Yeung, Wing Chuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Background Study --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Liquidity Management --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Default Prediction Analysis --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Merton Model --- p.10 / Chapter 3 --- Insolvency Model --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1 --- Insolvency Probability --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2 --- Factors Affecting Insolvency Probability --- p.19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.29 / Chapter 4 --- "Profitability, Liquidity and Insolvency" --- p.30 / Chapter 4.1 --- Profitability and Liquidity --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2 --- Modified Insolvency Probability --- p.34 / Chapter 4.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.38 / Chapter 5 --- Decision on Optimal Liquidity Level --- p.39 / Chapter 5.1 --- Expected Loss in case of Insolvency --- p.40 / Chapter 5.2 --- Optimal Liquidity Level --- p.43 / Chapter 5.3 --- Numerical Example --- p.46 / Chapter 5.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.49 / Chapter 6 --- Liquidity Strategies --- p.50 / Chapter 6.1 --- Liquidity Strategies --- p.51 / Chapter 6.2 --- Scenario Tests --- p.54 / Chapter 6.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.59 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusions --- p.60 / Chapter A --- Fibonacci Algorithm --- p.62 / Chapter B --- Stimulation Results --- p.64 / Bibliography --- p.68

The ongoing shift from Defined Benefit (DB) pension plans to Defined Contribution (DC) pension plans in private sectors has transferred investment risk and longevity risk from pension providers to individuals. Professional advice on how to best generate retirement incomes from accumulated pension savings is therefore in great demand. A common solution is buying an immediate annuity; however the immediate annuity market has long been experiencing low demand. Another solution is following a safe drawdown rate during retirement; however this exposes retirees to the risk of outliving their pension savings. In recent years, behavioral factors have been successful in explaining individuals’ decision-making process, this thesis is therefore devoted to the investigation of the low demand of immediate annuities by considering behavioral models; and the use of annuity products in optimal decumulation strategy designs. This thesis has two major contributions. First, both Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) and Hyperbolic discount model can explain the low demand of immediate annuities and suggest that people would be willing to purchase deferred annuities. This has laid a research foundation for introducing and promoting the deferred annuity product. Second, we provide an optimal partial annuitisation strategy involving deferred annuities in a utility maximisation decumulation plan. In the proposed strategy the retirement period is divided into two stages: a stage where pensioners use their savings to cover their living expenses and a second stage where a payment stream from deferred annuities is available. This strategy effectively helps retirees manage the longevity risk at advanced ages and turns the drawdown plan from accumulated savings into an easier decision than before – because of a fixed rather than unknown drawdown period.

In finance the existence of corporate risk management is due to imperfections in financial markets. One of the main imperfections is associated with the cost of corporate risk that firms assume. Costly corporate risk creates a set of frictional costs and thereby decreases corporate value. Financial corporations manage their risk to reduce the expected value of frictional costs and enhance shareholders' value, and do so using a wide variety of tools. This dissertation primarily considers an insurance company as a special type of financial corporation leveraged by risky debt, and investigates the existence of risk management incentives in insurance in the presence of frictional costs such as financial distress costs and costs caused by the convexity of the corporate tax rate. Here one of the main tool of risk hedging is reinsurance, a classical tool for risk transfer in insurance, and this dissertation investigates demand for reinsurance in insurer value creation. Insurer risk management problems are also investigated here in a dynamic setting, where the main objective is to find optimal reinsurance and dividend payments under which the expected present value of future dividends is maximised. This dissertation also generalizes some classic actuarial results of reinsurance optimization under the mean-variance criterion. In this work optimal reinsurance is found endogenously for different reinsurance premium principle using standard methods of convex analysis. Finally this work considers an integrated market consisting of insureds, insurers and reinsurers, and studies the effect of the presence of reinsurance in this market on insurance price.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Exploring the main factors that determine bond spreads with respect to Treasury rates is one of the most critical issues in the corporate debt market. Credit risk has long been perceived as the most important determinant of bond spreads (Fisher, 1959). One of the most critical parameters in credit risk models is asset volatility, which includes idiosyncratic and systematic components. However, these models do not distinguish between them. Chapter 2 investigates the impact of idiosyncratic volatility on bond portfolio spreads between 2000 and 2010. While the prediction of traditional asset pricing models is that firm-specific risk should be diversified away at aggregate level, I find idiosyncratic volatility plays an incremental role in explaining bond portfolio spreads beyond the market factors. Recovery is an important measurement of credit risk additional to default probability. Chapter 3 focuses on the estimation of firm recovery after bankruptcy using the Leland and Toft (1996) model. Using a large sample of Chapter 11 filings from 1996 to 2007, I find that the recovery derived from the Leland and Toft model has strong explanatory power on the debt recovery observed in the market. Recent literature finds that all extant credit risk models significantly underestimate bond spreads, especially for investment grade bonds of short maturity. Chapter 4 identifies a heretofore ignored component, perceived accounting misstatement, by regressing bond spreads on the proxy of accounting misstatement propensity, while controlling for issuers’ default risk and bond illiquidity risk between January 1994 and June 2002. My thesis deepens the understanding of bond price discovery mechanisms and presents an important challenge for future research to incorporate the strong empirical relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and bond yields in asset pricing models. My thesis also sheds light on the accurate prediction of debt recovery, which is important to the valuation and hedging of risky debt and credit derivatives. Furthermore, my thesis assists in solving the credit spread puzzle by identifying a new risk factor. Overall, my thesis provides new insights into research on the corporate debt market and has important implications for academic scholars and market practitioners. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-30 20:22:12.594

