Denna uppsats behandlar vilka faktorer som påverkar svenska fastighetsbolags syn på ränteswappar och huruvida coronapandemin, IFRS regelverket, den nya referensräntan Swestr eller bolagens rating har någon betydelse i detta. Studien undersöker vidare hur stor efterfrågan på räntederivat tidigare har varit, samt hur framtidsutsikterna ser ut gällande användandet av ränteswappar. För att besvara studiens problemformulering har en kvalitativ metod använts, där fem semistrukturerade intervjuer med både fastighetsbolag och en bank varit utgångspunkten till arbetets slutsats. Studiens resultat visar att samtliga tillfrågade fastighetsbolag har en egen räntesäkringsstrategi och egna preferenser vad gäller räntederivat. Idag använder en klar majoritet av svenska fastighetsbolag ränteswappar i sina räntesäkringsstrategier, men studien tyder på att mindre aktörer på marknaden eventuellt i framtiden kommer söka sig till simplare lösningar. Vidare visar studien att varken coronapandemin, IFRS regelverket eller Swestr påverkar fastighetsbolagens förhållningssätt till ränteswappar. Däremot kan det externa ratingbetyget indirekt ha en koppling till hur ett fastighetsbolag väljer att hedga sig mot räntefluktuationer.  Studiens område är fortsatt vagt undersökt och ämnet kommer förbli intressant att forska vidare på i framtiden. / This study deals with the factors that affect Swedish real estate companies´ views on interest rate swaps and whether the corona pandemic, the IFRS regulations, the new reference interest rate Swestr or the companies external rating have any significance in this. The study further examines how the demand for interest rate swaps has changed and how the future looks like. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative method has been used, with five semi-structured interviews with both real estate companies and a bank. The collected answers have formed the basis of this paper's conclusion.  The results of the study show that all real estate companies surveyed have their own interest rate hedging strategy, and their own preferences on interest rate derivatives. A majority of Swedish real estate companies use interest rate swaps today in their interest rate hedging strategies, but this study indicates that smaller real estate corporations in the market may seek more simple solutions in the future. Furthermore, the study indicates that neither the coronavirus pandemic, the IFRS regulations nor Swestr has an impact in the real estate companies´ approach towards interest rate swaps. On the other hand, the external rating can indirectly be a reason why real estate companies choose to hedge with interest rate derivatives against interest rate fluctuations. The field of study is still vaguely researched and the subject will remain interesting to research in the future.

As taxas reais de juro básicas que têm sido praticadas no Brasil ao longo de um período de já quase quinze anos têm se mantido de forma permanente em níveis extremamente elevados quando comparadas com as taxas historicamente praticadas no país, ou quanto colocadas em uma perspectiva internacional. Neste trabalho, procurou-se proceder a uma análise crítica sistemática das principais teorias sugeridas pelo campo ortodoxo da teoria econômica com o objetivo de explicar a situação excepcional do Brasil, examinando os resultados empíricos por elas obtidos. De um modo geral, a análise conduzida não encontrou evidências satisfatórias capazes de sustentar a relevância ou por vezes a própria validade das teorias examinadas, as quais demonstraram claramente ser tanto teórica quanto empiricamente insuficientes para justificar a manutenção dos níveis das taxas reais de juro praticados no país. Assim, as conclusões e recomendações de política construídas a partir do conjunto de teorias aqui analisado cuja adequação para o caso brasileiro é posta em dúvida neste trabalho devem ser normalmente vistas com reserva. Por outro lado, procedeu-se a uma análise crítica dos fundamentos teóricos e empíricos sobre os quais se apóia a maneira em que a política monetária tem sido conduzida no país, de forma a verificar se as excepcionais taxas reais de juro brasileiras não decorreriam das necessidades impostas por uma política cujo principal objetivo declarado é manter o controle da inflação. Após proceder ao exame desses fundamentos, não se encontraram na condução da política monetária os elementos que pudessem justificar a particularidade daquelas taxas. Tendo a abordagem ortodoxa se mostrado globalmente insatisfatória como forma de explicar as taxas reais de juro brasileiras, é introduzida uma abordagem alternativa baseada na economia das convenções, a qual se mostrou a princípio capaz de fornecer bons indicativos para resolver a questão. / The basic real interest rates which have been in place in Brazil throughout a period of almost fifteen years remained at extremely high levels when compared against those rates historically valid in the country or when placed into an international perspective. This work has tried to proceed to a systematic analysis of the main theories suggested by the economic orthodoxy, which aim to explain the exceptional situation of Brazil, examining the empirical results such theories have obtained. In a general manner, the analysis has not found satisfactory evidences able to support the relevance or even in some cases the validity for the examined theories, which have clearly demonstrated being both theoretically and empirically insufficient to explain the maintenance of the levels of real interest rates in Brazil. Thus, the conclusions and policy recommendations built from such theories whose capacity of fitting to the Brazilian case was challenged in this work must be taken with particular care. By the other hand, it was performed an analysis on the theoretical and empirical grounds of the manner in which monetary policy was conducted in the country, in order to verify whether the exceptional Brazilian real interest rates could not be originated from the requirements imposed by a policy whose main declared target consists in maintaining the control of the inflation level. After examining those fundamentals, no elements on the monetary policy conduction were found which could justify the peculiarity of those rates. As the orthodox approach turned to be globally unsatisfactory as a way of explaining the Brazilian real interest rates, it was introduced an alternative approach, based on the economics of conventions, which showed itself as being able at first to provide useful insights to help to solve the question.

