Hedge ratio estimation and hedging effectiveness: the case of the S&P 500 stock index futures contract

This paper investigates the hedging effectiveness of the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 stock index futures contract using weekly settlement prices for the period July 3rd, 1992 to June 30th, 2002. Particularly, it focuses on three areas of interest: the determination of the appropriate model for estimating a hedge ratio that minimizes the variance of returns; the hedging effectiveness and the stability of optimal hedge ratios through time; an in-sample forecasting analysis in order to examine the hedging performance of different econometric methods. The hedging performance of this contract is examined considering alternative methods, both constant and time-varying, for computing more effective hedge ratios. The results suggest the optimal hedge ratio that incorporates nonstationarity, long run equilibrium relationship and short run dynamics is reliable and useful for hedgers. Comparisons of the hedging effectiveness and in-sample hedging performance of each model imply that the error correction model (ECM) is superior to the other models employed in terms of risk reduction. Finally, the results for testing the stability of the optimal hedge ratio obtained from the ECM suggest that it remains stable over time.Hedging effectiveness; minimum variance hedge ratio (MVHR); hedging models; Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index futures

Modernism with a Human Face: Synthesis of Art and Architecture in Eastern Europe, 1954-1958

The \u27synthesis of the arts,\u27 which usually referred to the integration of murals, sculptures and reliefs into architecture, was a key aspect of art and architecture in many parts of the world during the 1950s, from Western Europe to Latin America. It was intended to \u27humanize\u27 the increasingly industrialized modern architecture, while providing art with a platform from which to act outside of the confines of museums and galleries, in the \u27real\u27 space of society. More importantly, the concept centered on the collaboration between people of different skills and backgrounds, such as artists, architects and craftspeople, who ought to form a cohesive creative community in order for synthesis to emerge. For this reason, the synthesis of the arts was often envisioned as a metaphor for the greater social order of the postwar period and thus, as will be argued here, became particularly prominent in periods of political transition. This dissertation focuses on such a time and place when the concept resurged: Post-Stalinist Eastern Europe, a time when both the aesthetics and politics of Stalinism had to be reformed in the hopes of attaining a \u27Communism with a Human Face.\u27 The synthesis of the arts was key to this process, as it allowed for different social visions to be tested in the delimited space of art and architecture before being applied to society as a whole. At the same time, the term\u27s instability and inherent vagueness allowed its continued usage throughout this transition, and within distinct contexts. It could refer to a wide range of things, from interior design to murals and sculptures integrated into modernist architecture, and from immersive, multi-media environments to historicist architecture featuring ornaments in ceramic and stone. Each model represented a different mode of artistic production, as well as a different vision for art\u27s role under socialism. The dissertation thus compares such visions of synthesis, as both a theoretical construct and a practical application, in three Eastern European countries: the Soviet Union, the undisputed political center of the bloc; its largest satellite, the People\u27s Republic of Poland, which experienced a swift and dramatic de-Stalinization and subsequently became a center for reformist thought; and finally, Yugoslavia, whose efforts at developing its own brand of socialism began to bear fruit at the time, when the country emerged as a non-aligned, third pole within the Cold War. This geographical span is counterbalanced by a sharply focused chronology that allows for a close examination of this paradigm shift. Beginning in 1954, when the first signs of aesthetic change can be discerned, it concludes in 1958, when the new, \u27socialist-modern\u27 mode of synthesis reached its apogee with the Eastern bloc pavilions at the Brussels World Fair. I argue that the synthesis of the arts constitutes a key element of reformist communist culture, a short-lived phase when a renewed faith in mass utopia was still possible, before the dissident culture of 1960s and 1970s Eastern Europe took hold. Still firmly inscribed within the official culture, the late-1950s practices examined here sought a difficult compromise between increasing art\u27s autonomy while preserving the social purpose assigned to it under communism

Youth Unemployment and EU: A Love-Hate Relationship

Youth unemployment remains a key concern for the European Union’s member-states, especially the weakest, for at least 10 years. Although the European Union has taken initiatives in the past, young citizens throughout the European Union are still facing the serious problem of unemployment every day. And statistical findings do not look promising of a better or more steady future, even though EU is aiming to invest even more money in the field of youth employment. Therefore, the dynamic of youth unemployment is having a major socioeconomic consequence. This is the reason why realistic measures and initiatives need to be taken in order to avoid the repeat of 2008. Youth unemployment in the European Union as well as the measures and the initiatives that have been taken both during the Economic Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic are being analysed in the current policy brief