Finance and risk: does finance create risk?

Rajan has earned a well-deserved reputation for having been one of the few to have hypothesized in a famous paper presented at the 2005 Jackson Hole conference that a disastrous financial crisis could have occurred. The key thesis put forward by Rajan was that the radical changes that had taken place over the previous decades rendered the economic system more fragile in that they induced the financial system to create a high amount of risk. The aim of this paper is to show: i) that Rajan’s thesis is not coherent with the mainstream theory according to which finance does not create risk; ii) that a meaningful theory capable of explaining the meaning of the elements used by Rajan to assert that finance creates risk can be elaborated on the basis of the lesson of Keynes and Schumpeter

Consumer finance: challenges for operational research

Consumer finance has become one of the most important areas of banking, both because of the amount of money being lent and the impact of such credit on global economy and the realisation that the credit crunch of 2008 was partly due to incorrect modelling of the risks in such lending. This paper reviews the development of credit scoring—the way of assessing risk in consumer finance—and what is meant by a credit score. It then outlines 10 challenges for Operational Research to support modelling in consumer finance. Some of these involve developing more robust risk assessment systems, whereas others are to expand the use of such modelling to deal with the current objectives of lenders and the new decisions they have to make in consumer finance. <br/

Correlation products and risk management issues

Unlike standard derivatives instruments, correlation products contain nonseparable risk, meaning that the price sensitivity of one risk factor is a function of the level of another risk factor. This article outlines the pricing and hedging of one type of correlation product, the differential swap, to show how nonseparable risk may escape traditional methods of assessing the risk of institutions' portfolios. The article considers the implications of correlation products for supervisory and institutional practices and concludes with a brief discussion of some ways nonseparable risk may be managed.Derivative securities ; Risk ; Swaps (Finance) ; Hedging (Finance)

NEUROFINANCE: GETTING AN INSIGHT INTO THE TRADER'S MIND

Much of the academic finance theory is based on the assumption that individuals act rationally and behavioral finances treats investorsâ€(tm) choice based by behavioral biases. In contrast, neuro-finance (as a blending of psychology, neurology and finance) attempts to understand behavior by examining the physiological processes in the human brain when exposed to financial risk. Scientists map the mind to learn how fear and greed drive the financial markets. The paper, will briefly present why neurofinance is important and how will be able to provide in the near future a number of effective tools for improved financial decision making.Emotions, Behavioral Finance, Neurofinance, Brain, Risk taking, Affect, Beliefs, Dopamine, fMRI

Operations research in consumer finance: challenges for operational research

Consumer finance has become one of the most important areas of banking both because of the amount of money being lent and the impact of such credit on the global economy and the realisation that the credit crunch of 2008 was partly due to incorrect modelling of the risks in such lending. This paper reviews the development of credit scoring,-the way of assessing risk in consumer finance- and what is meant by a credit score. It then outlines ten challenges for Operational Research to support modelling in consumer finance. Some of these are to developing more robust risk assessment systems while others are to expand the use of such modelling to deal with the current objectives of lenders and the new decisions they have to make in consumer financ

Are Our Agricultural Risk Management Tools Adequate for a New Era?

risk, commodity programs, insurance, Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty, D80, G11, Q18,

Finance for Climate Resilience in the Dawn of the Paris Era

This brief examines the gap in adaptation finance that must be bridged in order to fulfill the values of the Paris agreement, with a focus on regions such as Southeast Asia that are at particular risk from the effects of climate change. It also discusses new adaptation finance commitments from governments and the private sector; the landscape of existing adaptation finance channels and initiatives onto which these commitments build; and the undiminished role of developed countries -- such as the United States, Japan, EU countries, and others -- to facilitate an increase in adaptation finance as the Paris era begins

Project Finance as a Risk-Management Tool in International Syndicated Lending

We develop a double moral hazard model that predicts that the use of project finance increases with both the political risk of the country in which the project is located and the influence of the lender over this political risk exposure. In contrast, the use of project finance should decrease as the economic health and corporate governance provisions of the borrower’s home country improve. When we test these predictions with a global sample of syndicated loans to borrowers in 139 countries, we find overall support for our model and provide evidence that multilateral development banks act as “political umbrellasâ€.project finance; syndicated loans; political risk; double moral hazard

The effectiveness and usefulness for commodity-dependent countries of new tools in commodity markets: risk management and collateralized finance

This paper describes the experiences of developing country enterprises, farmers and governments with commodity price risk management and various forms of structured finance. It explores the constraints that these entities face in using modern financial markets, including counterparty and sovereign risk obstacles, and problems in their legal and regulatory framework. Various schemes to overcome such obstacles are examined.commodity futures market, futures, options, risk management, structured finance, warehouse receipts, securitization