Este trabalho estuda os impactos da política monetária nas variáveis reais da economia brasileira. Será testado o efeito de movimentos não esperados da política monetária sobre a atividade econômica e o desemprego com base nos modelos Neoclássicos e Novo-Keynesianos, de que o que importa para o comportamento das variáveis reais é a parte não-esperada da política monetária. Como medida de surpresa da política monetária será utiliza o erro de previsão do mercado para a taxa de juros estabelecida pela autoridade monetária / This work studies the impacts of the monetary policy in the real variables of the Brazilian economy. It will be tested the unanticipated movements of the monetary policy in the economic activity and unemployment according whit the Neoclassical and new Keynesians models, which the importance the real variables is the unanticipated component of the monetary policy. As measure of surprise it will be used the error forecast for the interest rate established by the monetary authority.

A literatura recente descreve o comportamento das autoridades monetárias através de funções de reação do banco central, que capturam a relação entre o instrumento de política monetária, a taxa de juros, e as variáveis econômicas relevantes. Os coeficientes ótimos de resposta à taxa de inflação e ao produto dependem dos parâmetros estruturais da economia e da importância relativa atribuída pelas autoridades monetárias aos objetivos conflitantes de política: estabilização da inflação ou do produto. Tanto as preferências do banco central como o conhecimento que as autoridades monetárias possuem da estrutura, ou do funcionamento, da economia podem se alterar ao longo do tempo. Os testes realizados reforçam a hipótese de que os parâmetros da função de reação variaram ao longo do período. Esta dissertação estima uma função de reação para o Banco Central do Brasil pelo método Time Varying Parameter, no qual se permite que os seus coeficientes variem período a período seguindo um processo de random walk. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, podemos dividir a condução da política monetária entre 1995 e 2006 em dois períodos. No primeiro período (1995-1999), relativo ao regime de câmbio administrado, a taxa de juros reagiu mais fortemente ao hiato do produto e à variação das reservas cambiais. Observamos, neste período, que a resposta ao produto dependeu do próprio nível desta variável. No segundo período (1999-2006), associado ao regime de metas de inflação, a taxa de juros reagiu principalmente às expectativas de inflação. No entanto, a reação não foi constante ao longo deste período. / Recent literature describes the behavior of the monetary authorities through reaction functions of the central bank that capture the relation between the instrument of monetary politicy, the interest rate, and economics variables. The optimal coefficients of reaction to inflation rate and the output gap depend on the structural parameters of the economy and the relative importance attributed by the monetary authorities to the conflicting objectives of politicy: stabilization of the inflation or the output. The preferences of the central bank and the knowledge that the monetary authorities possess of the structure of the economy can change over time. The applied tests strengthen the hypothesis of that the parameters of the reaction function had varied throughout the period. This dissertation estimates a reaction function for the Brazilian Central Bank for the method Time Varying Parameter, in which it allows that its coefficients vary period the period following a random walk process. In accordance with the results, we can divide the conduction of the monetary politicy between 1995 and 2006 in two periods. In the first period (1995-1999), relative to fixed exchange rate regime, the interest rate reacted mainly to output gap and international reserves. In this period, the reply to the output gap depended on the proper level of this variable. In the second period (1999-2006), associate to inflation targeting regime, the interest rate reacted mainly to the inflation expectations. However, this reaction was not constant over this period.

