European Sovereign Debt Crisis Conference, Conference Organizer

Scientific Conference (2015)

Market Perceptions of US and European Policy Actions around the Subprime Crisis

in Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money (2015), 37

The Impact of Policy Responses on Stock Liquidity

in Applied Economics Letters (2014)

Is there a Bubble in the Art Market?

E-print/Working paper (2014)

Skewness Term Structure Tests

E-print/Working paper (2014)

The Relative Informational Efficiency of Stocks, Options and Credit Default Swaps

in Journal of Risk Finance (2014), 15(5),

Market Perceptions of US and European policy actions around the subprime crisis

Scientific Conference (2013, December)

Timeliness in Selected Structural Credit Risk Models

E-print/Working paper (2013)

We empirically investigate and evaluate various approaches to structurally assess credit risk changes using a panel of selected European banking groups. The objective is to evaluate the models according ... [more ▼]

We empirically investigate and evaluate various approaches to structurally assess credit risk changes using a panel of selected European banking groups. The objective is to evaluate the models according to one metric, i.e., their ability to correctly and timely identify changes in credit risk indicators useful for macroprudential policy. We consider not only the standard approaches in the literature, but also include models that allow the asset volatility to be stochastic and models that allow for short- and long-term components of default risk. Surprisingly, we find that the GARCH structural credit risk model, despite its more sophisticated modeling approach, typically underperforms more basic models. Importantly for macro-prudential policy, combining the Merton model with the GARCH-MIDAS model performs best and reflects important market events earlier than the other approaches. [less ▲]

Do Fund Investors Know that Risk is Sometimes not Priced?

E-print/Working paper (2013)

Previous research suggests that investor sentiment has an influence on the market's risk-return trade-off. Noise tradersídemand for assets is considered to be risk independent and, as a result, risky ... [more ▼]

Previous research suggests that investor sentiment has an influence on the market's risk-return trade-off. Noise tradersídemand for assets is considered to be risk independent and, as a result, risky assets do not offer a risk premium when demand is high. We show that market risk is only a priced factor of expected fund returns when investor sentiment is low. Furthermore, fund investors seem aware that risk is sometimes not priced. During high sentiment periods, "smart" investors buy safe funds that subsequently outperform and sell risky funds that subsequently underperform. Our results are statistically and economically significant. [less ▲]

Uncertainty avoidance, risk tolerance and corporate takeover decisions

in Journal of Banking and Finance (2013), 37

In this paper, we examine the role of national culture in corporate takeover decisions, by arguing that managerial risk tolerance (a combination of risk aversion and risk perception), at the national ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we examine the role of national culture in corporate takeover decisions, by arguing that managerial risk tolerance (a combination of risk aversion and risk perception), at the national level, is a cultural trait and affects the expected net synergies CEOs require. We propose a theoretical framework that links CEO risk tolerance to the expected net synergies. We empirically show that CEOs of firms located in countries with lower levels of risk tolerance, measured by Hofstede’s (1980, 2001) uncertainty avoidance score, require higher premiums on takeovers, and show that uncertainty avoidance plays a greater role in relatively large takeovers. Additional testing reveals that CEOs from high uncertainty avoiding nations engage less in cross-border/cross-industry takeovers, suggesting that uncertainty avoidance captures more the CEO’s risk perception than his/her risk aversion. [less ▲]