Structure and dynamics of the global financial network

In this paper, we study the evolution of the network topology for the global financial market. We evaluate the level of diversification and participation of developed and emerging economies in cross-border exposures and find that the gross exposure network is dense, the vulnerability matrix is sparse, and the network’s fragility changes over time. Prior to the financial crisis in 2008, the network was relatively fragile, whereas it became more resilient afterwards, showing a reduction in financial institutions’ risk appetite. Our results suggest that financial regulators should track down the network evolution in their systemic risk assessment.     

Filtering for risk assessment of interbank network

Our paper contributes to the recent macroprudential policy addressing the resilience of financial systems in terms of their interconnectedness. We argue that beneath an interbank market, there is a fundamental latent network that affects the liquidity distributions among banks. To investigate the interbank market, we propose a framework that identifies such latent network using a statistical learning procedure. The framework reverse engineers overnight signals observed as banks conduct their reserve management on a daily basis. Our simulation-based results show that possible disruptions in funds supply are highly affected by the interconnectedness of the latent network. Hence, the proposed framework serves as an early warning system for regulators to monitor the overnight market and to detect ex-ante possible disruptions based on the inherent network characteristics.     

Fitness model for tiered structure in the interbank market

Tiered structure is observed in a range of countries' banking systems. In that case, relatively few first‐tier banks are not only interconnected, but are connected with second‐tier banks, whereas second‐tier banks are almost exclusively connected with first‐tier banks. This study uses the theory of complex networks to quantitatively characterize the formation of tiered structure in banking systems. The interbank market network model constructed in this article reproduces tiered structure and various statistical properties, namely, a small‐world property and a disassortative mixing property as well as a reciprocal property. This network modeling of the interbank market could be an efficient way to understand the bank behavior in the interbank market. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2012     

Financial contagion: extending the exposures network of the Mexican financial system

Direct contagion has been widely studied in recent years and little evidence has been found to be relevant to the study of systemic risk. However, we argue that this limited contagion effect might be associated with a lack of relevant data. A common assumption for the estimation of the matrices of exposures is to apply the maximum entropy principle to deal with data gaps; such an assumption might lead to an underestimation of contagion risk. In this paper, there are no data gaps and the information set is extended from interbank exposures alone to exposures among most of the financial intermediaries in the Mexican financial system (we even include exposures to some international foreign banks). Naturally, the contagion risk of an extended network of exposures changes with respect to the interbank exposures network, as there are many more institutions which can be the source of contagion and there are more institutions which can fail due to contagion. The most important contribution of this paper is that it provides evidence on financial contagion with an extended exposures network under stressful conditions. The results presented here support the international efforts by the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board to increase the amount of information available which can be used to assess systemic risk and contagion based on exposures and funding data.     

中国银行系统的宏观审慎监管研究

全球金融危机爆发后,对银行系统实行审慎监管已成为国内外学者及相关监管机构的共识。但目前银行系统的监管研究多为微观审慎监管,宏观审慎监管研究缺乏,尤其是对中国银行网络系统进行动态建模并进行宏观审慎监管的定量研究未见。本文首先利用中国2008至2015年16家上市银行的实际数据构建动态的中国银行网络系统模型,然后使用Component VaR、Incremental VaR、Shapley value EL以及ΔCoVaR四种风险分配机制研究中国银行网络系统的宏观审慎监管方法。研究表明:对中国银行网络系统进行宏观审慎监管能够有效提升其稳定性,并且四种机制相比之下,ΔCoVaR的监管效果最为显著,而Incremental VaR则相对较差。此外,通过宏观审慎资本与银行指标之间的相关性分析,发现Incremental VaR、Shapley value EL以及Component VaR机制下的宏观审慎资本与银行的总资产具有一定的相关性,此时宏观审慎资本可以根据银行的总资产来设置;而ΔCoVaR机制下则不相关,因此宏观审慎资本可以依据各银行的系统性风险贡献大小来设置。     

