KMU-Ratingmodelle und Ratingqualität: Auswirkungen der Ratingarchitektur auf die ex-ante Risikoklassifikation von KMU-Kreditkontrakten

Zusammenfassung: Aus der Sicht einer KMU als aktuelle oder potentielle Kreditnachfragerin bei einer Bank stellt sich die Frage, ob eine unterschiedliche Ausgestaltung interner Ratingmodelle verschiedener Kreditanbieter bei grundsätzlich identischen Inputdaten zu unterschiedlichen Bonitätsklassifikationen und unterschiedlichen Kreditkonditionen führt. Mit dieser Fragestellung befasst sich der vorliegende Beitrag. Sie ist unter dem Aspekt optimaler Allokationseffizienz sowohl aus makroökonomischer wie aus mikroökonomischer Sicht von Bedeutung. Wir bewerten ein für den schweizerischen KMU-Markt repräsentatives Portfolio von insgesamt 435 KMU-Kreditnehmern mit drei verschiedenen Ratingmodellen, die typisch für die bei Banken zur Bewertung von KMU-Risiken eingesetzten Modelle stehen. Dabei testen wir zunächst die Frage, ob differierende Ratingarchitekturen für den Kreditnehmer c.p. zu einem signifikant unterschiedlichen Rating führen. Diese Vermutung kann aufgrund der Untersuchung bestätigt werden. Anschliessend untersuchen wir die Hypothese, ob der Einbezug qualitativer Informationen zu einer signifikant höheren Bonitätseinschätzung im Vergleich zur Ratingevaluation auf der Basis rein quantitativer Informationen führt. Diese Hypothese muss verworfen werden, was teilweise im Gegensatz zu bisherigen empirischen Erkenntnissen steh

Financing SMEs in Europe

Small and medium-sized enterprises are a centrepiece of Europe?s economy. Due to their limited size and their generally lower creditworthiness, their access to financial market instruments is more limited than for large enterprises, which benefit from more elaborate Treasury operations, economies of scale also in their financing operations and, in particular, from access to securitized lending and stock markets. These limitations for SMEs may seriously limit their expansion potential and, in particular when it comes to lack of risk capital, their innovation and R&D activity. Against this background, a conference on "Financing SMEs in Europe" was jointly organised by SUERF and the Banque de France on 11 and 12 September 2008 in Paris. The conference addressed three issues: First, major theories of SMEs? financing behaviour were presented and evaluated. Second, the nexus between financing constraints and the growth and profitability of SMEs was investigated empirically on the basis of cross-country and a number of individual country case studies. Third, the special role of bank credit for SMEs, the consequences of Basel II on credit risk analysis and SMEs? possible strategic replies were discussed. This article aims to provide an overview of major lines of argument and insights derived from the conference, and draws some conclusions for the current financial crisis and economic downturn and for the longer-term

Functional methods for correlation functions of integrable face and anyon models

The computation of correlation functions in models of statistical mechanics is the key to comparing theoretical results with actual measurements. In the context of integrable lattice models there exists a rich literature on correlators in vertex models and related quantum-spin chains. Less is known for integrable face models and their related anyon chains. Therefore, we define generalised transfer matrices allowing for a solution of the `inverse problem', i.e.\ we express local operators by means of objects from the Yang-Baxter algebra. This motivates the study of reduced density matrices which contain the information of all correlation functions. Instead of directly calculating them, we show that they fulfil a set of functional equations. We use these equations to study density matrices in (R)SOS models and their related anyon chains. In particular, we find integral representations for the two and three-point functions of the $r=4$ RSOS model and calculate those quantities for the $r=5$ model in the thermodynamic limit. In addition we observe a factorisation of the three-point functions into two-point functions and propose an efficient algorithm to factorise reduced density matrices for generic models. In the last section we study density matrices for the $SO(5)_2$ face models. We examine the structure of the two-site reduced density matrices and simplify them for certain topological sectors. Since there exist different inequivalent sets of Boltzmann weights, the latter is done for each choice leading to sets of discrete functional equations

Evidence of blood stage efficacy with a virosomal malaria vaccine in a Phase IIa clinical trial

Background Previous research indicates that a combination vaccine targeting different stages of the malaria life cycle is likely to provide the most effective malaria vaccine. This trial was the first to combine two existing vaccination strategies to produce a vaccine that induces immune responses to both the pre-erythrocytic and blood stages of the P. falciparum life cycle. Methods This was a Phase I/IIa study of a new combination malaria vaccine FFM ME-TRAP+PEV3A. PEV3A includes peptides from both the pre-erythrocytic circumsporozoite protein and the blood-stage antigen AMA-1. This study was conducted at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. The participants were healthy, malaria naïve volunteers, from Oxford. The interventions were vaccination with PEV3A alone, or PEV3A+FFM ME-TRAP. The main outcome measure was protection from malaria in a sporozoite challenge model. Other outcomes included measures of parasite specific immune responses induced by either vaccine; and safety, assessed by collection of adverse event data. Results We observed evidence of blood stage immunity in PEV3A vaccinated volunteers, but no volunteers were completely protected from malaria. PEV3A induced high antibody titres, and antibodies bound parasites in immunofluorescence assays. Moreover, we observed boosting of the vaccine-induced immune response by sporozoite challenge. Immune responses induced by FFM ME-TRAP were unexpectedly low. The vaccines were safe, with comparable side effect profiles to previous trials. Although there was no sterile protection two major observations support an effect of the vaccine-induced response on blood stage parasites: (i) Lower rates of parasite growth were observed in volunteers vaccinated with PEV3A compared to unvaccinated controls (p = 0.012), and this was reflected in the PCR results from PEV3A vaccinated volunteers. These showed early control of parasitaemia by some volunteers in this group. One volunteer, who received PEV3A alone, was diagnosed very late, on day 20 compared to an average of 11.8 days in unvaccinated controls. (ii). Morphologically abnormal parasites were present in the blood of all (n = 24) PEV3A vaccinated volunteers, and in only 2/6 controls (p = 0.001). We describe evidence of vaccine-induced blood stage efficacy for the first time in a sporozoite challenge study

