We measure the commonality in hedge fund returns, identify its main driving factor and analyze its implications for financial stability. We find that hedge funds’ commonality increased significantly from 2003 until 2006. We attribute this rise mainly to the increase in hedge funds’ exposure...

The theoretical literature remains inconclusive on whether changes in bank exposure to the domestic sovereign have an adverse effect on the sovereign risk position through a diabolic loop in the sovereign-bank nexus, or reduce perceived default risk by acting as a disciplinary device for the...

In this paper we study the existence of arbitrage opportunities in a multi-asset market when risk-neutral marginal distributions of asset prices are known. We first propose an intuitive characterization of the absence of arbitrage opportunities in terms of copula functions. We then address the...

This study examines whether mutual funds herd in industries and the extent to which such herding impacts industry valuations. Using two herding measures proposed by Lakonishok et al. (1992) and Sias (2004) we document that mutual funds herd in industries. We show that industry herding is not...

In this paper we present new pricing formulas for some single barrier style contracts of the European type when the underlying process is driven by an important class of Lévy processes, which includes the CGMY model, generalized hyperbolic model and Meixner model, frequently used in the...

We test the biasedness of unsolicited ratings relative to solicited ratings using the ex post firm performance measured by the long-run stock performance of firms following rating announcements and changes. We find that the announcements of new unsolicited ratings are followed by negative...

We study the mutual relationships between institutional ownership, analyst following and share prices. We show that the pressure on firms to set lower share prices to attract analysts is attenuated by institutional monitoring. Our theory refutes the assumed causal relation between share price...

This paper investigates the downside risk exposure of international stock returns in 14 major industrialized economies around the world. For the period 1975–2010, we find that differences in returns on value and growth portfolios can be rationalized by assets’ reagibilities to market’s...

We propose a novel Bayesian framework to incorporate uncertainty about the state of the market. Among others, one advantage of the framework is the ability to model a large collection of time-varying parameters simultaneously. When we apply the framework to estimate the cost of equity we find...

While the literature concerned with the predictability of stock returns is huge, surprisingly little is known when it comes to role of the choice of estimator of the predictive regression. Ideally, the choice of estimator should be rooted in the salient features of the data. In case of...