A Bowley solution with limited ceded risk for a monopolistic reinsurer

Borch (1969) advocated that the study of optimal reinsurance design should take into consideration the conflicting interests of both an insurer and a reinsurer. Motivated by this and exploiting a Bowley solution (or Stackelberg equilibrium game), this paper proposes a two-step model that tackles an optimal risk transfer problem between the insurer and the reinsurer. From the insurer’s perspective, the first step of the model provisionally derives an optimal reinsurance policy for a given reinsurance premium while reflecting the reinsurer’s risk appetite. The reinsurer’s risk appetite is controlled by imposing upper limits on the first two moments of the coverage. Through a comparative analysis, the effect of the insurer’s initial wealth on the demand for reinsurance is then examined, when the insurer’s risk aversion and prudence are taken into account. Based on the insurer’s provisional strategy, the second step of the model determines the monopoly premium that maximizes the reinsurer’s expected profit while still satisfying the insurer’s incentive condition. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate our Bowley solution.     

银行间与交易所国债市场的信息溢出效应研究

用VAR模型的预测误差方差分解方法和格兰杰因果检验方法研究中国银行间和交易所国债市场信息溢出效应的方向、水平和动态趋势及其原因。研究表明:银行间和交易所国债市场之间收益与波动溢出效应均呈现上升动态特征;在收益溢出效应中银行间是国债市场信息传导者,在波动溢出效应中交易所是国债市场信息传导者;利率变化和市场流动性显著负向影响收益总溢出和波动总溢出。     

银行间债券市场的外部效率:基于商业银行的视角

以参与我国银行间债券市场的商业银行为研究对象,运用面板数据模型检验银行间债券市场的外部效率对于商业银行经营绩效的影响.实证结果表明:我国银行间债券市场的发展对于商业银行的盈利能力和流动性管理水平均有较强的外部正效率,而对于商业银行传统盈利模式和风险管理则具有负面影响.建议商业银行应利用银行间债券市场的外部正效率提高其资产负债管理水平,通过提升自身经营管理水平来降低银行间债券市场外部负效率对自身的影响;此外监管当局还应该降低小型金融机构进入银行间债券市场的门槛,以发挥该市场外部正效率对化解区域金融风险的作用.     

基于随机矩阵理论的股市网络拓扑性质研究

本文运用随机矩阵理论(RMT)和相关系数动态演化模型建立全球股指二次“去噪”相关系数矩阵,并采用阀值法构建全球股市网络,进而分析该网络拓扑结构特性和解释风险在网络中的传染效应。研究发现,全球股市网络呈现出“小世界”效应;在θ=0.1数量水平下,全球股市网络具有较强的鲁棒性。同时,英国和荷兰的股票市场风险传染对网络整体的冲击较大;股市网络中各个股市间的风险传染路径与相关国家经济实力相关联,体现出较强的同配性。     

Unhedgeable inflation risk within pension schemes

Pension schemes generally aim to protect the purchasing power of their participants, but cannot completely do this when due to market incompleteness inflation risk cannot be fully hedged. Without a market price for inflation risk the value of a pension contract depends on the investor’s risk appetite and inflation risk exposure. We develop a valuation framework to deal with two sources of unhedgeable inflation risk: the absence of instruments to hedge general consumer price inflation risk and differences in group-specific consumption bundles from the economy-wide bundle. We find that the absence of financial instruments to hedge inflation risks may reduce lifetime welfare by up to 6% of certainty-equivalent consumption for commonly assumed degrees of risk aversion. Regulators face a dilemma as young (workers) and old participants (retirees) have different capacities to absorb losses from unhedgeable inflation risks and as a consequence have a different risk appetite.     

A bottom-up biofuel market equilibrium model for policy analysis

Although the biofuel market remains at its early stage, it is expected to play an important role in climate policy in the future in the transportation sector. In this paper, we develop a bottom-up equilibrium model to study the supply chain of the biofuel market, explicitly formulating the interactions among farmers, biofuel producers, blenders, and consumers. The model is built on optimization problems faced by each entity and considers decisions associated with farmers’ land allocation, biomass transportation, biofuel production, and biofuel blending. As such, the model is capable of and appropriate for policy analysis related to interactions among multiple stakeholders. For example, the model can be used to analyze the impacts of biofuel policies on market outcomes, pass-through of taxes or subsidies, and distribution of consumers’ or producers’ surplus. The equilibrium model can also serve as an analytical tool to study the price impact of biomass, biofuel, and Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) for biofuels. We demonstrate the model by applying it to a case study of Iowa. We specifically focus on the effects of market structure, i.e., points-of-implementation on subsidies on market outcomes. The results indicate that some entities can benefit greatly at the expense of others when they possess market power. Government oversight is therefore needed to safeguard the development of the sector.     

