Optimal investment for insurers

We consider a stochastic model for the wealth of an insurance company which has the possibility to invest into a risky and a riskless asset under a constant mix strategy. The total insurance claim amount is modeled by a compound Poisson process and the price of the risky asset follows a geometric Brownian motion. We investigate the resulting integrated risk process and the corresponding discounted net loss process. This opens up a way to measure the risk of a negative outcome of the integrated risk process in a stationary way. We provide an approximation of the optimal investment strategy, which maximizes the expected wealth under a risk constraint on the Value-at-Risk.     

The role of banks in the governance of nonfinancial firms: Evidence from Europe

The aim of our research is to investigate the important role of banks in the governance of companies listed in the Euronext 100 index. Primarily, this research seeks to examine the impact of a bank’s presence within a firm, as a creditor or shareholder, on firm performance, as well as the motivations of banks to acquire holdings, and whether the presence of a bank as a shareholder of a firm facilitates its access to bank loans. Empirical analyses are conducted with a sample of 86 nonfinancial institutions listed in the Euronext 100 index over the period 2008–2013 using the three-stage least squares method. The study shows, first, that the presence of a bank within a firm, as a creditor or shareholder, is positively related to firm performance. Moreover, the firm’s performance is an important determinant of the presence of bank shareholding. Finally, the presence of a bank as a shareholder of a firm does not facilitate its access to bank loans.     

Politically connected boards,value or cost: evidence from a natural experiment in China

This study investigates the net effect of a politically connected board for a firm. Using a natural experiment in China – a regulatory change to forbid bureaucrats from sitting on the board of public firms – we address the causality of the net effect of a politically connected board by testing the market reaction of the shares of firm targeted by the regulatory change to the policy announcement. The stocks of firms with politically connected directors who are targeted by the regulatory change show on average a significantly positive abnormal return, which suggests that the agency cost effect of a politically connected director dominates the value effect. The result is robust to various model settings and to a matched sample using the propensity score methodology. Additionally, the announcement effect of the resignation of a politically connected director is significantly positive, and significantly higher than that of a non‐connected director. Overall, our results suggest that the agency cost effect of a politically connected director dominates the value effect.     

Presale Contract and its Embedded Default and Abandonment Options

The presale contract is a popular property selling method that allows a buyer to default on the remaining payment and/or a developer to abandon a project. Using a simple two-period game theoretical model, we derive a closed-form pricing equation for a presale contract that explicitly accounts for a developer??s abandonment option and a buyer??s default option. Although a developer has an abandonment option under either a spot sale or a presale method, the option is more valuable under a presale contract because of an additional cash inflow from the presale downpayment. A presale also provides a buyer a default option, which is valuable in a real estate market with uncertain demand and price risk. We analyze the implications of the abandonment option on a developer??s construction decision and choice of selling method, as well as the implications of the default option on a buyer??s purchase decision. Furthermore, our model framework has implications to the pricing of futures contracts that involve both stochastic revenues and costs.     

A Theory of Reasoned Action model of the Chartered Accountant career choice

This paper tests a Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model of the business student's choice of a career in Chartered Accountancy (CA). The CA designation is the Canadian equivalent of the American Certified Public Accountant (CPA). The TRA model predicts that a student's choice of a CA career is a function of the student's attitudes towards becoming a CA. In testing the TRA model, we defined attitudes in two ways: first, as the sum of the interactions between beliefs that becoming a CA will lead to certain outcomes and the evaluation of the importance of these outcomes in choosing a career; and second, as a ratio where the numerator is beliefs in the benefits and the denominator is beliefs in the costs of becoming a CA. Based on a survey of 897 graduating business students, we found support for the TRA model. We suggest that accounting recruiters should concentrate on students studying finance and economics and should promote specific outcomes of a CA career such as good long-term earnings, advancement opportunities, variety in the work, chance to make a contribution, and flexibility of career options.     

