a positive relation between the mean of the excess returns and expected risk. However, by using quantile regressions, we find that the risk-return relation moves from negative to positive as the returns’ quantile increases. A positive risk-return relation is valid only in the upper quantiles. The evidence also suggests that intraday skewness plays a dominant role in explaining the variations of excess returns.

We study price formation in securities markets, using the sequential trade framework of Glosten and Milgrom (1985). This paper makes one basic methodological advance over previous research on sequential securities trading: we allow traders to choose from n trade sizes in a multi-period market, where n can be arbitrarily large. We examine how trade size multiplicity affects the intertemporal dynamics of trading strategies, bid-ask spreads, and information revelation. We show that price impact, as a function of trade size, is increasing and exhibits (discrete) concavity.

Die Dissertation befasst sich mit der Organisation von humanitären Lufttransporten bei internationalen Katastrophen. Diese Flüge finden immer dann statt, wenn die eigene Hilfeleistungsfähigkeit der von Katastrophen betroffenen Regionen überfordert ist und Hilfe aus dem Ausland angefordert wird. Bei jedem der darauffolgenden Hilfseinsätze stehen Hilfsorganisationen und weitere mit der Katastrophenhilfe beteiligte Akteure erneut vor der Herausforderung, in kürzester Zeit eine logistische Kette aufzubauen, damit die Güter zum richtigen Zeitpunkt in der richtigen Menge am richtigen Ort eintreffen. Humanitäre Lufttransporte werden in der Regel als Charterflüge organisiert und finden auf langen Strecken zu Zielen statt, die nicht selten abseits der hochfrequentierten Warenströme liegen. Am Markt ist das Angebot für derartige Transportdienstleistungen nicht gesichert verfügbar und unter Umständen müssen Hilfsorganisationen warten bis Kapazitäten mit geeigneten Flugzeugen zur Verfügung stehen. Auch qualitativ sind die Anforderungen von Hilfsorganisationen an die Hilfsgütertransporte höher als im regulären Linientransport. Im Rahmen der Dissertation wird ein alternatives Organisationsmodell für die Beschaffung und den Betrieb sowie die Finanzierung von humanitären Lufttransporten aufgebaut. Dabei wird die gesicherte Verfügbarkeit von besonders flexibel einsetzbaren Flugzeugen in Betracht gezogen, mit deren Hilfe die Qualität und insbesondere die Planbarkeit der Hilfeleistung verbessert werden könnte. Ein idealtypisches Modell wird hier durch die Kopplung der Kollektivgütertheorie, die der Finanzwissenschaft zuzuordnen ist, mit der Vertragstheorie als Bestandteil der Neuen Institutionenökonomik erarbeitet. Empirische Beiträge zur Vertragstheorie bemängeln, dass es bei der Beschaffung von transaktionsspezifischen Investitionsgütern, wie etwa Flugzeugen mit besonderen Eigenschaften, aufgrund von Risiken und Umweltunsicherheiten zu ineffizienten Lösungen zwischen Vertragspartnern kommt. Die vorliegende Dissertation zeigt eine Möglichkeit auf, wie durch Aufbau einer gemeinsamen Informationsbasis ex-ante, also vor Vertragsschluss, Risiken und Umweltunsicherheiten reduziert werden können. Dies geschieht durch eine temporale Erweiterung eines empirischen Modells zur Bestimmung der Organisationsform bei transaktionsspezifischen Investitionsgütern aus der Regulierungsökonomik. Die Arbeitet leistet darüber hinaus einen Beitrag zur Steigerung der Effizienz in der humanitären Logistik durch die fallspezifische Betrachtung von horizontalen Kooperationen und Professionalisierung der Hilfeleistung im Bereich der humanitären Luftfahrt. Once a disaster occurs and recovery capabilities of the affected regions are exceeded, relief organizations from abroad are faced with sudden demand for establishing a logistical chain in order to deliver relief goods and services at the right time at the right place. Usually, transport capacities for long haul humanitarian transports are ordered as charter flights on the spot market. Market capacities are limited which can lead to delays and surcharges for positioning, though. Based upon theory of finance and institutional economics this thesis shows an organizational model for procurement, operations and funding where secured availability of resources is anticipated. This theoretical approach is then confronted with recent development in civil protection and defense aviation, such as approaches to cooperation through pooling and sharing of capacities and public private partnership, in order to give an economic policy advice.

Much has been written about the origins and contagious processes that led to the subprime crisis of 2007 first and to the financial crisis thereafter that characterize financial markets ever since. This retrospective is designed to illustrate that it has been human action in the very entrepreneurial or managerial sense that has caused the financial crisis to emanate and spread. From this viewpoint, responsible actors can be identified not only within financial intermediaries, but as bureaucratic and political entrepreneurs within public institutions as well.

