Is Volatility the Best Predictor of Market Crashes?

The objective of this paper is to determine the best predictor of equity market crashes by focusing particularly on volatility and market liquidity. In finance, volatility has traditionally been regarded as the best measure of market risk. However, this paper shows that the forecast value of market liquidity, in particular our modified calculated market depth, predicts equity market crashes much more accurately than does the forecast values of EGARCH or Implied Volatility.     

城镇化建设中工商银行面临的商机和经营对策

近年来城镇化建设已成为推动我国经济发展的主要动力之一,对此,商业银行应主动研究和分析我国城镇化建设对商业银行业务经营和拓展带来的影响.本文分析了当前我国城镇化建设的现状及发展方向,认为城镇化进程将会给工商银行带来较大的市场机遇.从实际出发,工商银行应加大对城镇基础公共设施建设、中小企业发展和城市土地经营管理的支持力度;积极发展个人消费信贷业务,努力拓展优质信贷市场,扩大同业市场占比;适应城镇化投融资体制改革的需要,加快金融业务创新步伐.同时,采取措施切实防范城镇化建设中可能出现的信贷风险.     

企业年金风险监管的主要环节与政策框架

我国企业年金运营模式复杂,年金市场涉及金融机构类型众多,风险监管尤为重要。首先要加强信用风险监管,保证相关利益主体的相对独立性,注重投资风险和运行的公平。监管机构应当加强主动监管,推动协同监管框架的创新尝试,加强监管主体之间以及其自身部门之间的信息沟通,重点监管关联交易及其可能带来的风险。     

Inf-convolution of risk measures and optimal risk transfer

We develop a methodology for optimal design of financial instruments aimed to hedge some forms of risk that is not traded on financial markets. The idea is to minimize the risk of the issuer under the constraint imposed by a buyer who enters the transaction if and only if her risk level remains below a given threshold. Both agents have also the opportunity to invest all their residual wealth on financial markets, but with different access to financial investments. The problem is reduced to a unique inf-convolution problem involving a transformation of the initial risk measures.Received: December 2004, Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 60G35, 91B28, 91B30, 46N10JEL Classification: C61, D81, G13, G22     

Auditors’ decision-making under going-concern uncertainties in low litigation-risk environments: Evidence from Hong Kong

This study examines the audit opinions issued by auditors in a low litigation-risk environment at a time of high economic uncertainty – that of Hong Kong in the period immediately after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Empirical research using United States data has shown that, contrary to professional guidance which restricts the issue of “disclaimer of opinion” only to situations where existing uncertainties prevent the auditor from forming an opinion, auditors tend to use the “disclaimer” report (in the going concern context) to signal more extreme client firm’s distress. In the high litigation-risk environment of the US, researchers have attributed this tendency to the idea that “disclaimer of opinion” reports are used by auditors to provide some protection against potential legal liability. The results of this study provide evidence that, even in the low litigation-risk environment of Hong Kong, auditors still use “disclaimer” reports to signal more extreme client firm financial distress. Thus, the maintenance of a high litigation-risk environment does not appear to be a necessary pre-requisite for high quality audits.     

信用违约风险传染模型的比较研究

本文试图对几种有代表性的模型进行比较,来分析由于建模方式的不同,而导致的对信用期权定价和对冲的结果的不同.如果将违约风险传染考虑进去,类似德隆帝国崩溃的事件,或许就能避免.     

Pricing of swaps with default risk

In this paper, I study the valuation of interest rate and currency swaps with default risk under the contingent claim analysis framework. I demonstrate that the traditional approach of pricing swap contracts as exchanges of loans underestimates the value of such contracts to the counterparty with higher credit rating and exaggerates the credit spread required to guard against default risk. Numerical simulations show that the swap rate is not sensitive to counterparty credit rating: for a ten year interest rate swap, a one hundred basis point increase in counterparty bond yield spread results in only about one basis point increase in the swap rate. (JEL G10, G12, G13)This paper is based on Chapter 2 of my Ph.D. dissertation at Yale University. I would like to thank my dissertation committee, Kenneth French, Roger Ibbotson, and Jonathan Ingersoll, Jr. (chairman), for helpful advice and guidance. I would also like to thank Keny Back, Richard Lindsey, N. R. Prabhala, Ming Huang, Marti Subrahmanyam, three anonymous referees and especially Bob Jarrow, the editor, for helpful comments and suggestions. Any errors that remain are solely mine. This paper won the 1996 Trefftzs Award for best student paper from the Western Finance Association.     

Determinants of yield spread dynamics: Euro versus US dollar corporate bonds

This paper presents a systematic comparison between the determinants of euro and US dollar yield spread dynamics. The results show that US dollar yield spreads are significantly more affected by changes in the level and the slope of the default-free term structure and the stock market return and volatility. Surprisingly, euro yield spreads are strongly affected by the US (and not the euro) level and slope. This confirms the dominance of US interest rates in the corporate bond markets. Interestingly, I find that liquidity risk is higher for US dollar corporate bonds than euro corporate bonds. For both regions, the effect of changes in the bid-ask spread is mainly significant during periods of high liquidity risk. Finally, the results indicate that the credit cycle as measured by the region-specific default probability significantly increases US yield spreads. This is not the case for euro yield spreads.     

The role of no-arbitrage on forecasting: Lessons from a parametric term structure model

Parametric term structure models have been successfully applied to numerous problems in fixed income markets, including pricing, hedging, managing risk, as well as to the study of monetary policy implications. In turn, dynamic term structure models, equipped with stronger economic structure, have been mainly adopted to price derivatives and explain empirical stylized facts. In this paper, we combine flavors of those two classes of models to test whether no-arbitrage affects forecasting. We construct cross-sectional (allowing arbitrages) and arbitrage-free versions of a parametric polynomial model to analyze how well they predict out-of-sample interest rates. Based on US Treasury yield data, we find that no-arbitrage restrictions significantly improve forecasts. Arbitrage-free versions achieve overall smaller biases and root mean square errors for most maturities and forecasting horizons. Furthermore, a decomposition of forecasts into forward-rates and holding return premia indicates that the superior performance of no-arbitrage versions is due to a better identification of bond risk premium.     

借鉴美国的监管方式强化我国的金融监管

全球金融市场面临越来越大的风险,监管日益成为重要课题。怎样把金融资源放到最有效的地方去,同时使风险得到最好的控制,这是我国金融体制改革亟待解决的问题。因此,借鉴美国的监管方式,研究我国金融现状,提出完善金融监管的措施,是当前金融体制改革的重点。