The capital structure puzzle: On the existence of an optimal capital structure

Corporate finance researchers have long been puzzled by low corporate debt ratios given debt\u27s corporate tax advantage. What makes the capital structure debate especially intriguing is that the different theories represent such different, and in some ways almost diametrically opposed, decision-making processes

Empirical Investigation of Systemic Risk in the New EU States

Sovereign CDS spreads have become major variables focused on risks and expectations about the fiscal situation of different countries. In the paper we investigate, first, whether there is a link in the new member states between the expectations about the condition of their public finances and the dynamics of money markets, including integration of national money markets with the Euro area. Second, we look on the particularities of this relationship through the different phases of the crisis and across the different countries using different monetary regimes. This concerns mostly two opposite extreme monetary regimes, namely, currency boards (and quasi-fixed exchange rate) - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, or inflation targeting - Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. The results obtained form the high frequency panel data models support the theoretical hypotheses and policy intuition that exists strong relationship between the liquidity risk (measured by the short term money markets) and fiscal risk (measured by CDS) and that this link is extremely unstable and in some sense nonlinear during the financial crisis. Our study confirm that the strong link between monetary and public finance risk as apart of total systemic risk increase during the crisis especially for currency boards regimes, when the link becomes stronger and pronounced. For the inflation targeting countries the link became weaker and less pronounced.money markets, sovereign CDS spreads, monetary regimes, financial crisis

Money Market Integration and Sovereign CDS Spreads Dynamics in the New EU States

When the first phase of the crisis focused primarily on the interbank market volatility, the second phase spread on the instability of public finance. Although the overall stance of public finances of the new members is better than the old member countries, the differences within the new group are significant (from the performer Estonia to the laggard Hungary). Sovereign CDS spreads have become major variables focused on risks and expectations about the fiscal situation of different countries. In the paper we investigate, first, whether there is a link in the new member states (NMS) between the expectations about the condition of their public finances and the dynamics of money markets,including integration of national money markets with the euro area.....Our study confirm that the strong link between monetary and public finance risk as apart of total systemic risk increase during the crisis especially for currency boards regimes, when the link becomes stronger and pronounced. For the inflation targeting countries the link became weaker and less pronounced.money markets, sovereign CDS spreads, EU enlargement, monetary regimes, financial crisis

Forecasting the conditional volatility of oil spot and futures prices with structural breaks and long memory models

This paper investigates whether structural breaks and long memory are relevant features in modeling and forecasting the conditional volatility of oil spot and futures prices using three GARCH-type models, i.e., linear GARCH, GARCH with structural breaks and FIGARCH. By relying on a modified version of Inclan and Tiao (1994)'s iterated cumulative sum of squares (ICSS) algorithm, our results can be summarized as follows. First, we provide evidence of parameter instability in five out of twelve GARCH-based conditional volatility processes for energy prices. Second, long memory is effectively present in all the series considered and a FIGARCH model seems to better fit the data, but the degree of volatility persistence diminishes significantly after adjusting for structural breaks. Finally, the out-of-sample analysis shows that forecasting models accommodating for structural break characteristics of the data often outperform the commonly used short-memory linear volatility models. It is however worth noting that the long memory evidence found in the in-sample period is not strongly supported by the out-of-sample forecasting exercise.

Hydrocéphalie compliquant une sarcoïdose chez un patient porteur d’une méningocèle

Une méningocèle est une saillie des méninges à travers des points de faiblesse, habituellement dans la base du crâne. Elle peut être congénitale, iatrogène ou spontanée. Elle est le plus souvent asymptomatique mais peut parfois se manifester par une rhinorrhée, une otorrhée, ou des signes de méningite bactérienne récurrente. L'association à une neurosarcoïdose est exceptionnelle. Patient âgé de 37 ans, a consulté pour une rhinorrhée récidivante évoluant depuis un an. Il s'agissait d'un patient suivi depuis deux ans pour une sarcoïdose systémique dont le diagnostic a été retenu devant l'association d'une xérostomie, un lupus pernio, une pneumopathie interstitielle, une alvéolite lymphocytaire et une granulomatose sans nécrose caséeuse à la biopsie labiale et bronchique étagée; et dont le traitement s'est basée sur une corticothérapie générale avec bonne évolution clinique. L'examen physique a montré une muqueuse nasale saine. Le patient n'avait pas de syndrome méningé. L'examen ophtalmologique était normal. L'analyse du liquide nasal a confirmé qu'il s'agissait d'un liquide céphalo-rachidien. L'examen biologique et la biopsie de la muqueuse nasale étaient sans anomalies. La TDM cérébrale a révélé l'image d'une méningocèle associée à une hydrocéphalie. Le diagnostic d'une hydrocéphalie compliquant une sarcoïdose chez un patient porteur d'une méningocèle a été retenu. Le traitement s'est basé sur un traitement chirurgical de la méningocèle et un traitement médical qui a consisté en une corticothérapie associée à des boli de cyclophosphamide. L'évolution était marquée par une bonne évolution clinique et radiologique et l'absence de récidive de la rhinorrhée.Pan African Medical Journal 2015; 2

A Threshold Vector Autoregression Model of Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Mexico

International audienceConsidering nonlinearities in the exchange rate pass-through to domesticprices, this paper estimates exchange rate pass-through in Mexico. We examine responses of domestic prices to a positive one unit exchange rate shock by estimating a threshold vector autoregression (TVAR) model. A monthly rate of inflation of 0.79% acts as a threshold. The exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices is statistically significant above the threshold level of the inflation rate and statistically insignificant below it

Commodity Price Correlation And Time Varying Hedge Ratios

This paper examines the price volatility and hedging behavior of commodity futures indices and stock market indices. We investigate the weekly hedging strategies generated by return-based and range-based asymmetric dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) processes. The hedging performances of short and long hedgers are estimated with a semi-variance, low partial moment and conditional value-at-risk. The empirical results show that range-based DCC model outperforms return-based DCC model for most cases

A Brief Survey on Product Derivation Methods in Software Product Line

Product Derivation represents one of the main challenges that a Software Product Line (SPL) faces. Deriving individual products from shared software assets is a time-consuming and an expensive activity. Until now, only few works addressed, in a limited context, a partial evaluation of a reduced number of proposed derivation approaches. The main objective of such studies was the comparison of a proposed approach regarding two or three approaches. The purpose of the study reported in this paper is to set up a framework oriented to evaluate and compare existing SPL derivation approaches. The proposed framework uses a number of criteria which help understanding the capabilities and highlight the strength and the weakness of each SPL derivation approach

Herding Behavior Around US Macroeconomic Announcements

This paper investigates the herding behavior of investors in 18 European countries around US macroeconomic announcements. By considering daily data from February 3, 2000 through July 31, 2011 and a large sample of US macroeconomic indicators, we find evidence that the intentional herding behavior intensity decreases when accounting for US macroeconomic news. The herding behavior is adopted intentionally in some European countries namely France, Switzerland and Portugal while spuriously in Greece. In addition to herding with their respective domestic markets, investors in the first three countries herd around some US macroeconomic announcements, suggesting that these investors reveal a somewhat spurious herding behavior. Findings support evidence that investors in Belgium, Finland and Ireland adopt rational investment decision making with regard to their respective domestic markets, but show pronounced herding behavior around US announcements mainly the case of Finland and Ireland