It is Islamic banking that has been conquering the world in recent years. That is why the thesis is devoted to this topic. As the interest is forbidden by Islam, the Islamic banking works on different principles from those practised by conventional banks. The thesis distinguishes two basic methods -- the profit-and-loss sharing and mak-up method. The Islamic banks use both to gain profit. There are three parts of Turkish bank system and one of them is formed by so called "participation banks". The participation banks represent the Islamic banking. One of the members of the "participation banks" group is the Al Baraka bank, whose financial statements are hereinafter analyzed. The financial statements stated above are not much different from the general model of financial statements issued by Islamic banks. However the "book premise" that the biggest part of assets should be created by the transactions based on the profit-and-loss sharing method is denied.

本論文將Poterba(1984)所建構的房屋市場模型由部分均衡擴展為一般均衡，引入貸款成數及加碼利率做宣示效果分析。探討民眾在未預料到和預料到的兩種情況下，貸款成數及加碼利率變動對房價和房屋存量的影響，可得到結論如下： 一、當貸款成數降低時，不論房量變動的正負效果相對大小如何，均會使長期的房屋價格下跌和房屋存量減少。 二、當加碼利率提高時，在加碼利率變動的正效果大於負效果的情況下，長期的房屋存量和房屋價格均上升；反之，當加碼利率變動的正效果小於負效果，長期的房屋存量和房屋價格均會減少。 三、政府可利用降低貸款成數達到抑制房價的政策目標；但若要以提高加碼利率達成抑制房價的目標，則要視加碼利率的正負效果相對大小而定。 四、政策宣告會改變民眾的預期，促使房價於政策宣告後立即跳動，並在政策執行前就已對房屋存量和房價做出反應。在宣告降低貸款成數的瞬間，房價會有跳躍性減少的情況；但在宣告提高加碼利率的瞬間，房價則視加碼利率變動的正負效果相對大小，有跳躍性上升或下降的情況。 / This thesis extends the housing market model pioneered by Poterba(1984) from a partial equilibrium analysis to a general equilibrium analysis. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the anticipated and unanticipated policies of the loan-to-value ratio and the mark-up rate govern the transitional dynamics of housing prices and the housing stock. There are two main findings emerge from the analysis. First, a reduction in the loan-to-value ratio leads to a decline in both of housing prices and the housing stock, regardless of whether the increased loan-to value ratio is beneficial or harmful to the return on housing. Second, in response to a rise in the mark-up rate, whether the steady-state housing prices and the housing stock go up or go down depends on the mark-up rate effect. Both housing prices and the housing stock go up if the increased mark-up rate contributes a positive effect on the return of holding houses. By contrast, the steady-state housing prices and the housing stock go down if the increased mark-up rate causes a negative effect on the return on housing holdings.

本研究分為兩個部份，第一部份提出評價選擇權時，應考慮加價利益(Mark-Up Interest)的觀點，第二部份則提出信用違約交換選擇權的新評價模型。 在第一部份，所謂加價利益是指選擇權賣方為彌補採取避險組合後仍可能發生的損失而向選擇權買方收取的風險補償。本研究的方法是將選擇權市價拆解成理論公平賭局價格與加價利益，建立包含加價利益、買賣權平價理論、隱含標的價格與猜測波動度的選擇權評價模型，解決隱含波動度微笑(implied volatility smile)所帶來模型內部不一致的問題。在建立各種情境條件下之加價利益後，可用來評估選擇權市價的合理性，以提升買賣雙方對市價的合理判斷，有利於風險管理者進行選擇權之造市操作與避險。本研究經由對台指選擇權(TXO)的實證結果發現：加價利益受到距到期交易日、價況程度(moneyness)及猜測波動度的影響。 第二部份所提出之信用違約交換選擇權的新評價模型則是延伸Schonbucher ( 2000, 2003, 2004 )、Brigo ( 2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2006 )、Brigo & Mercurio ( 2006 )、Brigo & Morini ( 2005 )、Jamshidian ( 2004 ) 與Wu ( 2006 ) 的研究，以市場上交易之各年期信用違約交換之商品所導出之費率期間內之各單期( single tenor )遠期信用違約交換率之費率端價值做為計價資產，假設各單期遠期違約交換率為對數常態分配下，可以將信用違約交換選擇權拆解為由各單期加總之違約交換選擇權，應用在投資銀行發行許多相同標的但不同起始日、不同到期日之一系列信用違約交換選擇權( CDS options )時，可以具有評價簡易的優勢，吻合各期間之信用市場狀況，避免套利機會，並能運用信用違約交換( CDS )，增進避險與管理信用風險之技術。 / This thesis is composed of two parts. The first part is the standpoint of the “Mark-Up Interest” on options. The second part is the new model about pricing and hedging on credit default swap options. In the first part, the Mark-Up Interest is regarded as the reward on the hedging portfolio to compensate for possible losses. For presenting this, options market prices are decomposed into the fair-game options prices and the Mark-Up Interests. The options pricing model formed with the Mark-Up Interest, put-call parity, implied underlying price, and guessed volatility is used to solve the internal inconsistence caused by the implied volatility smiles. Therefore, the justness of the options market prices could be estimated with the Mark-Up Interests under different scenarios. The result will help the risk manager to do market making and hedging. The empirical results based on the Options on Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Stock Index (TXO) in this paper are as follows: The trading days to expiry, moneyness, and guessed volatility are the factors affecting the Mark-Up Interests. The second part of this thesis extends the research on Schonbucher ( 2000, 2003, 2004 ), Brigo ( 2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2006 ), Brigo & Mercurio ( 2006 )、Brigo & Morini ( 2005 ), Jamshidian ( 2004 ) and Wu ( 2006 ). We use the fee leg of the single tenor forward credit default swap rate ( tenor CDS rate ) as numeraire. Under the lognormal distribution assumption on the tenor CDS rate, we decompose a credit default swap option into the sum of tenor CDS options. The result can be used by investment banks to manage credit risk when their derivative book consists of different start-date and end-date CDS options. In addition, our result shows that CDS can be used to hedge against the risk of CDS options. The proposed method helps improve the techniques of hedging and managing credit risk.