基于Hull-White模型的债券市场利率期限结构研究

现代利率研究中有许多理论和模型对利率期限结构问题进行探索，但是在中国还没有一种公认的理论或方法能够完全解决中国债券市场利率期限结构问题。本文尝试寻找一种更多的利用市场即时信息的定价方法对利率期限结构进行研究，应用三叉树模拟技术构建Hull-White模型，并对当前中国债券市场上几种常用利率进行比较分析。研究发现银行间质押式回购收益率具有较好的动态运动性质，比样本国债和政策性银行金融债更适宜作为短期金融产品定价的基础。     

Time-consistent reinsurance and investment strategies for mean–variance insurer under partial information

In this paper, based on equilibrium control law proposed by Björk and Murgoci (2010), we study an optimal investment and reinsurance problem under partial information for insurer with mean–variance utility, where insurer’s risk aversion varies over time. Instead of treating this time-inconsistent problem as pre-committed, we aim to find time-consistent equilibrium strategy within a game theoretic framework. In particular, proportional reinsurance, acquiring new business, investing in financial market are available in the market. The surplus process of insurer is depicted by classical Lundberg model, and the financial market consists of one risk free asset and one risky asset with unobservable Markov-modulated regime switching drift process. By using reduction technique and solving a generalized extended HJB equation, we derive closed-form time-consistent investment–reinsurance strategy and corresponding value function. Moreover, we compare results under partial information with optimal investment–reinsurance strategy when Markov chain is observable. Finally, some numerical illustrations and sensitivity analysis are provided.     

Classical mean-variance model revisited: pseudo efficiency

Investigating the inverse problem of the classical Markowitz mean-variance formulation: Given a mean-variance pair, find initial investment levels and their corresponding portfolio policies such that the given mean-variance pair can be realized, we reveal that any mean-variance pair inside the reachable region can be achieved by multiple portfolio policies associated with different initial investment levels. Therefore, in the mean-variance world for a market of all risky assets, the common belief of monotonicity: ‘The larger you invest, the larger expected future wealth you can expect for a given risk (variance) level’ does not hold, which stimulates us to extend the classical two-objective mean-variance framework to an expanded three-objective framework: to maximize the mean and minimize the variance of the final wealth as well as to minimize the initial investment level. As a result, we eliminate from the policy candidate list the set of pseudo efficient policies that are efficient in the original mean-variance space, but inefficient in this newly introduced three-dimensional objective space.     

Optimal investment and risk control policies for an insurer in an incomplete market

In this paper, we apply the martingale approach to investigate the optimal investment and risk control problem for an insurer in an incomplete market. The claim risk of per policy is characterized by a compound Poisson process with drift, and the insurer can be invested in multiple risky assets whose price processes are described by the geometric Brownian motions model. By ‘complete’ the incomplete market, closed-form solutions to the problems of mean–variance criterion and expected exponential utility maximization are obtained. Moreover, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results with the basic parameters.     

恐怖分子入侵阻止网络的双层规划建模与禁忌搜索分析

“一带一路”战略加深了我国与邻国的合作交流,也为境外恐怖分子的潜入提供可乘之机。为防止恐怖分子潜入,提出一类新的恐怖分子入侵阻止网络设计问题,充分考虑恐怖分子的计算能力,通过决策有限安检资源在边境交通网络中的最优分配来降低袭击风险。首先,将该问题构造为双层规划模型,上层规划是政府的阻止网络设计问题,下层规划是恐怖分子的袭击节点选择和入侵路径优化问题;其次,设计一类用禁忌搜索处理上层规划,并结合下层规划直接求解的混合算法;最后,结合南疆实例进行仿真分析,结果发现:恐怖分子计算能力越强,网络城市节点受袭风险越大;政府最优阻断方案随恐怖分子计算能力强弱变化而变化,但存在一定共性原则;增加阻断资源投入可降低袭击风险,但两者存在“边际效用递减”关系。     

