C10 - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: GeneralReturn

When there is bad news hoarding from managers, returns of stocks are no longer efficient. We hypothesize that a proxy for efficient returns predicts stock price bubbles, crashes and crash risk. We find evidence in support of our hypotheses. Lagged price efficiency significantly predicts bubbles, crashes and crash risk in multivariate linear regressions and logit regressions, as predicted by our hypotheses. We also find that the lagged probability of bubbles is only correlated with future returns. In contrast, the lagged probability of crashes is correlated with both future returns and fundamental values of stocks. This result validates our explanation for the formation of bubbles and crashes. Finally, the out-of-sample accuracy ratio of our bubble and the crash prediction model is higher than in previous studies. Our results provide alternative explanations of the mechanics of stock price bubbles and crashes and are helpful for academicians, investors and policymakers.

In this survey article, we present a rich extent of literature on volatility and its propagation on financial markets via spillovers. We document how new approaches or improved existing methodologies lead to results that offer richer insights than those derived from standard econometric techniques. Moreover, the implications of the results can be related to a wide set of markets as the surveyed articles cover emerging and developed European markets as well as the United States.

This paper examines the long-run relationship between oil prices and stock market prices of G7 countries by using Robinson (1994a) tests for fractional integration and cointegration instead of the classical approaches. Having found that the unit root null hypothesis cannot be rejected for any individual series, it is examined whether oil prices and stock market prices have a fractional cointegration relationship. Test results on the residuals from the cointegrating regressions indicate that there is evidence of fractional cointegration between oil prices and DAX 30, Dow Jones, FTSE 100 and SP-TSX indices while there is no evidence of fractional cointegration for others.

This paper analyses possible options how to improve the risk adjustment of the health insurance system in the Czech Republic. From the possible options it argues for including pharmaceutical cost groups (PCGs) as additional risk factors since it is an improvement that can be implemented almost instantaneously. On real data from an anonymous sickness fund it confirms that predictive performance of PCGs models is consistently better than the performance of the demographic model that is currently used. The study also describes and examines the Czech health insurance market and implications of proposed changes of policy makers. Based on experience from other countries we point to a problem of risk selection if the changes are not accompanied by a tighter regulation, specifically in the form of improved risk adjustment formula.

Due to the capital decree legislated by the Bank of Slovenia, Slovenian commercial banks can apply internal models for capital requirements calculation for currency risk and selected market risks (general position risk in line with debt and equity instruments, price change risk for commodities) as an alternative or in combination with standardised methodology. In risk management process banks consider the first and the second moment of a yield probability distribution as portfolio managers seek to achieve the best possible trade-off between risk represented by variance of returns and expected return. In cases when liquidity of instruments on financial markets is low, banks should consider also the third (skewness) and the fourth (kurtosis) moment of a yield probability distribution. All moments define the characteristics of yield probability distribution and therefore affect the risk measure value, being calculated on the basis of yield probability distribution function. The goal of this paper is to calculate the third moment of a yield probability distribution functions for a set of selected assets in financial market in Slovenia and to initiate implementation of a proper risk measure when yield distribution function is not elliptic.

The article presents an empirically tested assessment of the Bank of Slovenia (BS), national central bank, adjustment policy to surges in capital flows during the last decade. Exchange rate appreciation, undeveloped banking sector, immoderate money market oscillation, unstable economic trends (all phenomena that can also be found in other transition countries) are just some of the detrimental effects that can be provoked by surges in capital flows if the national economy is faced with some fundamental sectoral deficiencies. Empirical results indicated that BS quite successfully mitigated listed effects of excessive foreign currency inflows during the last decade. With the suitable combination of direct and indirect adjustment methods, BS succeeded in preventing, still vulnerable Slovenian economy from a major form of financial crisis and stronger nominal tolar appreciation (this was not the case in some other countries like Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia) although there was some real appreciation.