本篇論文擴充Ang et al. (2007)之基本架構,分別建構台灣各式月資料與季資料的物價指數預測模型,並進行預測以及實證分析。我們用以衡量通貨膨脹率的指標為 CPI 年增率與核心CPI 年增率。我們比較貨幣模型、成本加成模型、6 種不同設定的菲力浦曲線模型、3 種期限結構模型、隨機漫步模型、 AO 模型、ARIMA 模型、VAR 模型、主計處(DGBAS)、中經院(CIER) 及台經院(TIER) 之預測。藉由此研究,我們可以完整評估出文獻上常用之各式月資料及季資料預測模型的優劣。 我們實證結果顯示,在月資料預測模型樣本外預測績效表現方面, ARIMA 模 型對 2 種通貨膨脹率指標的樣本外預測能力表現最好。至於季資料預測模型樣本外預測績效表現, ARIMA 模型對未來核心 CPI 年增率的樣本外預測能力表現最好; 然而,對於 CPI 年增率為預測目標的預測模型則不存在最佳的模型。此外,實證分析中我們也發現本研究所建構的模型預測表現仍遜於主計處的預測,但部份模型的樣本外預測能力表現則比中經院與台經院的預測為佳。 / This paper compares the forecasting performance of inflation in Taiwan. We conduct various inflation forecasting methods (models) for two inflation measures(CPI growth rate and core-CPI growth rate) by using monthly and quarterly data. Besides the models of Ang et al. (2007), we also consider some macroeconomic models for comparison. We compare some Monetary models, Mark-up models, six variants of Phillips curve models, three variants of term structure models, a Random walk model, an AO model, an ARIMA model, and a VAR model. We also compare the forecast ability of these model with three different survey forecasts (the DGBAS, CIER, and TIER surveys). We summarized our findings as follows. The best monthly forecasting model for both inflation measures is ARIMA model. For quarterly core-CPI inflation, ARIMA model is also the best model; however, when comparing the quarterly forecasts for CPI inflation, there does not exist the best one. Besides, we also found that the DGBAS survey outperforms all of our forecasting methods/models, but some of our forecasting models are better than the CIER and TIER surveys in terms of MAE.

Ontologies are foundational to, and upper ontologies provide semantic integration across, the Semantic Web. Multilingualism has been shown to be a key challenge to the development of the Semantic Web, and is a particular challenge to the universality requirement of upper ontologies. Universality implies a qualitative mapping from lexical ontologies, like WordNet, to an upper ontology, such as SUMO. Are a given natural language family's core concepts currently included in an existing, accepted upper ontology? Does SUMO preserve an ontological non-bias with respect to the multilingual challenge, particularly in the context of the African languages? The approach to developing WordNets mapped to shared core concepts in the non-Indo-European language families has highlighted these challenges and this is examined in a unique new context: the Southern African languages. This is achieved through a new mapping from African language core concepts to SUMO. It is shown that SUMO has no signi ficant natural language ontology bias. / Computing / M. Sc. (Computer Science)