Measuring Credit Spread Risk

It is widely known that the small but looming possibility of default renders the expected return distribution for financial products containing credit risk to be highly skewed and fat tailed. In this paper we apply recent techniques developed for incorporating the additional risk faced by changes in swap spreads. Using data from the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, we find that the risk faced from large spread widenings and tightenings is grossly underestimated. Estimation of swap spread risk is dramatically improved when the severity of the fat tails is measured and incorporated into current estimation techniques

Irving Fisher and the UIP Puzzle: Meeting the Expectations a Century Later

We review Irving Fisher’s seminal work on UIP and on the closely related equation linking interest rates and inflation. Like Fisher, we find that the failures of UIP are connected to individual episodes in which errors surrounding exchange rate expectations are persistent, but eventually transitory. We find considerable commonality in deviations from UIP and PPP, suggesting that both of these deviations are driven by a common factor. Using a dynamic latent factor model, we find that deviations from UIP are almost entirely due to expectational errors in exchange rates, rather than attributable to the risk premium; a result consistent with those reported by Fisher a century ago

Rethinking Risk in International Financial Markets

This thesis aims to address many of the issues raised concerning the appropriate definition and measurement of risk. An alternative approach to the estimation of risk, and the risk-return trade-off in international financial markets is investigated. Rather than focusing on the deviation of returns as the appropriate measure for risk, the more relevant negative domain when defining risk is focused upon. The notion of downside risk is applied as a more appropriate measure for risk. The focus is on a variety of international financial markets and applications of downside risk are used for improving market risk and credit risk management models. A downside risk approach for portfolio management is also derived, providing a pragmatic approach to implementing an alternative risk measure into international finance