Basel II : operational risk measurement in the portuguese Banking sector and an evaluation of the quantitive impacts

The present work is aimed at understanding the general notion and origin of the New Basel Accord, which intends to attain international bank stability, emphasizing the convergence between regulatory capital and economic capital, applying its risk sensitive methodologies. This work focuses on one of the principal novelties of Basel II – operational risk and its respective methodologies for calculating minimum capital requirements. The New Capital Accord encourages financial institutions to gradually evolve from basic to sophisticated methodologies. Institutions using more sophisticated methods will be rewarded by deductions on the capital allocated for the calculation of the capital ratio. The methodologies associated to operational risk will be applied to a group of national banking institutions. These methodologies are referred to in Pillar I of the New Capital Accord: (i) basic indicator approach, (ii) the standardized approach and (iii) the alternative standardized approach. The purpose of this practical application is to evaluate and quantify the impact due to the introduction of Basel II.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PSI-20 fluctuation : correlation of the portuguese stock market with major global capital markets

In this paper, we will analyze the increase of correlations in the market during periods of crisis, due to its paramount importance to the management and optimization of the portfolio, and especially for risk diversification in portfolio management. An evaluation of the level of correlation between the stock markets is important for several reasons. First, it enables to evaluate changes in the patterns of correlation, and thus to make the proper adjustments in portfolios’ investment. Second, policy makers are also interested in these correlations because of its implications for the stability of the financial system. The correlation coefficients are biased measures of dependence when markets become more volatile. This paper explores the correlation of the Portuguese capital markets with the Asian, American, European and Latin American Spanish stock markets. To this end, we used the PSI-20 index, Nikkei 225, NASDAQ, S&P 500, Euronext 100 and Ibex-35. Our analysis results show that the correlation does exist as a phenomenon during financial crises (Bear Market), reducing the benefits of portfolio diversification when most needed. Moreover, we believe that correlations have increased between the markets in recent years.N/

Future entrepreneur’s profile

Given that entrepreneurship plays a key role in the development of a country’s economy, governments should stimulate entrepreneurial orientation, particularly among youngsters in their formative years; schools must play a pertinent role in the promotion and support of these capacities. Indeed, the European Commission advises that schools foster such skills. In this context, we apply a frame to screen school populations in the Azores Islands, Portugal, for prospects of entrepreneurship and to study the profiles of those who noticeably show entrepreneurial orientations. Knowing the ideal combination of personality traits that foretell young entrepreneurs, schools can develop the syllabuses that are best aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and increasing the capacities of those who prove to be entrepreneurially oriented. This work leads to the following main findings: first, that one quarter of all senior students in high school in the Azores Islands bears prospects for entrepreneurship and, second, this same group shows a well-defined psychological profile that may vary depending on one’s willingness to expend effort.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Real Options Valuation : an application to the portuguese real estate market

The contribution of real options analysis on the valuation of Portuguese undeveloped building sites is significant on the decision making regarding the apartment-buildings construction. Using the options model developed by Quigg (1993), and including the necessary readjustments for the Portuguese market, it was found that the scale price elasticity parameter and construction expenditures’ elasticity of scale parameter had a strong impact on building sites’ values. The empirical analysis revealed that the option to defer adds value to undeveloped building sites’ valuations. This fact cannot be ignored when deciding upon an investment’s implementation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prediction of entrepreneurship : an ordered regression approach

Entrepreneurship is a popular research topic over the last several decades. Various authors study the characteristics that best define future entrepreneur profiles. In this paper, we apply a framework to screen school populations in the Azores Islands, Portugal, for prospects of entrepreneurship and to study the profiles of those who show noticeably entrepreneurial orientations. The contribution of the paper consists of applying ordered regression to explain the entrepreneurial prospects of students in high school.N/

High speed rail transport valuation

The present paper investigates the optimal timing of investment for a high speed rail (HSR) project, in an uncertain environment, using a real options analysis (ROA) framework. It develops a continuous time framework with stochastic demand that allows for the determination of the optimal timing of investment and the value of the option to defer in the overall valuation of the project. The modelling approach used is based on the differential utility provided to railway users by the HSR service.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Some general results about the optimal timing of relocation

In this paper we derive general results concerning the optimal switching level in the problem of the optimal relocation policy for a firm that faces two types of uncertainty: one about the moments in which new (and more efficient) sites will become available; and the other regarding the degree of efficiency improvement inherent to each one of these new, yet to be known, potential location places. In particular, we note that the optimal switching level depends on the distribution of the degree of efficiency improvement only through an expected value. Impacts on the final results driven by the characteristics of the firm’s original location site, the market environment and the way in which risk is modelled are studied numerically. The overall results are in line with economic intuition.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

High speed rail transport valuation and policy decisions

The present paper investigates the process of decision making regarding the optimal timing to invest in the high speed rail (HSR) project, under uncertainty, using the real options analysis (ROA) framework. It’s developed a continuous time framework that allows a solution to the problem concerning the optimal timing to invest and to value the impact of the option to defer in the overall valuation of the project, with multiple uncertainty factors. Besides considering a stochastic demand, the effect of uncertainty in the investment’s expenditure and over the benefit per user is incorporated in a model with three stochastic variables. The modelling approach used is based on the differential utility provided to railway users by the HSR service.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of IFRS in the financial information of the portuguese companies

With the purpose of increasing the efficiency of the European finance market, the European Union forced the classified companies in the share market to publish, from January 1st, 2005 onwards, their consolidated financial statements with the support of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), emanated of International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This study intends to measure the impact caused by IFRS application in the financial information of the Portuguese business companies, belonging to the Eurolist by Euronext Lisbon. The results demonstrated that the structure of the consolidated balance sheet and income statement suffered a relevant accounting conversion, conditioning the measure made to the performance and the financial position of the business companies. However, one verified that the accounting variations occurred didn't reveal a pattern, being excessively inconstant. The existence of dependent relationships was verified among the relative percentage verified in some accounting items and the business dimension of the companies. The larger the dimension of the studied companies the bigger the impact of the IFRS application

High speed rail transport valuation

The present paper investigates the optimal timing of investment for a high speed rail (HSR) project, in an uncertain environment, using a real options analysis (ROA) framework. It develops a continuous time framework with stochastic demand that allows for the determination of the optimal timing of investment and the value of the option to defer in the overall valuation of the project. The modelling approach used is based on the differential utility provided to railway users by the HSR service.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio