Modelling conditional moments and correlation with the continuous hidden-threshold-skew-normal distribution

A key issue in modelling conditional densities of returns of financial assets is the time-variation of conditional volatility. The classic econometric approach models volatility of returns with the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models where the conditional mean and the conditional volatility depend only on historical prices. We propose a new family of distributions in which the conditional distribution depends on a latent continuous factor with a continuum of states. The distribution has an interpretation in terms of a mixture distribution with time-varying mixing probabilities. The distribution parameters have economic interpretations in terms of conditional volatilities and correlations of the returns with the hidden continuous state. We show empirically that this distribution outperforms its main competitor, the mixed normal conditional distribution, in terms of capturing the stylized facts known for stock returns, namely, volatility clustering, leverage effect, skewness, kurtosis and regime dependence.     

Labor Mobility: Implications for Asset Pricing

Labor mobility is the flexibility of workers to walk away from an industry in response to better opportunities. I develop a model in which labor flows make bad times worse for shareholders who are left with capital that is less productive. The model shows that firms face greater operating leverage by providing flexibility to mobile workers. I construct an empirical measure of labor mobility consistent with the model and document an economically significant cross‐sectional relation between mobility, operating leverage, and stock returns. I find that firms in mobile industries earn returns over 5% higher than those in less mobile industries.     

The Marshall Plan and the Spanish postwar economy: a welfare loss analysis1

This article uses historical fact as a natural experiment to measure a country's welfare loss from shifting from an allowed to a restricted trade situation, based on international trade theory. A welfare loss of 8 per cent of GDP is found. The evolution of domestic import and export prices in Spain in 1940–58 fits international trade theory assumptions. The main years of autarky are not those commonly considered, but 1947–55, marked by the exclusion of Spain from the Marshall Plan and the Madrid Treaty between Franco's regime and the US. The upper‐bound welfare loss for 1947–55 is 26 per cent of GDP.     

Flow Effects of Central Bank Asset Purchases on Sovereign Bond Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

We estimate the response of sovereign bond prices to net supply shocks caused by purchase operations under the ECB's Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). To avoid simultaneity bias in the estimated relationship between prices and purchases, we exploit a PSPP feature that renders securities temporarily ineligible for reasons unrelated to their prices. Using these purchase restrictions as an instrument to identify exogenous variation in purchase volumes, we find that PSPP causes statistically significant and economically relevant upward price impacts. The impacts are short-lived and concentrated in securities issued by higher yield jurisdictions and characterized by higher maturity and lower liquidity.     

Hedge Fund Contagion and Liquidity Shocks

Defining contagion as correlation over and above that expected from economic fundamentals, we find strong evidence of worst return contagion across hedge fund styles for 1990 to 2008. Large adverse shocks to asset and hedge fund liquidity strongly increase the probability of contagion. Specifically, large adverse shocks to credit spreads, the TED spread, prime broker and bank stock prices, stock market liquidity, and hedge fund flows are associated with a significant increase in the probability of hedge fund contagion. While shocks to liquidity are important determinants of performance, these shocks are not captured by commonly used models of hedge fund returns.     

Adolescent shopping behaviour: Different assimilation and individuation needs in France and the United States

What causes adolescents to prefer to shop with friends rather than family? A study of 570 adolescents assesses the combined effects of the individuation and assimilation needs that underlie adolescent shopping behaviours across two cultures (France and the United States). Whereas assimilation is more important than individuation to explain the frequency of shopping with friends in France, individuation is more important in the United States. Insights into the motives that drive adolescents to shop with friends suggest some cues that retailers might use to attract this growing segment, more effectively and across cultures.