Affine processes, arbitrage-Free Term structures of legendre polynomials,and option pricing

Multivariate Affine term structure models have been increasingly used for pricing derivatives in fixed income markets. In these models, uncertainty of the term structure is driven by a state vector, while the short rate is an affine function of this vector. The model is characterized by a specific form for the stochastic differential equation (SDE) for the evolution of the state vector. This SDE presents restrictions on its drift term which rule out arbitrages in the market. In this paper we solve the following inverse problem: Suppose the term structure of interest rates is modeled by a linear combination of Legendre polynomials with random coefficients. Is there any SDE for these coefficients which rules out arbitrages? This problem is of particular empirical interest because the Legendre model is an example of factor model with clear interpretation for each factor, in which regards movements of the term structure. Moreover, the Affine structure of the Legendre model implies knowledge of its conditional characteristic function. From the econometric perspective, we propose arbitrage-free Legendre models to describe the evolution of the term structure. From the pricing perspective, we follow Duffie et al. (2000) in exploring Legendre conditional characteristic functions to obtain a computational tractable method to price fixed income derivatives. Closing the article, the empirical section presents precise evidence on the reward of implementing arbitrage-free parametric term structure models: The ability of obtaining a good approximation for the state vector by simply using cross sectional data.

Public debt and the limits of fiscal policy to increase economic growth

Research that seeks to estimate the effects of fiscal policies on economic growth has ignored the role of public debt in this relationship. This study proposes a theoretical model of endogenous growth, which demonstrates that the level of the public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio should negatively impact the effect of fiscal policy on growth. This occurs because government indebtedness extracts part of the savings of the young to pay interest on the debts of the older generation, who are no longer saving. Therefore, the payment of debt interest assumes an allocation exchange role between generations that is similar to a pay-as-you-go pension system, which results in changes in the savings rate of the economy. The major conclusions of the theoretical model were tested using an econometric model to provide evidence for the validity of this conclusion. Our empirical analysis controls for timeinvariant, country-specific heterogeneity in the growth rates. We also address endogeneity issues and allow for heterogeneity across countries in the model parameters and for cross-sectional dependence.

Debt maturity determinants in Brazil: evidence from private and public corporate borrowings

This study provides an empirical investigation of the determinants of long-term debt maturity in Brazil. We built a unique database that includes privately placed debt and public debt for 308 publicly traded, non-financial Brazilian companies, from 2009 to 2013. We perform GMM panel analyses using as dependent variables the amount of long-term debt payable in more than one, three, and five years for total debt, BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) debt and corporate bonds. The results show that the BNDES finances less risky firms, i.e., those that are larger, older, more tangible and more transparent. We also find support for information asymmetry theories, as companies with higher transparency levels have similar leverage levels relative to others but higher proportions of long-term debt in their capital structures. Regarding debt levels, we find that more levered companies are larger, less profitable, more tangible and have fewer growth opportunities. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to address the determinants of long-term debt maturity in Brazil that uses various specifications of long-term debt and that examines different types of debt.

Estimating the term structure of volatility and fixed income derivative pricing

Estimating the parameters of the instantaneous spot interest rate process is of crucial importance for pricing fixed income derivative securities. This paper presents an estimation for the parameters of the Gaussian interest rate model for pricing fixed income derivatives based on the term structure of volatility. We estimate the term structure of volatility for US treasury rates for the period 1983 - 1995, based on a history of yield curves. We estimate both conditional and first differences term structures of volatility and subsequently estimate the implied parameters of the Gaussian model with non-linear least squares estimation. Results for bond options illustrate the effects of differing parameters in pricing.

Dois exercícios de política monetária e fiscal com atuação ótima do Banco Central