Performance and Merton-type default risk of listed banks in the EU: A panel VAR approach

This paper provides empirical evidence that sheds new light into the dynamic interactions between risk and efficiency, a highly debated issue. First, we estimate three alternative measures of bank performance, by employing a directional distance function framework, along with a cost frontier and a profit function. As a second step, we calculate a Merton-type bank default risk. Then, we employ a panel VAR analysis, which allows the examination of the underlying relationships between efficiency and risk without applying any a priori restrictions. Most evidence shows that the effect of a one standard deviation shock of the distance to default on inefficiency is negative and substantial. There is some evidence of a reverse causation. As part of a sensitivity analysis, we extent our study to investigate the relationship between efficiency and default risk for banks with different types of ownership structures and across financial systems with different levels of development.     

The Valuation of Interest Rate Digital Options and Range Notes Revisited

The aim of this paper is to value interest rate structured products in a simpler and more intuitive way than Turnbull (1995). Considering some assumptions with respect to the evolution of the term structure of interest rates, the price of a European interest rate digital call option is given. Recall it is a contract designed to pay one dollar at maturity if a reference interest rate is above a prespecified level (the strike), and zero in all the others cases. Combining two options of this type enables us to value a European range digital option. Then using a one factor linear gaussian model and the new well‐known change of numeraire approach, a closed‐form formula is found to value range notes which pay at the end of each defined period, a sum equal to a prespecified interest rate times the number of days the reference interest rate lies inside a corridor.     

WORLDS APART: STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES OF LEARNING INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNTING

This paper argues that, whilst a substantial amount of educational research has been conducted within the introductory accounting curriculum, there is scope for alternative research founded on a particular view of learning, that of social constructivism. In this view, learning is seen to be a response to a student's perception of, or way of experiencing, his or her particular situation rather than the outcome of a particular personality trait or a conditioned biographical response. This argument is supported by the presentation of the findings of a phenomenographic study into students' experiences of learning introductory accounting within the United Kingdom undergraduate curriculum. This qualitative interview-based research reveals two contrasting worlds of accounting: for most students it is a world of detachment and for only a few is it a world of engagement. Drawing on these findings, the paper proposes that an awareness of the nature of the student experience may provide a new way of viewing the introductory accounting curriculum and a new agenda for future research.     

Perfect hedging under endogenous permanent market impacts

We model a nonlinear price curve quoted in a market as the utility indifference curve of a representative liquidity supplier. As the utility function, we adopt a \(g\)-expectation. In contrast to the standard framework of financial engineering, a trader is no longer a price taker as any trade has a permanent market impact via an effect on the supplier’s inventory. The P&L of a trading strategy is written as a nonlinear stochastic integral. Under this market impact model, we introduce a completeness condition under which any derivative can be perfectly replicated by a dynamic trading strategy. In the special case of a Markovian setting, the corresponding pricing and hedging can be done by solving a semilinear PDE.     

Optimal Contracts in a Continuous-Time Delegated Portfolio Management Problem

This article studies the contracting problem between an individualinvestor and a professional portfolio manager in a continuous-timeprincipal-agent framework. Optimal contracts are obtained inclosed form. These contracts are of a symmetric form and suggestthat a portfolio manager should receive a fixed fee, a fractionof the total assets under management, plus a bonus or a penaltydepending upon the portfolio's excess return relative to a benchmarkportfolio. The appropriate benchmark portfolio is an activeindex that contains risky assets where the number of sharesinvested in each asset can vary over time, rather than a passiveindex in which the number of shares invested in each asset remainsconstant over time.     

现代公司的控制权矛盾与会计控制目标实现

在公司制企业的基本制度中 ,会计控制系统起着重要的基础性作用 ,其控制目标的实现与企业治理目标具有内在的不可分割的辨证关系。本文将关于现代公司控制权结构问题的一些新的研究成果引入对公司会计控制问题的思考 ,指出公司控制权矛盾的变迁是引发公司会计控制目标偏离的基本原因 ,认为公司权利的和谐配置是会计控制目标实现基础条件 ,这一现实不仅要求我们反思会计控制理论 ,同时要求我们在具体分析公司控制权矛盾的基础上重新思考会计控制的目标及其实现问题。     

Stochastic duration and fast coupon bond option pricing in multi-factor models

Generalizing Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1979), this paper defines the stochastic duration of a bond in a general multi-factor diffusion model as the time to maturity of the zero-coupon bond with the same relative volatility as the bond. Important general properties of the stochastic duration measure are derived analytically, and the stochastic duration is studied in detail in various well-known models. It is also demonstrated by analytical arguments and numerical examples that the price of a European option on a coupon bond (and, hence, of a European swaption) can be approximated very accurately by a multiple of the price of a European option on a zero-coupon bond with a time to maturity equal to the stochastic duration of the coupon bond. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Investment Horizon and Repo in the Over‐the‐Counter Market