Due to its inherent characteristics such as ubiquity, personalization, flexibility, and dissemination, mobile commerce promises business unprecedented market potential, greater productivity and higher profitability. With this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that mobile commerce is growing much faster than its fixed counterpart. Unlike e-commerce, m-commerce is personalized and there is a need for a novel approach to evaluating risk management in m-commerce projects. Result in the increase of risks management in m-commerce. Besides the business core activities, the increased use of derivative products by both financial and non-financial institutions and recent events or scandals continue to demonstrate the need for enhanced standards and processes of control over risk. In this thesis, I attempt to introduce a new method for performing risk analysis studies by effectively utilizing the existing risk management process framework with adoptions of analysis approach in m-commerce projects. It will provide a sequencing of the core part of the risk management process into sub-processes for identify context, identify risks, analyse risks, evaluate risks and treat risks in different respects of m-commerce. Moreover, it seems that the integration of risk management process and some analysis method indeed provided very useful new insights. To be able to fulfil the purpose of study, qualitative research method was considered, using an inductive approach of a single case study of m-commerce project in Trollhättan with m-commerce related research literature and scenario for development of restaurant in university west as source of data. Based on the analysis, a number of observations were put forward in the conclusion. To begin with the strategy in relation to management structure will be considered. In addition, the role of information technology security is considered in risk management. Meanwhile, the good governance and risk management according to m-commerce application in risk management system and corporate governance are included in the discussion. In attempt of risk management in the m-commerce projects, this thesis examines the issues in one case of m-commerce project in Trollhättan not only information secure issues and some technical viewpoints in m-commerce project but also from the project management's perspective. The contribution of the thesis will be introducing a new framework/module for performing a risk analysis studies in m-commerce projects domain and a proposal for risk management in the m-commerce projects case of Trollhättan.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-74).

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Finance; risk management; portfolio theory. Includes bibliographical references.

In analysing the extent to which adequate research work may have been undertaken in the specific area of computer disaster prevention, it was found that little work had been done. In the real-life situation, it was also concluded that, in the vast majority of cases, no adequate disaster prevention controls were in use at IT installations. Guidance for the analysis and management of the risk associated with computer disasters, as a result, has also been inadequate and lacking in uniformity, specially in the areas of risk identification and risk entities interactions and relationships. This research has involved developing and delivering a methodology which would help IT risk managers in implementing effective computer disaster prevention controls. A knowledge based system (KBS) approach has been used to build a prototype system which provides full support in this important area of decision making, and to show how the representation of risks can be handled.

This thesis addresses the need to reduce inefficiencies in management of insurance company risk capital. The laxity in managing the cost of capital is a result of dysfunctional property/casualty risk classification and capital accumulation practices in the insurance industry. We reclassify risk based on both peril and financial functional features, in order to capture all the facets of risk affecting a firm and ultimately to achieve optimal capital allocation. With the purpose of reducing inefficiencies in mind, we explore and isolate the impact of regulation on insurance company profitability. We use barrier option pricing models to mimic the impact of solvency requirements on firm-wide risk. This methodology of measuring risk is better than plain vanilla option pricing models, in that, through the option to an early default, we are able to capture the economic significance of financial distress, and allocate firm-wide risk capital. The firm-wide risk is incidentally used to empirically test the impact of risk on the cost of carry, the quality of operational profitability and forward asset commitment per unit of liabilities. Our empirical test confirms a strong relationship between firm-level risk, and the cost of carry, return on policyholders' surplus and the cost of capital per contract underwritten. The results are better than previous results obtained using plain vanilla option-pricing models and reveal the importance of incorporating solvency requirements in defining the economic significance of insolvency. The results also points to the importance of advised risk classification procedures to the whole process of integrated risk measurement and financing, which we explore in this study.