This paper provides closed-form likelihood approximations for multivariate jump-diffusion processes widely used in finance. For a fixed order of approximation, the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE) computed from this approximate likelihood achieves the asymptotic efficiency of the true yet uncomputable MLE as the sampling interval shrinks. This method is used to uncover the realignment probabi...

This paper applies an established bid-ask spread decomposition model to short-term interest rate (STIR) futures to assess the impact of both the migration from floor to electronic trading and European Monetary Union (EMU). Additionally, the paper presents and tests a modified decomposition model which is specifically adapted to the features of order-driven markets. The latter model provides muc...

The objective of this paper is to situate the MENA area within the emerging markets universe. We first discuss the various components of market emergence and generate four bootstrapped indexes reflecting market size, market activity, market pricing and transparency. We then draw inter-regional and country-level comparisons using a probit model and a hierarchical cluster analysis. Our results su...

The paper analyzes the interactions between the precision of information, trade and welfare within a decision framework of an exporting firm. Information in a financial market is described in terms of a publicly observable signal. With higher transparency, the signal conveys more precise information about the random foreign exchange rate. More precise information about exchange rate changes has...

Using the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index record breaking days as a proxy for market wide attention, we show that as the aggregate stock market intensifies investor attention, stock market response to individual firms’ earnings announcements significantly increases. We hypothesize that there are many channels for the attention spill-over effect and document strong supportive evidence of one ...

In this paper the author formulates and tests an international intertemporal capital asset pricing model in the presence of deviations from purchasing power parity (II-CAPM [PPP]). He finds evidence in favor of at least mild segmentation of international equity markets in which only global market risk appears to be priced. When using the Hansen & Jagannathan (1991, 1997) variance bounds and dis...

This study investigates whether intraday returns contain important information for forecasting daily volatility. Whereas in the existing literature volatility models for daily returns are improved by including intraday information such as the daily high and low, volume, the number of trades, and intraday returns, here the volatility of intraday returns is explicitly modelled. Daily volatility f...

We estimate and test the conditional version of an International Capital Asset Pricing Model using a parsimonious multivariate GARCH process. Since our approach is fully parametric, we can recover any quantity that is a function of the first two conditional moments. Our findings strongly support a model which includes both market and foreign exchange risk. However, both sources of risk are only...

This paper attempts to assess the Europe-wide systemic risk potential in banking. We employ a bivariate GARCH model to estimate conditional correlations between European bank stock indices. These correlations are used as an indication for the interdependencies amongst the banking business and hence for the systemic risk potential. We employ several tests to assess the development of the systemi...

We estimate the exposure of emerging-market companies to fluctuations in their domestic exchange rates. We use an instrumental-variable approach that identifies the total exposure of a company to exchange-rate movements, yet abstracts from the influence of confounding macroeconomic shocks. We find the impact of depreciations on emerging-market stock returns is overwhelmingly negative. Since we ...