In most of the cases, the first concern after committing the basic infraction is to transfer money abroad. The basic rule is that the person whose funds have to be transferred should not assume this risk. At the international level there are networks of professional couriers who take over the transfer action and provide the delivery of money abroad, at the established place.In certain money laundering schemes one may choose to create a foreign trust. The advantage in this case is that the owner of the capital may irrevocably transfer his property right to the trust, thus preventing the confiscation of the capital. The practice of money launderers has proven that these aspects are disadvantages which may be annihilated.

LPPL models have been widely used to describe the behaviour of stock prices during an endogenous bubble and to predict the most probable time of the regime switching. Although their utility has been proved in many papers, there is still a lack of consensus on the statistical robustness, as the estimators are obtained through a nonlinear optimization algorithm and they are sensitive to the initial values. In this paper we propose an extension of the approach from Liberatore (2011), using a time series peak detection algorithm.

This paper aims to identify the relationship between foreign direct investment and the investment environment. The major investment environment variables are highlighted, the strength and correlation between them. The scientific approach highlights the main motivations of international companies to invest in different countries’ economies, other than the origin ones, as well as the elements specific to the investment environment found in the acceptation of various international organisations and institutions. The model build is based on a multiple regression function and four variables that characterise the investment environment. The regression equation obtained, as well as the statistical analysis highlight how foreign direct investments are influenced by the model’s variables.

Money laundering is a process by which some people render or try to render a legal appearance to some profits obtained illegally by criminals who, without being compromised, will afterwards benefit from the respective incomes.In this context, the issue of money laundering, comprising a wide spectrum of directions, namely: the main landmarks regarding the appearance of “dirty†money and its laundering; the money laundering mechanism which mainly involves its A) the placement the initial movement of money, in order to change its form or place and to place it outside the authoritiesâ€(tm) coverage area of applying the law. For the incomes in cash which are permanently cashed, there are valid the first techniques used by the mafia groups in 1920 in the USA. Illegal money is mixed with money legally obtained from businesses which involve cash receipts. B) Stratification (or investment) represents the second stage of money laundering in which the money circulates within different companies, corporations and financial institutions, physically, by deposit or electronic transfer. One aims to physically move the money to other entities in order to separate it from its illegal source in an attempt to disguise its origin. In most of the cases, the first concern after committing the basic infraction is to transfer money abroad. The basic rule is that the person whose funds have to be transferred should not assume this risk. At the international level there are networks of professional couriers who take over the transfer action and provide the delivery of money abroad, at the established place and then its integration, respectively the return of clean money to the offender in order to be used as legally obtained money; regulations regarding money laundering, at international level (Convention from Vienna, Recommendations of the International Financial Group - GAFI 40 + 8 Special Recommendations regarding Terrorism Financing, European Union Directives) as well as at the national level; essential characteristics of the activity to prevent and fight against money laundering in Romania, which is mainly the responsibility of the National Department for Money Laundering Prevention and Control - ONPCSB, as well as the financial analysis of the activity to prevent and combat money laundering in Romania within 1999-2011, identifying the specific typologies of money laundering; the connection between money laundering and terrorism financing.

In regulated businesses, utility companies are facing asymmetric risks due to ex-ante regulation. Shareholders have to question whether their business is earning appropriate returns taking into account those asymmetric risks involved. Adequate performance measures need to be designed and installed in order to benchmark the regulated business against alternative investments. In our study we analyse the impact of regulation on the process of steering and more precisely on the definition of return requirements in the case of a Central and Eastern Europe gas industry with permanent ex-ante regulation. For this purpose, we examine the absolute return target by its two inputs, the rate of return and the investment basis. We conduct an Analytic Hierarchy Process in order to assess the options for the investment basis used to calculate an absolute return requirement in a structured way. Our findings show a twofold view on return requirements in terms of the time horizon. In short-term, regulatory parameters should be taken into account. However, in long-term those parameters can only serve as a figure to control whether regulatory conditions fulfil the needs of the shareholders. Our study shall contribute to the static analysis of regulation on return requirements and steering in the gas industry after privatization.

Recently, there has been a considerable interest in the Bayesian approach for explaining investors' behaviorial biases by incorporating conservative and representative heuristics when making financial decisions, (see, for example, Barberis, Shleifer and Vishny (1998)). To establish a quantitative link between some important market anomalies and investors' behaviorial biases, Lam, Liu, and Wong (2010) introduced a pseudo-Bayesian approach for developing properties of stock returns, where weights induced by investors' conservative and representative heuristics are assigned to observations of the earning shocks and stock prices. In response to the recent global financial crisis, we introduce a new pseudo-Bayesian model to incorporate the impact of a financial crisis. Properties of stock returns during the financial crisis and recovery from the crisis are established. The proposed model can be applied to investigate some important market anomalies including short-term underreaction, long-term overreaction, and excess volatility during financial crisis. We also explain in some detail the linkage between these market anomalies and investors' behavioral biases during financial crisis.