Este trabalho estuda os impactos da política monetária nas variáveis reais da economia brasileira. Será testado o efeito de movimentos não esperados da política monetária sobre a atividade econômica e o desemprego com base nos modelos Neoclássicos e Novo-Keynesianos, de que o que importa para o comportamento das variáveis reais é a parte não-esperada da política monetária. Como medida de surpresa da política monetária será utiliza o erro de previsão do mercado para a taxa de juros estabelecida pela autoridade monetária / This work studies the impacts of the monetary policy in the real variables of the Brazilian economy. It will be tested the unanticipated movements of the monetary policy in the economic activity and unemployment according whit the Neoclassical and new Keynesians models, which the importance the real variables is the unanticipated component of the monetary policy. As measure of surprise it will be used the error forecast for the interest rate established by the monetary authority.

Neste trabalho, discutimos brevemente o papel da comunicação e transparência na condução da política monetária. A seguir, construímos um índice que quantifica a informação qualitativa das atas do Comitê de Política Monetária (COPOM). Nossos principais achados são: i) a comunicação do COPOM é consistente, no sentido de que suas palavras são seguidas por ações; ii) a comunicação do COPOM ajuda a compreender as decisões de taxas de juros e iii) a comunicação da autoridade monetária, por meio de suas atas, produz um efeito significativo nas taxas de juros de mercado, acompanhadas de uma redução da volatilidade. / In this work, we briefly discuss the issue of transparency and communication in monetary policy. Next, we look at the minutes of COPOM meetings and build a glossary, that translates the qualitative information in an ordered scale, similar to the one built by Rosa and Verga(2005). Our main findings can be summarized as follows. First, we found evidence of a consitent behaviour by COPOM, in the sense that words are followed by actions. Second, based on estimates of Taylor rules, we found that words are helpful to understant interest rate setting behaviour of the Brazilian Central Bank. An third, we found evidence of a significant impact of COPOM minutes on market interest rates, along with reduced volatility.

In this thesis we will focus on interest rate modelling and related practical aspects. We will explain the significance of generated scenarios of interest rate's movement for economic results of both life and non-life insurance companies. We will analyse presently known ways of approaching this matter and describe the selected models in detail. Taking into consideration the practical focus of this thesis, we will address the applied methods of model's calibration. Furthermore, we will employ these methods in an extensive numerical study, that will aim to reveal the weaknesses and strengths of particular calibration methods while implementing a specific model and to evaluate their potential application in actuarial practice. Central model of this work is CIR (Cox-Ingersoll-Ross) model.

As taxas reais de juro básicas que têm sido praticadas no Brasil ao longo de um período de já quase quinze anos têm se mantido de forma permanente em níveis extremamente elevados quando comparadas com as taxas historicamente praticadas no país, ou quanto colocadas em uma perspectiva internacional. Neste trabalho, procurou-se proceder a uma análise crítica sistemática das principais teorias sugeridas pelo campo ortodoxo da teoria econômica com o objetivo de explicar a situação excepcional do Brasil, examinando os resultados empíricos por elas obtidos. De um modo geral, a análise conduzida não encontrou evidências satisfatórias capazes de sustentar a relevância ou por vezes a própria validade das teorias examinadas, as quais demonstraram claramente ser tanto teórica quanto empiricamente insuficientes para justificar a manutenção dos níveis das taxas reais de juro praticados no país. Assim, as conclusões e recomendações de política construídas a partir do conjunto de teorias aqui analisado cuja adequação para o caso brasileiro é posta em dúvida neste trabalho devem ser normalmente vistas com reserva. Por outro lado, procedeu-se a uma análise crítica dos fundamentos teóricos e empíricos sobre os quais se apóia a maneira em que a política monetária tem sido conduzida no país, de forma a verificar se as excepcionais taxas reais de juro brasileiras não decorreriam das necessidades impostas por uma política cujo principal objetivo declarado é manter o controle da inflação. Após proceder ao exame desses fundamentos, não se encontraram na condução da política monetária os elementos que pudessem justificar a particularidade daquelas taxas. Tendo a abordagem ortodoxa se mostrado globalmente insatisfatória como forma de explicar as taxas reais de juro brasileiras, é introduzida uma abordagem alternativa baseada na economia das convenções, a qual se mostrou a princípio capaz de fornecer bons indicativos para resolver a questão. / The basic real interest rates which have been in place in Brazil throughout a period of almost fifteen years remained at extremely high levels when compared against those rates historically valid in the country or when placed into an international perspective. This work has tried to proceed to a systematic analysis of the main theories suggested by the economic orthodoxy, which aim to explain the exceptional situation of Brazil, examining the empirical results such theories have obtained. In a general manner, the analysis has not found satisfactory evidences able to support the relevance or even in some cases the validity for the examined theories, which have clearly demonstrated being both theoretically and empirically insufficient to explain the maintenance of the levels of real interest rates in Brazil. Thus, the conclusions and policy recommendations built from such theories whose capacity of fitting to the Brazilian case was challenged in this work must be taken with particular care. By the other hand, it was performed an analysis on the theoretical and empirical grounds of the manner in which monetary policy was conducted in the country, in order to verify whether the exceptional Brazilian real interest rates could not be originated from the requirements imposed by a policy whose main declared target consists in maintaining the control of the inflation level. After examining those fundamentals, no elements on the monetary policy conduction were found which could justify the peculiarity of those rates. As the orthodox approach turned to be globally unsatisfactory as a way of explaining the Brazilian real interest rates, it was introduced an alternative approach, based on the economics of conventions, which showed itself as being able at first to provide useful insights to help to solve the question.

