Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec.31, 2008). "College of Business." Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Economics, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 6, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-167). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323095."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Economics, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.

In this thesis, we introduce a non-probabilistic model for the short-term interest rate. The key concepts involved in this new approach are the non-diffusive nature of the short rate process and the uncertainty in the model parameters. The model assumes the worst possible outcome for the short rate path when pricing a fixed-income product (from the point of view of the holder) and differs in many important ways from the traditional approaches of fully deterministic or stochastic rates. In this new model, delta hedging and unique pricing play no role, nor does any market price of risk term appear. We present the model and explore the analytical and numerical solutions of the associated partial differential equation. We show how to optimally hedge the interest rate risk of a fixed-income portfolio and price and hedge common and exotic fixed-income products. Finally, we consider extensions to the model and present conclusions and areas for further research.

The objective of this thesis is to highlight the Egyptian experiment concerning its economic reform programme, and to determine whether this programme has affected Egypt's stock market performance. Using 18 years of data, which covered the period 1980/8 1 to 1997/98 and incorporates time periods prior to and after adopting the economic reform programme, the thesis empirically investigates three main issues. Firstly, there is an examination of whether the Egyptian government succeeded in implementing its economic reform programme by looking to the main economic indicators: nominal interest rates, real interest rates, the inflation rate, exchange rate stability, the real GDP growth rate, per capita income and the budget deficit in Egypt after 1991, and comparing them with the same indicators prior to this period. Secondly, the thesis considers the changes in Egypt's stock market after the introduction of the economic reform programme by measuring the changes in four main dimensions: market activity, market size, market liquidity and market concentration. Thirdly, and this is the main part of the thesis, the research concentrates on examining the impact of Egypt's economic reform programme on its stock market performance. For the first two issues, several logistic regressions are performed to determine whether the data prior to 1991 can be separated from the data relating to the period after 1991. The results from this analysis indicate clearly that both type of data series witnessed dramatic changes after 1991. As to the third issue, cointegration analysis is used to model the relationship between economic reform programme variables and the stock market performance variables within an error correction model form. Generally speaking, the results from this analysis demonstrate that economic variables have an impact upon various features of market activity, market size, market liquidity and market concentration. An important observation in this thesis is that Egypt still needs to accelerate its rate of growth, as it was the only independent variable, which did not show any significant change or significant impact upon the stock market performance variables.

<p> The thesis takes as its point of departure the "long-run monetary union" between France and fifteen French-speaking African countries to provide insights into how the rules, mechanisms and practices underlying the monetary dependence of these African states operate. The main objective of the study is to contribute towards a better understanding of the institutions and principles governing the CFA franc zone with the intention of helping policy-makers to take optimal decisions.</p><p> A well-designed monetary policy could generate employment and pro-poor growth. But designing and administering a good policy will depend on the objective of policy designers. In principle, monetary authorities could choose between a fixed exchange regime and a flexible exchange regime. Of this, the above African countries adopted a managed regime with France since 1945. In this study, I examine the relationship between monetary autonomy and poverty reduction in the Franc Zone. The discussion focused on the impact of monetary independence on poverty incidence and poverty gap in the fifteen African nations.</p><p> I utilized two OLS model equations. The functions were estimated using data from a panel of 14 countries (the exception being Equatorial Guinea because insufficient data were available) in the CFA franc zone and covering the 1984-2011 period. Seven predictor variables were forced into the models. With regard to the findings, only four of them such as inflation and, more importantly, credit to private sector, centralization rate, exchange rate and gross national savings are important to headcount index and the depth of poverty reduction in the CFA franc zone.The results therefore suggest that monetary sovereignty measured by the specified variables is a driving force for poverty reduction in the CFA franc zone.</p>