This paper analyzes how combining firms into either groups or conglomerates affects their credit standing, as measured by their de- fault probabilities, recovery rates and credit spreads. Each combina- tion offers protection against default to its affiliates, and issues debt to optimize the...

This paper provides the static, swap-based hedge for an annuity, and compares it with the dynamic, delta-based hedge, achieved using longevity bonds. We assume that the longevity intensity is distributed according to a CIR-type process and provide closed-form derivatives prices and hedges, also...

This report is one of the outputs resulting from Workpackage 4, "Social and professional integration" of the WALQING project, SSH-CT-2009-244597 (www.walqing.eu).

This paper provides a closed-form Value-at-Risk (VaR) for the net exposure of an annuity provider, taking into account both mortality and interest-rate risk, on both assets and liabilities. It builds a classical risk- return frontier and shows that hedging strategies - such as the transfer of...

Theoretical considerations suggest that workers holding temporary contracts should accumulate more general human capital than workers under permanent contracts. Using matched employer-employee data, we find empirical support for this hypothesis, by showing that dismissed temporary workers are...

We propose a simple test that uses information on workers’ mobility, wages and firms’ profits to identify the sign and strength of assortative matching. The basic intuition underlying our empirical strategy is that, in the presence of positive (negative) assortative matching, good workers...

The paper studies the equilibrium value of bid-ask spreads and time- to-trade in a continuous-time, intermediated fi?nancial market. The en- dogenous spreads are the price at which brokers are willing to offer imme- diacy. They include physical trading costs. Traders intervene optimally, when...

The paper explores the fit properties of a class of multivariate Lévy processes, which are characterized as time-changed correlated Brownian motions. The time-change has a common and an idiosyncratic component, to re ect the properties of trade, which it represents. The resulting process may...

We analyze theoretically banks’ choice of organizational structures in branches or subsidiaries in the presence of government bailouts, default costs and - possibly - economies of scale as sources of financial synergies. We compare with stand-alone banks. Subsidiary and branch structures...

This article studies the dynamics and persistence of poverty in Italy during the nineties (1994-2001). Two definitions of poverty are analyzed: income poverty and a multidimensional index of life-style deprivation. For both definitions, poverty exit and re-entry rates are estimated and combined...