The S&P 500 Index is a leading indicator of U.S. equities and is meant to reflect the risk and return on the U.S. stock market. Many derivatives based on the S&P 500 are available to investors. The S&P 500 Futures of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the S&P 500 Index Options of the Chicago Board Options Exchange are both actively traded. My thesis argues that the S&P 500 Index is only a summary statistic designed to reflect the evolution of the stock market. It is not the value of a self-financed tradable portfolio, and its modifications do not coincide with changes of the value of any mimicking portfolio, due to the particular way the S&P 500 Index is computed and maintained. Therefore, the Spot-Futures Parity and the Put-Call Parity do not hold for the S&P 500 Index and its derivatives. Furthermore, its derivatives cannot be priced by using the standard option pricing models, which assume that the underlying asset is tradable. Chapter One analyzes why the S&P 500 Index does not represent the value of a self-financed tradable portfolio and why it cannot be replaced by the value of a tracker such as the SPDR. In particular, we show that the nonlinear and extreme risk dynamics of the SPDR and of the S&P 500 Index are very different. Chapter Two provides empirical evidence that the non-tradability of the S&P 500 Index can explain the Put-Call Parity deviations. Even after controlling for the liquidity risk of the options, we find that the Put-Call Parity implied dividends depend significantly on the option strike. In Chapter Three, we develop an affine multi-factor model to price coherently various derivatives such as forwards and futures written on the S&P 500 Index, and European put and call options written on the S&P 500 Index and on the S&P 500 futures. We consider the cases when the underlying asset is self-financed and tradable and when it is not, and show the difference between them. When the underlying asset is self-financed and tradable, an additional arbitrage condition has to be introduced and implies additional parameter restrictions.

The S&P 500 Index is a leading indicator of U.S. equities and is meant to reflect the risk and return on the U.S. stock market. Many derivatives based on the S&P 500 are available to investors. The S&P 500 Futures of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the S&P 500 Index Options of the Chicago Board Options Exchange are both actively traded. My thesis argues that the S&P 500 Index is only a summary statistic designed to reflect the evolution of the stock market. It is not the value of a self-financed tradable portfolio, and its modifications do not coincide with changes of the value of any mimicking portfolio, due to the particular way the S&P 500 Index is computed and maintained. Therefore, the Spot-Futures Parity and the Put-Call Parity do not hold for the S&P 500 Index and its derivatives. Furthermore, its derivatives cannot be priced by using the standard option pricing models, which assume that the underlying asset is tradable. Chapter One analyzes why the S&P 500 Index does not represent the value of a self-financed tradable portfolio and why it cannot be replaced by the value of a tracker such as the SPDR. In particular, we show that the nonlinear and extreme risk dynamics of the SPDR and of the S&P 500 Index are very different. Chapter Two provides empirical evidence that the non-tradability of the S&P 500 Index can explain the Put-Call Parity deviations. Even after controlling for the liquidity risk of the options, we find that the Put-Call Parity implied dividends depend significantly on the option strike. In Chapter Three, we develop an affine multi-factor model to price coherently various derivatives such as forwards and futures written on the S&P 500 Index, and European put and call options written on the S&P 500 Index and on the S&P 500 futures. We consider the cases when the underlying asset is self-financed and tradable and when it is not, and show the difference between them. When the underlying asset is self-financed and tradable, an additional arbitrage condition has to be introduced and implies additional parameter restrictions.

The number of public markets in the United States increased from more than 300 in the 1970s to more than 8,600 by 2016. This increase in markets is related to changes in food production, localism and the local food systems movement, socioeconomic changes, cultural changes, and perceptions of embeddedness. Research on the underlying conditions for the success of public markets is scant in the United States, and especially in the USDA Southwest Region. This study provides analysis of public market locations as compared with non-market locations by drive-time trade areas during a 20-year period, 1996 and 2016, to gain further insights into factors leading to their success. The results from logit regression analyses and simulations of socioeconomic, college-town status, and climate-grid classifications find an increased likelihood of public markets with population, education, college town status, and some climate-grid locations. Median income, surprisingly, has an inverse relationship with public market success. Qualitative data and a literature review point to three types of embeddedness that motivate customers to attend public markets. This study concludes that "local nontradable consumer goods" tied to place are offered at these "nontradable consumption amenities." These amenities are "third places" that promote social interaction and become important places of community, farmer support, and commerce across the Southwest Region.

The political economy of the exchange rate explains different approaches within the integration process of the European monetary union. The changing character of exchange rate pass-through into the foreign trade prices changes not only the international economy paradigm, but also the attitude to the exchange rate political economy. The study solves the incentives to the different exchange rate arrangement choice during the transformation and integration period in the Central and East European countries. It follows with the analysis of the industry structure in these economies. It discusses the existence of its direct and indirect channel of influencing the exchange rate politics. Article solves the hypothesis of interest group formation in regard to the exchange rate policy (the euro adoption) and the intergovernmental bargaining as well as the bargaining within the economy. The industry analysis results confirm the set hypothesis, in which the heterogenity of industry structure explains the heterogeneous approach to the exchange rate politics during the transformation process in monitored economies. The redistributive change of Hungarian exchange rate policy is discussed in connection with the change of subsidies flow within the political cycle. We discuss the impact of current account adjustment on the tradable and nontradable sector in member countries of currency union -- Euro zone. The current account adjustment associated with the adjustment of the net export's deficit caused by the drop in the domestic absorption evokes the increase in the relative price of the nontradable sector. The paper discusses this hypothesis within framework of the Portuguese current account adjustment, which is the result of European financial integration in catching-up countries. The common monetary policy and common currency cannot offset the negative impact of nontradable price increase within the internal expenditure switching effect and also can not support exporters within the external expenditure effect.. The Portuguese current account adjustment was not followed by the currency depreciation and the tradable price increase. The cost of the currency asymmetric response were born by the tradable mark-up decrease, the falling decrease in nontradable wages and employment and finally by the nontradable mark-up and employment decrease.