We show how the timing of financial innovation might have contributed to the mortgage boom and then to the bust of 2007-2009. We study the effect of leverage, tranching, securitization and CDS on asset prices in a general equilibrium model with collateral. We show why tranching and leverage tend...

This is the graduation speech I gave on receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Athens Economics and Business School. I talk about my Greek family, about how I got interested in economics, and then how in the 1990s I came to think about default, collateral, and leverage as the...

We discuss how leverage can be monitored for institutions, individuals, and assets. While traditionally the interest rate has been regarded as the important feature of a loan, we argue that leverage is sometimes even more important. Monitoring leverage provides information about how risk builds...

We show how the timing of financial innovation might have contributed to the mortgage bubble and then to the crash of 2007-2009. We show why tranching and leverage first raised asset prices and why CDS lowered them afterwards. This may seem puzzling, since it implies that creating a derivative...

This paper introduces a new method of investment performance analysis, based on the recent approach of Average Internal Rate of Return (AIRR). We show that the approach generates rates of return suitable for assessing both a fund´s (portfolio´s) performance and a manager´s performance. The...

Questo articolo si propone di dimostrare che il ROE (Return On Equity) ha un significato economico pregnante, al contrario di quanto sostenuto nella letteratura finanziaria e manageriale, nonché nella prassi aziendale. In particolare, un´opportuna media dei ROE è in grado di segnalare la...

This teaching note shows the relationship between levered and unlevered betas and the general formulation for the cost of equity. It also shows, step by step, the procedure to estimate betas from data found in the stock market.It shows well known procedures for estimating betas: correlation...

In investment appraisal, uncertainty can be managed through intervals or fuzzy numbers because the arithmetical properties and the extension principle are well established and can be successfully applied in a rigorous way. We apply interval and fuzzy numbers to the Average Internal Rate of...

This teaching note shows the relationship between levered and unlevered betas and the general formulation for the cost of equity. It also shows, step by step, the procedure to estimate betas from data found in the stock market.It shows well known procedures for estimating betas: correlation...

The use of equilibrium models in economics springs from the desire for parsimonious models of economic phenomena that take human reasoning into account. This approach has been the cornerstone of modern economic theory. We explain why this is so, extolling the virtues of equilibrium theory; then...