We compare the traditional GARCH models with a semiparametric approach based on extreme value theory and find that the semiparametric approach yields more accurate predictions of Value-at-Risk (VaR). Using traditional parametric approaches based on GARCH and EGARCH to model the conditional volatility, we calculate univariate one-day ahead predictions of Value-at-Risk (VaR) under varying distributional assumptions. The accuracy of these predictions is then compared to that of a semiparametric approach, based on results from extreme value theory. For the 95% VaR, the EGARCH’s ability to incorporate the asymmetric behaviour of return volatility proves most useful. For higher quantiles, however, we show that what matters most for predictive accuracy is the underlying distributional assumption of the innovations, where the normal distribution falls behind other distributions which allow for thicker tails. Both the semiparametric approach and the conditional volatility models based on the t-distribution outperform the normal, especially at higher quantiles. As for the comparison between the semiparametric approach and the conditional volatility models with t-distributed innovations, the results are mixed. However, the evidence indicates that there certainly is a place for extreme value theory in financial risk management.

The paper empirically tests the relationship between earnings volatility and cost of debt with a sample of more than 77,000 Swedish limited companies over the period 2006 to 2013 observing more than 677,000 firm years. As called upon by many researchers recently that there is very limited evidence of the association between earnings volatility and cost of debt this paper contributes greatly to the existing literature of earnings quality and debt contracts, especially on the consequence of earnings quality in the debt market. Earnings volatility is a proxy used for earnings quality while cost of debt is a component of debt contract. After controlling for firms’ profitability, liquidity, solvency, cashflow volatility, accruals volatility, sales volatility, business risk, financial risk and size this paper studies the effect of earnings volatility measured by standard deviation of Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) on Cost of Debt. Overall finding suggests that lenders in Sweden does take earnings volatility into consideration while determining cost of debt for borrowers. But a deeper analysis of various industries suggest earnings volatility is not consistently used by lenders across all the industries. Lenders in Sweden are rather more sensitive to borrowers’ financial risk across all the industries. It may also be stated that larger borrowers tend to secure loans at a lower interest rate, the results are consistent with majority of the industries. Swedish debt market appears to be well prepared for financial crises as the debt crisis seems to have no or little adverse effect borrowers’ cost of capital. This study is the only empirical evidence to study the association between earnings volatility and cost of debt. Prior indirect research suggests earnings volatility has a negative effect on cost debt (i.e. an increase in earnings volatility will increase firm’s cost of debt). Our direct evidence from the Swedish debt market is consistent for some industries including media, real estate activities, transportation & warehousing, and other consumer services.

The Heston stochastic volatility model is one extension of the Black-Scholes model which describes the money markets more accurately so that more realistic prices for derivative products are obtained. From the stochastic differential equation of the underlying financial product a partial differential equation (p.d.e.) for the value function of an option can be derived. This p.d.e. can be solved with the finite difference method (f.d.m.). The stability and consistency of the method is examined. Furthermore a boundary condition is proposed to reduce the numerical error. Finally a non uniform structured grid is derived which is fairly optimal for the numerical result in the most interesting point. / Das stochastische Volatilitaetsmodell von Heston ist eines der Erweiterungen des Black-Scholes-Modells. Von der stochastischen Differentialgleichung fuer den unterliegenden Prozess kann eine partielle Differentialgleichung fuer die Wertfunktion einer Option abgeleitet werden. Es wird die Loesung mittels Finiter Differenzenmethode untersucht (Konsistenz, Stabilitaet). Weiterhin wird eine Randbedingung und ein spezielles nicht-uniformes Netz vorgeschlagen, was zu einer starken Reduzierung des numerischen Fehlers der Wertfunktion in einem ganz bestimmten Punkt fuehrt.