Density matrices in integrable face models

Using the properties of the local Boltzmann weights of integrable interaction-round-a-face (IRF or face) models we express local operators in terms of generalized transfer matrices. This allows for the derivation of discrete functional equations for the reduced density matrices in inhomogeneous generalizations of these models. We apply these equations to study the density matrices for IRF models of various solid-on-solid type and quantum chains of non-Abelian $\bm{su(2)_3}$ or Fibonacci anyons. Similar as in the six vertex model we find that reduced density matrices for a sequence of consecutive sites can be 'factorized', i.e.\ expressed in terms of nearest-neighbour correlators with coefficients which are independent of the model parameters. Explicit expressions are provided for correlation functions on up to three neighbouring sites.Comment: Submission to SciPos

Proceedings of the Linux Audio Conference 2018

These proceedings contain all papers presented at the Linux Audio Conference 2018. The conference took place at c-base, Berlin, from June 7th - 10th, 2018 and was organized in cooperation with the Electronic Music Studio at TU Berlin

All Together Now: The Successes and Failures of Community Building in Xenophon's Anabasis

All Together Now: The Successes and Failures of Community Building in Xenophon’s Anabasis,” analyzes several of the most common strategies for community building employed by the Greeks of the Classical Period. It considers the ways in which religion, Panhellenism, ethnic identity, and factionalism affect the creation and preservation of a community. To study these phenomena in community building, I use Xenophon’s Anabasis, a firsthand account of ten thousand Greek mercenaries who fought in a Persian civil war in 401 BCE, and who, after the death of their Persian patron, were forced to band together and fight their way 1000 miles back to mainland Greece. As a truly cosmopolitan assembly of Greeks, made up of men from cities throughout the Greek world, the successes and failures of the Ten Thousand in establishing what amounts to a civic community provide a unique insight into the most common strategies and devices employed in fostering communal bonds across a diverse group, and the practical limits to which these could be employed. My research shows that despite those in the army sharing many broad cultural similarities, such as the belief in a shared pantheon of gods, or an awareness of common ancestors, any unity achieved among the soldiers through appeals to their cultural similarities or shared heritage were often short-lived and needed to be reiterated time and again. While this observation shows us the limits of mobilizing these phenomena across the larger Greek world of the early fourth century BCE, it also sheds light on the ways in which communities in general, not just in antiquity, develop and fall apart. In this way, we find that religion and shared ancestry are particularly useful in creating identities that allow for the organization of a community, but self-interest and sub-ethnic distinctions are powerfully corrosive, and if left unchecked, they can destroy any unanimity gained through this common identity

Herstellung rekombinanter Vaccinia-Viren als Träger des Oberflächenproteins MSP1 aus Plasmodium falciparum und ihre Charakterisierung in Hinsicht auf einen Malaria-Impfstoff

Malaria, insbesondere die durch P. falciparum verursachte Malaria tropica ist eine der meist verbreiteten und gefährlichsten Infektionskrankheiten der Welt. Eine entscheidende Rolle zur Bekämpfung der Krankheit kommt der Impfstoffentwicklung zu. Das Hauptoberflächenprotein 1 des Merozoiten-Stadiums der Plasmodium ssp. (MSP1), welches in zwei unterschiedlichen Varianten existiert, gilt als ein vielversprechender Kandidat für die Entwicklung eines Malariaimpfstoffs. Durch die chemische Synthese des msp1f-Gens (msp1 des K1-Prototyps) aus P. falciparum in unserem Labor ist es erstmals gelungen, das Gen in seiner gesamten Länge in prokaryotischen und eukaryotischen Systemen zu klonieren und das Protein heterolog herzustellen. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wurde die Synthese des msp1d-Gens (msp1 des MAD20-Prototyp) abgeschlossen und das Gen anschließend in E. coli kloniert und exprimiert. Der Hauptteil der Arbeit befasst sich mit der Entwicklung rekombinanter, msp1-exprimierender Vaccinia-Viren. Durch die Fusion an die Signalsequenz oder die Kombination aus Signal- und GPI-Ankersequenz des Decay Accelerating Factor (DAF) wurde MSP1 oder Teile davon in das Medium exportiert oder auf der Zelloberfläche verankert. Erste Untersuchungen zur Immunogenität im Mausmodell mit unterschiedliche Kombinationen der rekombinanten Viren untereinander und mit gereinigtem MSP1D-42 aus E. coli lieferten folgende Ergebnisse: (i) Durch rekombinante MVA induzierte, MSP1D-42-spezifische Antikörpertiter waren niedrig verglichen zur Immunisierung mit MSP1D-42 aus E. coli. (ii) Bezüglich der humoralen Immunantwort erschien verankertes MSP1D-42 immunogener als sekretiertes. (iii) Eine starke, wenn auch sehr kurzlebige, humorale Immunantwort wurde durch die Immunsierung mit einer Kombination aus Protein-Erstimmunisierung und nachfolgender Stimulation durch rekombinante MVA induziert. Einzig die Immunisierung mit MSP1D-42 aus E. coli allein lieferte langanhaltend hohe Antikörpertiter