This paper presents a three‐period model featuring a short‐term investor in the over‐the‐counter bond market. A short‐term investor stores cash because of a need to pay cash at some future date. If a short‐term investor buys bonds, then a deadline for retrieving cash lowers the resale price of bonds for the investor through bilateral bargaining in the bond market. Ex‐ante, this hold‐up problem explains the use of a repo by a short‐term investor, the existence of a haircut, and the vulnerability of a repo market to counterparty risk. This result holds without any uncertainty about bond returns or asymmetric information.     

Convenience yields

This paper revisits the notion of a convenience yield in the context of modern option pricing theory. We show that, with a proper specification of the cash flows to holding a commodity, a convenience yield as a separate concept does not exist. Rather, a convenience yield is best viewed as a label given to certain cash flows generated from storing a commodity. In particular, it represents the payoffs from two embedded options which we call the scarcity and usage options. This characterization of a convenience yield is new to the literature, although consistent with its existing interpretations and uses.     

Preparing a research proposal for a student research dissertation: a pedagogic note

When students are required to engage in research of one kind or another and to produce dissertations – whether as a substantial component of a research degree or as a lesser component in a taught degree – the research proposal is a crucial pedagogic mechanism. But whilst textbooks give guidance on the preparation of such a proposal they rarely provide an illustration of what a proposal might look like. This short note attempts to overcome this lack. It provides a fictitious proposal of a fictitious project in a form that may well be required of accounting and finance students. The note also provides some discussion about the process of construction of the proposal and then undertakes a brief auto-critique of the proposal itself. The note is intended, principally, to be used with students to help them in the construction of their own research proposals.     

Network dynamics in business angel group investment decisions

Investors within a Business Angel (BA) group are embedded in a cohesive network of relationships that arises from past joint investments. In this paper, we have studied how the network position of a BA within this network affects the likelihood that a company will receive investments from the BA group. We have hypothesized a curvilinear, inverse U-shaped relationship between the centrality of the BA and the probability of a company being funded by the BA group. Moreover, we have explored how the experience of a BA and the geographical proximity between the BA and the company influence such a relationship.     

A Factor Allocation Approach to Optimal Bond Portfolio

This paper proposes a new method to a bond portfolio problem in a multi-period setting. In particular, we apply a factor allocation approach to constructing the optimal bond portfolio in a class of multi-factor Gaussian yield curve models. In other words, we consider a bond portfolio problem in terms of a factors’ allocation problem. Thus, we can obtain clear interpretation about the relation between the change in the shape of a yield curve and dynamic optimal strategy, which is usually hard to be obtained due to high correlations among individual bonds. We first present a closed form solution of the optimal bond portfolio in a class of the multi-factor Gaussian term structure model. Then, we investigate the effects of various changes in the term structure on the optimal portfolio strategy through series of comparative statics.     

A perturbative approach to Bermudan options pricing with applications

In this paper we address the problem of the valuation of Bermudan option derivatives in the framework of multi-factor interest rate models. We propose a solution in which the exercise decision entails a properly defined series expansion. The method allows for the fast computation of both a lower and an upper bound for the option price, and a tight control of its accuracy, for a generic Markovian interest rate model. In particular, we show detailed computations in the case of the Bond Market Model. As examples we consider the case of a zero coupon Bermudan option and a coupon bearing Bermudan option; in order to demonstrate the wide applicability of the proposed methodology we also consider the case of a last generation payoff, a Bermudan option on a CMS spread bond.     

The price and quantity of residential land in the United States

One can conceptualize a house as a bundle comprising a reproducible tangible structure and a non-reproducible plot of land. When the value of a home is decomposed this way, land capitalizes the market value of a home's location. We develop a formal relationship between the dynamics of house prices, structures costs and land prices, and thereby construct the first constant-quality price and quantity indexes for the aggregate stock of residential land in the United States. In a range of applications we show that these series can shed light on trends, fluctuations and regional variation in the price of housing.