Bubble detection in Brazil’s stock market: application of the generalized superior augmented Dickey-Fuller test

Considering the importance of the proper detection of bubbles in financial markets for policymakers and market agents, we used two techniques described in Diba and Grossman (1988b) and in Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015) to detect periods of exuberance in the recent history of the Brazillian stock market. First, a simple cointegration test is applied. Secondly, we conducted several augmented, right-tailed Dickey-Fuller tests on rolling windows of data to determine the point in which there’s a structural break and the series loses its stationarity.

Estimation of random coefficients logit demand models: an application to the Brazilian fixed income fund market

Estimation of demand and supply in differentiated products markets is a central issue in Empirical Industrial Organization and has been used to study the effects of taxes, merges, introduction of new goods, market power, among others. Logit and Random Coefficients Logit are examples of demand models used to study these effects. For the supply side it is generally supposed a Nash equilibrium in prices. This work presents a detailed discussion of these models of demand and supply as well as the procedure for estimation. Lastly, is made an application to the Brazilian fixed income fund market.

A risk management approach to emerging market's sovereign debt sustainability with an application to Brazilian data

In this paper we study the question of debt sustainability from a risk management perspective. The debt accumulation equation for any country involves variables that are stochastic and closely intertwined. When these aspects are taken into consideration the notion of debt sustainability is expanded to studying the stochastic properties of the debt dynamics. We illustrate the methodology by studying the Brazilian case. We find that even though the debt could be sustainable in the absence of risk, there are paths in which it is clearly unsustainable. Furthermore, we show that properties of the debt dynamics are closely related to the spreads on sovereign dollar denominated debt.

The effect of default risk on trading book capital requirements for public equities : an irc application for the Brazilian market

Esse é um dos primeiros trabalhos a endereçar o problema de avaliar o efeito do default para fins de alocação de capital no trading book em ações listadas. E, mais especificamente, para o mercado brasileiro. Esse problema surgiu em crises mais recentes e que acabaram fazendo com que os reguladores impusessem uma alocação de capital adicional para essas operações. Por essa razão o comitê de Basiléia introduziu uma nova métrica de risco, conhecida como Incremental Risk Charge. Essa medida de risco é basicamente um VaR de um ano com um intervalo de confiança de 99.9%. O IRC visa medir o efeito do default e das migrações de rating, para instrumentos do trading book. Nessa dissertação, o IRC está focado em ações e como consequência, não leva em consideração o efeito da mudança de rating. Além disso, o modelo utilizado para avaliar o risco de crédito para os emissores de ação foi o Moody’s KMV, que é baseado no modelo de Merton. O modelo foi utilizado para calcular a PD dos casos usados como exemplo nessa dissertação. Após calcular a PD, simulei os retornos por Monte Carlo após utilizar um PCA. Essa abordagem permitiu obter os retornos correlacionados para fazer a simulação de perdas do portfolio. Nesse caso, como estamos lidando com ações, o LGD foi mantido constante e o valor utilizado foi baseado nas especificações de basiléia. Os resultados obtidos para o IRC adaptado foram comparados com um VaR de 252 dias e com um intervalo de confiança de 99.9%. Isso permitiu concluir que o IRC é uma métrica de risco relevante e da mesma escala de uma VaR de 252 dias. Adicionalmente, o IRC adaptado foi capaz de antecipar os eventos de default. Todos os resultados foram baseados em portfolios compostos por ações do índice Bovespa.

Volatility modelling in the forex market: an empirical evaluation

We compare three frequently used volatility modelling techniques: GARCH, Markovian switching and cumulative daily volatility models. Our primary goal is to highlight a practical and systematic way to measure the relative effectiveness of these techniques. Evaluation comprises the analysis of the validity of the statistical requirements of the various models and their performance in simple options hedging strategies. The latter puts them to test in a "real life" application. Though there was not much difference between the three techniques, a tendency in favour of the cumulative daily volatility estimates, based on tick data, seems dear. As the improvement is not very big, the message for the practitioner - out of the restricted evidence of our experiment - is that he will probably not be losing much if working with the Markovian switching method. This highlights that, in terms of volatility estimation, no clear winner exists among the more sophisticated techniques.

Using irregularly spaced returns to estimate multi-factor models: application to Brazilian equity data

Multi-factor models constitute a useful tool to explain cross-sectional covariance in equities returns. We propose in this paper the use of irregularly spaced returns in the multi-factor model estimation and provide an empirical example with the 389 most liquid equities in the Brazilian Market. The market index shows itself significant to explain equity returns while the US$/Brazilian Real exchange rate and the Brazilian standard interest rate does not. This example shows the usefulness of the estimation method in further using the model to fill in missing values and to provide interval forecasts.

