A note on closet-indexing

Actively managed equity mutual funds with returns that are highly correlated with popular stock market indices like the S&P 500 often are accused of “closet-indexing”. We ask whether a trading strategy that shorts these funds and buys “true” index funds makes money for investors. Using a sample of high-R² growth-and-income funds from the CRSP survivor bias free mutual fund file, we document that the Sharpe ratio of this trading strategy and the market Sharpe ratio are statistically indistinguishable in the 1991–2000 sample period. The result is consistent with the view that widespread closet-indexing does not exist in the mutual fund industry.     

The Galileo Project put to the test of European competition and public procurement law

The following article throws some light on the (fragile) legal foundations of the Galileo Project, the European Satellite Navigation System, and gives an interpretation of the normative procurement rules of the EU. Additionally it tries to reveal the practical problems of upholding the principle of free competition and an open market in as much as the procurement of high technology concerns a highly olipolistic market.     

Research note: Implications of differing perceptions in emerging European management styles

Discrepancies between Eastern and Western perceptions remain the first challenge Western managers are faced with when seeking to invest in Eastern Europe. Brushing aside local cultures and erasing differences might foster misunderstandings and prevent genuine economic cooperation. Factors such as exaggerated centralization, insufficient motivation towards profit, unsuitable internal organization, risk aversion, unrecognized Human Resource Management (HRM), and lack of conflict management are at the root of the differences in Eastern and Western perceptions. In emerging European markets, management as a whole is influenced widely by foreign styles, but imposed models are rejected and a specific managerial culture blending local features is developing. Through this development, which will remain country specific, emerging Eastern values will shape the political, social, industrial, and cultural environment underlying economic institutions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A note on the maximum revenue tariff

This note attempts to prove that the maximum revenue tariff when the tariff revenue is measured in units of the exportable good will be higher than the maximum revenue tariff when the tariff revenue is measured in units of the importable good.     

A note on rational call option exercise

Using Swedish equity option data, the rationality in the exercise of American call options is analyzed to see how well it complies with the theoretical exercise rules. Although the exercise behavior appears to be rational overall, several cases of both faulty exercise and failure to exercise are found. Almost a third of the early exercised calls are exercised at other times than predicted by theory. Several of these exercise decisions could potentially be explained by transaction costs, indicating that market frictions do affect the exercise behavior. However, over two thirds of the faulty exercises cannot be explained at all. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:471–482, 2002     

A European perspective on public debt

Public debt in Europe has risen continuously over the last two decades. How is the transition to European Economic and Monetary Union, with the increasing economic interdependence between individual member states which it involves, likely to affect this situation? Which policy issues are of particular relevance in this setting?     

A note on tariffication strategy cases in telecommunications

The tariff policy of a telecommunication operator has a strategic importance on achieving optimal revenues and a fundamental impact on its position in the competition with other operators on the liberalised telecommunication market. The payment for a connection through a telecommunication network may be determined by a rate for one call unit, by the duration of the call unit and their count during a call. An operator derives the rate and the duration of the call unit from a detailed analysis of large databases that contain statistical data on counts and duration of particular calls depending on the type of call. Usually only the operator knows these data files and keeps them confidential. In this note we show how it is possible to estimate revenues from telecommunication traffic only knowing a set of basic parameters.     

A note on the valuation of compound options

The value of a compound option, an option on an option, has been derived by Geske (1976) using Fourier integrals. This article presents two alternative proofs to derive the value of a compound option. One proof is based on the martingale approach, which provides a simple and powerful tool for valuing contingent claims. The second proof uses the expectation of a truncated bivariate normal variable. These proofs allow for an intuitive interpretation of the three elements constituting the value of a compound option. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:1103–1115, 2002     

A note on ‘trade pattern reversals’

Samuelson's 1975 paper investigating the possibilities of immiserizing trade reversals stemming from autonomous variations of the rate of profit strongly criticizes Emmanuel's Unequal Exchange treatment of that issue. The author of the present note believes that the Samuelson theorems are both inconsistent in themselves and irrelevant to his treatment. This note, however, is confined to the second contention: showing the main points of misrepresentation of the Emmanuel analysis.     

A note on completeness in large financial markets

We study completeness in large financial markets, namely markets containing countably many assets. We investigate the relationship between asymptotic completeness in the global market and completeness in the finite submarkets, under a no-arbitrage assumption. We also suggest a way to approximate a replicating strategy in the large market by finite-dimensional portfolios. Furthermore, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for completeness to hold in a factor model.