Hedge Funds and Financial Stability: The State of the Debate Staff Discussion Paper 2007-9 Michael R. King, Philipp Maier The authors review the state of the debate on hedge funds and the potential threat that hedge funds pose to financial stability. The collapse of a hedge fund or a group of hedge funds might pose a systemic risk directly by damaging systematically important financial institutions, or indirectly by increasing market volatility and generating a […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies JEL Code(s): G, G1, G15, G18, G2
Estimating and Comparing the Implied Cost of Equity for Canadian and U.S. Firms Staff Working Paper 2007-48 Jonathan Witmer, Lorie Zorn This paper estimates the implied cost of equity for Canadian and U.S. firms using a methodology based on the dividend discount model and utilizing firms' current stock price and analysts' forecasted earnings. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, International topics JEL Code(s): G, G3, G30, G38
A Note on Contestability in the Canadian Banking Industry Staff Discussion Paper 2007-7 Jason Allen, Ying Liu The authors examine the degree of contestability in the Canadian banking system using the H-statistic proposed by Panzar and Rosse (1987) and modified by Bikker, Spierdijk, and Finnie (2006). A modification is necessary because the standard approach of controlling for size using total assets leads to an upward bias in the H-statistic. The authors propose […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial institutions JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21, L, L1, L11
Implications of Asymmetry Risk for Portfolio Analysis and Asset Pricing Staff Working Paper 2007-47 Fousseni Chabi-Yo, Dietmar Leisen, Eric Renault Asymmetric shocks are common in markets; securities' payoffs are not normally distributed and exhibit skewness. This paper studies the portfolio holdings of heterogeneous agents with preferences over mean, variance and skewness, and derives equilibrium prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): C, C5, C52, D, D5, D58, G, G1, G11, G12
Cyclical Behavior of Debt and Equity Using a Panel of Canadian Firms Staff Working Paper 2007-44 Francisco Covas, Wouter den Haan We document the cyclical behavior of debt, equity, and retained earnings for different firm categories using firm-level Canadian data. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, G, G3, G32
Price Discovery in Canadian and U.S. 10-Year Government Bond Markets Staff Working Paper 2007-43 Bryan Campbell, Scott Hendry This paper presents some new results on the price discovery process in both the Canadian and U.S. 10-year Government bond markets using high-frequency data not previously analyzed. Using techniques introduced by Hasbrouck (1995) and Gonzalo-Granger (1995), we look at the relative information content of cash and futures prices in the market for Canadian Government bonds using futures market data from the Montreal Exchange and OTC cash market data reflecting the inter-dealer market covered by CanPx. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G13, G14
Family Values: Ownership Structure, Performance and Capital Structure of Canadian Firms Staff Working Paper 2007-40 Michael R. King, Eric Santor This study examines how family ownership affects the performance and capital structure of 613 Canadian firms using a panel dataset from 1998 to 2005. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, International topics JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G15
Unanticipated Defaults and Losses in Canada's Large-Value Payments System, Revisited Staff Discussion Paper 2007-5 Devin Ball, Walter Engert Recent work at the Bank of Canada studied the impact of default in Canada’s large-value payments system, and concluded that participants could readily manage their potential losses (McVanel 2005). In an extension of that work, the authors use a much larger set of daily payments data – with three times as many observations – to […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial institutions, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E44, E47, G, G2, G21
Vulnerabilities in Defined-Benefit Pension Plans Staff Discussion Paper 2007-3 Jack Selody An effective pension system enhances economic and financial efficiency. A majority of pension plans in Canada are defined-benefit (DB) plans, but DB plans are under stress from increasing longevity, low long-term interest rates, and the shrinking equity premium. DB plans are vulnerable to such shocks because they are complex financial vehicles, with interdependencies not fully […] Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff discussion papers Topic(s): Financial institutions JEL Code(s): G, G2, G23
Exchange Rate Regimes, Globalisation, and the Cost of Capital in Emerging Markets Staff Working Paper 2007-29 Antonio Diez de los Rios This paper presents a multifactor asset pricing model for currency, bond, and stock returns for ten emerging markets to investigate the effect of the exchange rate regime on the cost of capital and the integration of emerging financial markets. Since there is evidence that a fixed exchange rate regime reduces the currency risk premia demanded by foreign investors, the tentative conclusion is that a fixed exchange rate regime system can help reduce the cost of capital in emerging markets. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Development economics, Exchange rate regimes JEL Code(s): F, F3, F30, F33, G, G1, G15