In this research paper I am going to use some of the complex strategies of options trading, with the help of an MCAE investor, namely: Spread Invers Balanced Call, Spread Invers Balanced Put, Bull Spread, Bear Spread, Long Futures Synthetic, Short Futures Synthetic.

Access and absorption of structural funds is the biggest challenge for public administration for business and nongovernmental sector. European integration itself depends on the optimization and efficient absorption of substantial funds for Romania. The main obstacles faced by new EU members, among which is found and Romania, are reflected in reduced ability to efficiently use the allocated funds, the lack of experience in developing large scale projects to European standards, lack of transparency in the organization auctions, and the low level of understanding of the methods by which to access European funding. This article aims to conduct an analysis of absorption of funds under the Operational Programmes in Romania.

The paper intends to identify elements which nowadays naturally bind the Romanian capital market to external financial circuits and to evaluate the dynamics of these one into a world of multiple conditionings in which the juxtaposition of influences may generate the intensification or disruption of the effects, and their reproduction in different circumstances may lead to results situated beyond anticipations.

Humans are always tempted to put general interest after the personal one, thus being inclined to consider taxes more as the ones who try to diminish their heritage. The phenomenon of avoiding to pay taxes towards the state namely tax evasion is especially characteristic to a free market economy and less to a directed, centralized economy or an economy controlled by the Government. Tax prejudices and not as legitimate contributions to public expenses, furthermore to see as being evil evasion is not only the image of fiscality, but also of a political and social climate, of nationality and religion. Human condition is responsible for the generalization of this particular phenomenon, together with the feeling of forfeit without receiving the equivalent back. There is a way of thinking in the minds of contributors that consists in not paying anything but only the absolutely necessary.

The transactions on the future markets represent a form of investment with a high degree of amplification of the effects, in which the movements of the prices can be fast and extensive. For these reasons the future markets represent an extremely attractive environment for the people who have a minimum capital and the required temper to make this kind of operations. The initial investments for the access on the futures markets represent a very small part from the total transacted value (usually a few percents), which means that sometimes we can obtain substantial profits.

No organisation is immune to risk. Moreover, each organisation’s risks change constantly. Every organisation must learn to anticipate and prevent risk by identifying, measures, and controlling business. In this article we will show that banking risk management is an ever-changing process shaped by general factors, such as the institution objectives, financial trends, government regulation, internal structure, the maturity structure of assets and liabilities, and the size and source of the risk. Obviously banks make money by taking risks and lose money by not managing risks effectively. In order to obtain performance, banks must take on higher levels of risks than in the past (E.E. Furash, 1999 cited by H. van Greuning, S. Brajovic Bratanovic).

We examine the relation between corporate governance and bankruptcy risk as an underlying force affecting a bond’s yield. The level of corporate governance is captured by the G-index, along with the explicit groups of governance provisions. We estimate bankruptcy risk by Z-score, by cash-flow-score, by O-score, through Merton structural model default probabilities, and by S&amp, P credit ratings. After addressing endogeneity and while controlling for firm-specific factors, based on the four objective methodologies we find that corporate governance is inversely related to bankruptcy risk. Yet, rating agencies take a mixed approach towards this association likely because of the conflicting impact of different governance provisions.

In the context of the financial innovation of the last few decades, when we were faced with an important diversification of the financial instruments used on the capital markets, the ETFs are revolutionary financial products with a strong impact on the global investment environment. The unique creation and buyback process along with characteristics such as transparency, liquidity, flexibility, reduced costs and diversification have transformed ETFs into the financial products with the biggest grow rate, products preferred even during crises. In the present paper, we try to analyze the world of ETFs (evolution, dynamics and special features that can respond to the complexity of needs portfolio investors have while deciding on the structure of their investment portfolios.

The deep crisis that crosses the American financial system, a real challenge for the proponents of globalization, has sent a strong shock wave throughout the global market, and the effects they can cause a systemic reconfiguration requires adaptation of the instruments of intervention. This crisis is not reversible, meaning that we will not back where we started, when the crisis will be overcome, as we enter into an era of increasing international regulations on financial markets, and from the perspective of States, in a prolonged period of high inflation and large deficits. The spread of these effects makes the uncertainty regarding economic developments of the variables to be extremely high, which helps to enhance the crisis by the negative effects it has on the expectations and increasing the degree of caution at the level of consumers and economic structures.