Cette thèse traite de plusieurs sujets en mathématiques financières: risque de crédit, optimisation de portefeuille et modélisation des taux d’intérêts. Le chapitre 1 consiste en trois études dans le domaine du risque de crédit. La plus innovante est la première dans laquel nous construisons un modèle tel que la propriété d’immersion n’est vérifiée sous aucune mesure martingale équivalente. Le chapitre 2 étudie le problème de maximisation de la somme d’une utilité de la richesse terminale et d’une utilité de la consommation. Le chapitre 3 étudie l’évaluation des produits dérivés de taux d’intérêt dans un cadre multicourbe, qui prend en compte la différence entre une courbe de taux sans risque et des courbes de taux Libor de différents tenors. / This thesis deals with several topics in mathematical finance: credit risk, portfolio optimization and interest rate modeling. Chapter 1 consists of three studies in the field of credit risk. The most innovative is the first one, where we construct a model such that the immersion property does not hold under any equivalent martingale measure. Chapter 2 studies the problem of maximization of the sum of the utility of the terminal wealth and the utility of the consumption, in a case where a sudden jump in the risk-free interest rate induces market incompleteness. Chapter 3 studies the valuation of Libor interest rate derivatives in a multiple-curve setup, which accounts for the spreads between a risk-free discount curve and Libor curves of different tenors.

This thesis consists of two related parts. In the first part we conduct an empirical examination of the dynamics of Australian interest rates of six different maturities, covering the whole yield curve. This direct study of the long rates is quite novel. We use maximum likelihood estimation on a variety of models and find some results that are in stark contrast to previous studies. We estimate Poisson-jump diffusion (PJD) models and find very strong evidence for the existence of jumps in all daily interest rate series. We find that the PJD model fits short-rate data significantly better than a Bernoulli-jump diffusion model. We also estimate the CKLS model for our data and find that the only model not rejected for all six maturities is the CEV model in stark contrast to previous findings. Also, we find that the elasticity of variance estimate in the CKLS model is much higher for the short-rates than for the longer rates where the estimate is only about 0.25, indicating that different dynamics seem to be at work for different maturities. We also found that adding jumps to the simple diffusion model gives a larger improvement than comes from going from the simple diffusion to the CKLS model. In the second part of the thesis we examine the Flesaker and Hughston (FH) term structure model. We derive the dynamics of the short rate under both the original measure and the risk-neutral measure, and show that some criticisms of the bounds for the short rate may not be significant in actual applications. We also derive the dynamics of bond prices in the FH model and compare them to the HJM model. We also extend the FH model by allowing the martingale to follow a jump-diffusion process, rather than just a diffusion process. We derive the unique change of measure that guarantees the family of bond prices is arbitrage-free. We derive prices for caps and swaptions, and extend the results to include Bermudan swaptions and show how to price options with the jump-diffusion version of the FH model.