Stock market volatility has been an important subject in the finance literature for which now an enormous body of research exists. Volatility modelling and forecasting have been in the epicentre of this line of research and although more than a few models have been proposed and key parameters on improving volatility forecasts have been considered, finance research has still to reach a consensus on this topic. This thesis enters the ongoing debate by carrying out empirical investigations by comparing models from the current pool of models as well as exploring and proposing the use of further key parameters in improving the accuracy of volatility modelling and forecasting. The importance of accurately forecasting volatility is paramount for the functioning of the economy and everyone involved in finance activities. For governments, the banking system, institutional and individual investors, researchers and academics, knowledge, understanding and the ability to forecast and proxy volatility accurately is a determining factor for making sound economic decisions. Four are the main contributions of this thesis. First, the findings of a volatility forecasting model comparison reveal that the GARCH genre of models are superior compared to the more ‘simple' models and models preferred by practitioners. Second, with the use of backward recursion forecasts we identify the appropriate in-sample length for producing accurate volatility forecasts, a parameter considered for the first time in the finance literature. Third, further model comparisons are conducted within a Value-at-Risk setting between the RiskMetrics model preferred by practitioners, and the more complex GARCH type models, arriving to the conclusion that GARCH type models are dominant. Finally, two further parameters, the Volatility Index (VIX) and Trading Volume, are considered and their contribution is assessed in the modelling and forecasting process of a selection of GARCH type models. We discover that although accuracy is improved upon, GARCH type forecasts are still superior.

In the first chapter, I analyze the question that whether the elasticity of intertemporal substitution or risk aversion is more important determinant of precautionary savings. This is an important question since a significant fraction of the capital accumulation is due to precautionary savings according to studies. Thus, knowing the important determinant of precautionary savings will be helpful to understand the capital accumulation mechanism. I look into the effects of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution and risk aversion on precautionary savings separately by performing simulations in order to obtain numerical results. I find that the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is more important determinant than risk aversion. In the second chapter, I study the impact of the introduction of futures trading on the volatility of the underlying spot market for Turkish Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE).The economic literature intensified the debate on the negative or positive impact of futures trading on the stock market volatility. Although there are empirical studies for different countries with mixed results, most of them focus on developed countries. There are a few empirical researches on emerging markets. Analyzing the data, following results are obtained for ISE. First, the results suggest that the introduction of futures trading has decreased the volatility of ISE. Second, the results show that futures trading increases the speed at which information is impounded into spot market prices. Third, the asymmetric responses of volatility to the arrival of news for ISE have increased after the introduction of futures trading. In the third chapter, I investigate the presence of calendar anomalies in ISE by using GARCH models. The presence of calendar anomalies and their persistence presence since their first discovery still remains a puzzle to be solved. On the other hand, there are some claims that general anomalies are much less pronounced after they became known to the public. Most of the studies have examined the developed financial markets. However, it is important to test the calendar effects in data sets that are different from those in which they are originally discovered and so ISE is a good case to test the calendar effects for a developing country. / text

The U.S. is experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. All levels of government have been hit really hard, this is especially apparent at the local level since services provided at the local level are woven into people’s daily life. Thus, how to “do more with less” is more urgent than ever before. The use of privatization came to surface as a sound solution for deficit-plagued governments as it is thought to be more cost effective and outperform the public sector in most cases. This dissertation contains two empirical chapters that examine determinants of privatization and specify the conditions under which it is optimal to buy and under which it is optimal to produce in-house. Chapter two explores determinants that contribute to the use of privatization at the local level in the U.S. This chapter incorporates spatial technique to perform the analysis, which is a different approach from much of the literature. Empirical results indicate that a local government’s sourcing decision is affected by its nearby local jurisdictions. External stakeholders’ involvement contributes to the use of outsourcing, whereas having a limited supply of service providers impedes it. Chapter three applies a transaction cost economics (TCE) framework complemented with a revenue volatility measure to disentangle the mechanisms that drive public services’ outsourcing decisions. Results suggest that, in general, services with higher asset specificity and higher contract management difficulty are less likely to be outsourced, and a robust and competitive market facilitates the use of outsourcing.