A study of behavioral finance: background, theories and application

Behavioral finance, or behavioral economics, consists of a theoretical field of research stating that consequent psychological and behavioral variables are involved in financial activities such as corporate finance and investment decisions (i.e. asset allocation, portfolio management and so on). This field has known an increasing interest from scholar and financial professionals since episodes of multiple speculative bubbles and financial crises. Indeed, practical incoherencies between economic events and traditional neoclassical financial theories had pushed more and more researchers to look for new and broader models and theories. The purpose of this work is to present the field of research, still ill-known by a vast majority. This work is thus a survey that introduces its origins and its main theories, while contrasting them with traditional finance theories still predominant nowadays. The main question guiding this work would be to see if this area of inquiry is able to provide better explanations for real life market phenomenon. For that purpose, the study will present some market anomalies unsolved by traditional theories, which have been recently addressed by behavioral finance researchers. In addition, it presents a practical application of portfolio management, comparing asset allocation under the traditional Markowitz’s approach to the Black-Litterman model, which incorporates some features of behavioral finance.

Strategic adoption in a two-sided market : a study of college applications in Brazil

This paper measures the importance of indirect network effects in the adoption by colleges and students of ENEM, a standardized exam for high-school students in Brazil that can be used in college application processes. We estimate network effects and find that they are economically significant. Students are more likely to take ENEM the larger the number of colleges adopting it. Similarly, colleges are more likely to adopt it the larger the number of students taking the exam. Moreover, we find evidence that colleges play strategically and that heterogeneity determines their decisions. A college is less likely to adopt ENEM the larger the number of competitors adopting it. Colleges’ characteristics such as ownership and organization affect adoption decisions. In a counterfactual exercise we compare colleges’ adoption decisions under competition and under joint colleges’ payoffs maximization. Adoption rates are significantly reduced when colleges internalize the competitive effect, i.e., the effect of their decisions on other colleges’ payoffs. On the other hand, they increase when indirect network effects - the effect of students’ response to their decisions on other colleges’ payoffs - are also internalized. Competitive adoption rates are found to exceed joint optimum rates by a small difference. These results suggest that, without considering students’ welfare, adoption rates are excessive, but close to the joint optimum.

Using irregularly spaced returns to estimate multi-factor models : application to Brazilian equity data

Multi-factor models constitute a use fui tool to explain cross-sectional covariance in equities retums. We propose in this paper the use of irregularly spaced returns in the multi-factor model estimation and provide an empirical example with the 389 most liquid equities in the Brazilian Market. The market index shows itself significant to explain equity returns while the US$/Brazilian Real exchange rate and the Brazilian standard interest rate does not. This example shows the usefulness of the estimation method in further using the model to fill in missing values and to provide intervaI forecasts.

Market entry of an innovative technology : the example of a new app on the Brazilian tourism market

The Brazilian start-up Local Wander plans to enter the tourism sector with a mobile application aiming to enable a new form of travel research. A web-based survey has been sent out to the start-up’s target audience (n: 236) in order to gain further relevant information for the designing of Local Wander’s market entry strategy. By applying the diffusion of innovation theory, this thesis could detect five different adopter categories, originally described by Rogers (1962), among Local Wander’s target audience based on their adoption intention. The Early Market was observed to be significantly bigger than the theory predicted. Research revealed four characteristics to be of significant impact on the adoption intention: Relative Perceived Product Advantage, Perceived Product Complexity, Compatibility with digital travel research sources, and the adopter’s Innovativeness towards mobile applications. Specific characteristics in order to identify Local Wander’s early users, the so called Innovators, were detected giving indications for further necessary company market research. Findings showed that the diffusion of innovation framework is a helpful tool for start-ups’ prospective decision making and market entry strategy planning.

Effect of price and in-store promotion on sales: a study of distinct regions in an emerging market

Increasing competition caused by globalization, high growth of some emerging markets and stagnation of developed economies motivate Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs) manufacturers to drive their attention to emerging markets. These companies are expected to adapt their marketing activities to the particularities of these markets in order to succeed. In a country classified as emerging market, regions are not alike and some contrasts can be identified. In addition, divergences of marketing variables effect can also be observed in the different retail formats. The retail formats in emerging markets can be segregated in chain self-service and traditional full-service. Thus, understanding the effectiveness of marketing mix not only in country aggregated level data can be an important contribution. Inasmuch as companies aim to generate profits from emerging markets, price is an important marketing variable in the process of creating competitive advantage. Along with price, promotional variables such as in-store displays and price cut are often viewed as temporary incentives to increase short-term sales. Managers defend the usage of promotions as being the most reliable and fastest manner to increase sales and then short-term profits. However, some authors alert about sales promotions disadvantages; mainly in the long-term. This study investigates the effect of price and in-store promotions on sales volume in different regions within an emerging market. The database used is at SKU level for juice, being segregated in the Brazilian northeast and southeast regions and corresponding to the period from January 2011 to January 2013. The methodological approach is descriptive quantitative involving validation tests, application of multivariate and temporal series analysis method. The Vector-Autoregressive (VAR) model was used to perform the analysis. Results suggest similar price sensitivity in the northeast and southeast region and greater in-store promotion sensitivity in the northeast. Price reductions show negative results in the long-term (persistent sales in six months) and in-store promotion, positive results. In-store promotion shows no significant influence on sales in chain self-service stores while price demonstrates no relevant impact on sales in traditional full-service stores. Hence, this study contributes to the business environment for companies wishing to manage price and sales promotions for consumer brands in regions with different features within an emerging market. As a theoretical contribution, this study fills an academic gap providing a dedicated price and sales promotion study to contrast regions in an emerging market.