The exponential of a scalar diffusion is considered. Point estimates of the diffusion coefficient can be obtained by considering proportional increments of different powers of the exponential. an investigation of the minimum variance estimator gives unique optimal power.
In this paper we use the Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1985b) single-factor, term structure model and extend it to the pricing of American default-free bond puts. We provide a quasi-analytical formula for these option prices based on recently established mathematical results for Bessel bridges, coupled with the optimal stopping time method. We extend our results to another interest rate contingent claim and provide a quasi-analytical solution for American yield option prices which illustrates the flexibility of our framework.
This paper examines the consequences of introducing mobile number portability (MNP). As MNP allows consumers to keep their telephone number when switching providers, it reduces consumers’ switching costs. However, MNP may also cause consumer ignorance if telephone numbers no longer identify networks. As a result, while fostering competition for mobile customers, MNP may also induce operators to increase termination charges for calls to mobile networks, generating ambiguous welfare e.ects. We examine how extensions such as MNP based on call-forwarding, termination fee regulation, and alternative means of carrier identification a.ect these findings.
Markowitz and Sharpe won the Nobel Prize in Economics more than a decade ago for thendevelopment of Mean-Variance analysis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). In the yearn2002, Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics for the development of Prospect Theory. Cannthese two apparently contradictory paradigms coexist?nIn deriving the CAPM, Sharpe, Lintner and Mossin assume expected utility (EU)nmaximization following the approach proposed by Markowitz, normal distributions and risknaversion. Kahneman & Tversky suggest Prospect Theory (PT) and Cumulative Prospect Theoryn(CPT) as an alternative paradigm to EU theory. They show that investors distort probabilities,nmake decisions based on change of wealth, exhibit loss aversion and maximize the expectation ofnan S-shaped value function which contains a risk-seeking segment. Employing change of wealthnrather than total wealth contradicts EU theory. The subjective distortion of probabilities violatesnthe CAPM assumptions of normality and homogeneous expectations, and the S-shaped valuenfunction violates the risk aversion assumption. We prove in this paper that although CPT (and PT)nis in conflict to EUT, and violates some of the CAPM's underlying assumptions, the securitynmarket line theorem (SMLT) of the CAPM is intact in the CPT framework.
We analyze a unique data set on multiunit auctions, which contains the actual demand schedules of the bidders as well as the auctionawards in over 400 Swedish Treasury auctions. First, we document that bidders vary their prices, bid dispersion, and the quantity demanded in response to increased uncertainty at the time of bidding. Second,we find that bid shading can be explained by a winner 19s curse 13driven model in which each bidder submits only one bid, despite the fact that the bidders in our data set use much richer bidding strategies.
Let Ω be a bounded domain with fractal boundary, for instance von Koch's snowflake domain. First we determine the range and the kernel of the trace on ∂Ω of Sobolev spaces of fractional order defined on Ω. This extends some earlier results of H. Wallin and J. Marschall Secondly we apply these results in studying Dirichlet forms related to subordinate reflecting diffusions in non–smooth domains.
We analyze positive theories of redistribution, social insurance and public good provision in a dynamic macroeconomic framework. Political outcomes are determined via repeated voting and driven by a conflict of interests between agents. Voters and politicians rationally forecast the impact of current political choices on future political and economic outcomes. The theory is consistent with large differences in the size of governments across societies. These need not rely on intrinsic differences in preferences or technology, but may be driven by self-fulfilling expectations about the robustness of the welfare state.
This paper analyzes the distributional effects of international outsourcing in a two sector Heckscher-Ohlin type model if both sectors get economical access to cost-saving international outsourcing. Thereby, it is shown that if both sectors are engaged in international outsourcing in equilibrium, the cost-saving effects of outsourcing as well as the factor contents of the outsourced fragments are relevant for the factor price effects. Concerning the Pareto-criterion the main finding is that a Pareto-improving factor price impact of international outsourcing cannot be excluded from a theoretical point of view.
This paper addresses the question under which circumstances unemployment can be lower if unions bargain over wages and employment in a general equilibrium framework. Thereby, it turns out that the unemployment rate may negatively depend on the wage rate, if the unemployment compensation scheme contains a constant real term in addition to the replacement ratio component. This is, compared with a pure replacement ratio scheme, the more plausible formalization of the real world’s compensation systems, at least for European countries. Besides the theoretical analysis, the paper also derives political implications by identifying the relevant parameters for the decision on whether weakening unions will be a good strategy for an economy to overcome its unemployment problem.
This paper analyzes the effects of intermediate goods trade on the development of real wages in Central and Eastern European manufacturing. The empirical findings show that world exports in intermediate goods of the CEEC exhibit a negative impact on wages, and imports a positive one. Since 1993, intermediate goods trade between the EU and the CEEC accounted for an increase in wages being most pronounced in Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic.