<p>För att prissätta optioner är val av modell en viktig fråga. I denna kandidatuppsats</p><p>beskrivs både Black & Scholes modell och SABR-modellen. Förstnämnda modell är</p><p>enklare än SABR-modellen men bygger på antaganden som inte stämmer överens med</p><p>verkligheten. Den ger heller inte någon explicit formel för den implicita volatiliteten</p><p>och predikterar inte heller på ett korrekt sätt fenomenet volatility smile vilket</p><p>observeras på marknaden.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att utvärdera prestandan hos SABR-modellen och</p><p>användarvänligheten, samt att undersöka lite av teorin bakom modellen och vissa av</p><p>dess egenskaper. Till grund för beräkningarna ligger datamaterial hämtat från Nasdaq</p><p>OMX Nordic.</p><p>Enligt mina beräkningar är resultatet att SABR-modellen endast presterar marginellt</p><p>bättre än Black & Scholes-modellen. Dock kan även små förbättringar spela stor roll i</p><p>dessa sammanhang.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to examine what affects the changes in credit spreads. A</p><p>regression model was performed where the explanatory variables were; volatility,</p><p>SP&500 index, interest-rate level the slope of yield curve and the dependent</p><p>variable was credit spread for each of CSUSDA, CSUSDBBB, and CSUSDB. We</p><p>found a positive correlation between these independent variables (Volatility, S&P</p><p>500index) and a negative correlation between interest-rate level and credit spreads.</p><p>These results were consistent with our hypothesis. However, the link between the</p><p>slope of yield curve and credit spreads was positive and that was inconsistent with</p><p>our hypothesis and some previous studies. The conclusion of this paper was a</p><p>change in credit spread is related to the variables that we used in our model. And</p><p>these variables explained about 50 per cent of this change.</p>

<p>The present thesis tries to argue the importance of non monetary factors in explaining real exchange rate volatility. The main interest is on the effect of trade openness on real effec-tive exchange rate (REER) volatility. Based on theoretical studies I test the existence of a negative relationship between total trade share of an economy and the volatility of REER. Empirical evidence on a panel of 11 CEE and Baltic Countries for the 1995-2006 period confirms the relationship. The conclusion is that for these specific countries a large part of variation of the real exchange rate can be explained by openness of the respective economy to trade.</p>

本研究目的在於探討韓國、巴西與俄羅斯等實施外匯管制的國家，其上市本國貨幣匯率期貨對該國外匯市場之影響。及小型開放經濟的紐西蘭，在CME上市的美元/紐幣匯率期貨後，對該國外匯市場之影響。以加入虛擬變數單變量GARCH模型探討匯率期貨成立期間對匯率現貨的波動性是否會產生影響；以雙變量GARCH模型探討匯率期貨波動是否會對匯率現貨波動造成影響。 研究期間乃以各國引入匯率期貨契約的基準日之下，前後各兩年的匯率日報酬率資料。實證結果顯示： 一、韓國、巴西與俄羅斯，其開放匯率期貨交易後反而會降地現貨市場的波動，但小型開放經濟的紐西蘭，在CME上市的美元/紐幣匯率期貨後，會增加現貨市場的波動。 二、以上四個國家其外匯現貨市場的波動並不會受外匯期貨市場波動的影響。 / The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact upon foreign exchange markets for exchange control countries as Korea, Brazil, and Russia when foreign exchange futures was introduced, and small-scale open economy as New Zealand when foreign exchange futures was introduced in CME. This study was an application of univariate and bivariate GARCH models to investigate the effect of foreign exchange futures trading and volatility on spot market volatility. This study utilized the daily foreign exchange rate return series based on foreign exchange futures introduced with the former and latter two years. The empirical results are as follows: 1. The spot volatility decreases significantly after foreign exchange futures trading in Korea, Brazil, and Russia. The spot volatility increases significantly after foreign exchange futures trading in New Zealand. 2. The futures volatility does not affect the spot volatility in Korea, Brazil, Russia, and New Zealand.