Network theory and behavioral finance in a heterogeneous market environment

This article addresses the stock market as a complex system. The complexity of the stock market arises from the structure of the environment, agent heterogeneity, interactions among agents, and interactions with market regulators. We develop the idea of a meta‐model, which is a model of models represented in an agent‐based model that allows us to investigate this type of market complexity. The novelty of this article is the incorporation of various complexities captured by network theoretical models or induced by investment behavior. The model considers agents heterogeneous in terms of their strategies and investment behavior. Four investment strategies are included in the model: zero‐intelligence, fundamental strategy, momentum (trend followers), and adaptive trading strategy using the artificial neural network algorithm. In terms of behavior, the agents can be risk averse or loss occupied with overconfidence or conservative biases. The agents may interact with each other by sharing market sentiments through a structured scale‐free network. The market regulator controls the market through various control tools such as the risk‐free rate and taxation. Parameters are calibrated to the S&P500. The calibration is implemented using a scatter search heuristic approach. The model is validated using various stylized facts of stock return patterns such as excess kurtosis, auto‐correlation, and ARCH effect phenomena. Analysis at the macro and micro level of the market was performed by measuring the sensitivity of volatility and market capital and investigating the wealth distributions of the agents. We found that volatility is more sensitive to the model parameters than to market capital, and thus, the level of volatility does not affect market capital. In addition, the findings suggest that the efficient market hypothesis holds at the macro level but not at the micro level. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 530–554, 2016     

Optimal product rollover strategies

As product life cycles shortened, many firms introduce new products and phase out old products frequently. To plan for a successful product rollover; i.e., introduce a new product and eliminate an old product successfully, a firm needs to determine the prices of both products as well as the time to launch the new product and the time to phase out the old product. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to analyze the profits associated with two product rollover strategies: single-product rollover and dual-product rollover. The single-product rollover strategy calls for simultaneous introduction of the new product and elimination of the old product. For the dual-product rollover, we introduce the new product first and then phase out the old product eventually. We determine the optimal prices of both products as well as the optimal time to execute these product rollover strategies. Moreover, we determine the conditions under which the dual-product rollover strategy is optimal.     

Inventory rationing via drop-shipping in Internet retailing: A sensitivity analysis

In this paper, we study a threshold level inventory rationing policy that is of interest to e-tailers, operating in a business to consumer (B2C) environment and selling non-perishable, made-to-stock items such as books, CDs, consumer electronics, and body and bath products. A Monte Carlo simulation model is developed to examine this policy when the demand process is stochastic, lead-time is stochastic, and the e-tailer uses ‘drop-shipping’ as an order fulfillment option. The methodology presented, which includes computer simulation and a full factorial experimental design, permits understanding of the complexity of the decision-making environment and implications of different sources of uncertainty (e.g. demand variability and lead-time variability) on a profit-maximizing threshold level of inventory, a stock level below which low margin orders are drop-shipped directly from the e-tailer’s supplier rather than fulfilled from internal stock.     

基于双曲型谱风险度量的大用户购电策略

直购电模式正在推行,大用户与电网公司的风险偏好却各不相同。本文将风险偏好纳入结算策略,建立了基于双曲型谱风险的购电优化模型,并用PJM日前市场的数据进行了实证分析。探讨了风险厌恶因子的敏感范围,将大用户划分为积极、稳健和保守三种类型,分别讨论了其购电策略。结果表明:无论风险偏好如何,大用户总愿意为获得高收益而承担更高的风险;风险偏好是购电策略的重要影响因素;当风险偏好既定时,大用户在远期合同市场和日前市场的购电比例可由谱风险值确定。随着谱风险值的增加,大用户会减少远期合同市场的购电量,更倾向于在日前市场购电。