O objetivo da tese é analisar questões relativas à coordenação entre as políticas monetária e fiscal no Brasil após a adoção do regime de metas de inflação. Utiliza-se de um modelo de metas de inflação para uma economia pequena e aberta para a incorporação um bloco de equações que descrevem a dinâmica das variáveis fiscais. Tendo por base os conceitos de Leeper (1991), ambas as entidades, Banco Central e Tesouro Nacional, podem agir de forma ativa ou passiva, e será este comportamento estratégico que determinará a eficiência da política monetária. Foram estimados os parâmetros que calibram o modelo e feitas as simulações para alguns dos choques que abalaram a economia brasileira nos últimos anos. Os resultados mostraram que nos arranjos em que a autoridade fiscal reage a aumentos de dívida pública com alterações no superávit primário, a trajetória de ajuste das variáveis frente a choques tende a ser, na maioria dos casos, menos volátil propiciando uma atuação mais eficiente do Banco Central. Nestes arranjos, o Banco Central não precisa tomar para si funções que são inerentes ao Tesouro. Também são analisadas as variações no comportamento do Banco Central e do Tesouro Nacional em função de diferentes composições da dívida pública. Os resultados mostram que a estrutura do endividamento público será benéfica, ou não, à condução das políticas monetária e fiscal, dependendo do tipo de choque enfrentado. O primeiro capítulo, introdutório, procura contextualizar o regime de metas de inflação brasileiro e descrever, sucintamente, a evolução da economia brasileira desde sua implantação. No segundo capítulo são analisados os fundamentos teóricos do regime de metas de inflação, sua origem e principais componentes; em seguida, são apresentados, as regras de política fiscal necessárias à estabilidade de preços e o problema da dominância fiscal no âmbito da economia brasileira. O terceiro capítulo apresenta a incorporação do bloco de equações fiscais no modelo de metas de inflação para economia aberta proposto por Svensson (2000), e as estimações e calibrações dos seus parâmetros para a economia brasileira. O quarto capítulo discute as diferentes formas de coordenação entre as autoridades monetária e fiscal e a atuação ótima do Banco Central. O quinto capítulo tem como base a mais eficiente forma de coordenação obtida no capítulo anterior para analisar as mudanças no comportamento da autoridade monetária e fiscal frente a diferentes estruturas de prazos e indexadores da dívida pública que afetam suas elasticidades, juros, inflação e câmbio.

Endogenous debt constraints in collateralized economies with default penalties

In infinite horizon financial markets economies, competitive equilibria fail to exist if one does not impose restrictions on agents' trades that rule out Ponzi schemes. When there is limited commitment and collateral repossession is the unique default punishment, Araujo, Páscoa and Torres-Martínez (2002) proved that Ponzi schemes are ruled out without imposing any exogenous/endogenous debt constraints on agents' trades. Recently Páscoa and Seghir (2009) have shown that this positive result is not robust to the presence of additional default punishments. They provide several examples showing that, in the absence of debt constraints, harsh default penalties may induce agents to run Ponzi schemes that jeopardize equilibrium existence. The objective of this paper is to close a theoretical gap in the literature by identifying endogenous borrowing constraints that rule out Ponzi schemes and ensure existence of equilibria in a model with limited commitment and (possible) default. We appropriately modify the definition of finitely effective debt constraints, introduced by Levine and Zame (1996) (see also Levine and Zame (2002)), to encompass models with limited commitment, default penalties and collateral. Along this line, we introduce in the setting of Araujo, Páscoa and Torres-Martínez (2002), Kubler and Schmedders (2003) and Páscoa and Seghir (2009) the concept of actions with finite equivalent payoffs. We show that, independently of the level of default penalties, restricting plans to have finite equivalent payoffs rules out Ponzi schemes and guarantees the existence of an equilibrium that is compatible with the minimal ability to borrow and lend that we expect in our model. An interesting feature of our debt constraints is that they give rise to budget sets that coincide with the standard budget sets of economies having a collateral structure but no penalties (as defined in Araujo, Páscoa and Torres-Martínez (2002)). This illustrates the hidden relation between finitely effective debt constraints and collateral requirements.

Financial disruption as a cost of sovereign default

This dissertation analyses quantitatively the costs of sovereign default for the economy, in a model where banks with long positions in government debt play a central role in the financial intermediation for private sector's investments and face financial frictions that limit their leverage ability. Calibration tries to resemble some features of the Eurozone, where discussions about bailout schemes and default risk have been central issues. Results show that the model captures one important cost of default pointed out by empirical and theoretical literature on debt crises, namely the fall in investment that follows haircut episodes, what can be explained by a worsening in banks' balance sheet conditions that limits credit for the private sector and raises their funding costs. The cost in terms of output decrease is though not significant enough to justify the existence of debt markets and the government incentives for debt repayment. Assuming that the government is able to alleviate its constrained budget by imposing a restructuring on debt repayment profile that allows it to cut taxes, our model generates an important difference for output path comparing lump-sum taxes and distortionary. For our calibration, quantitative results show that in terms of output and utility, it is possible that the effect on the labour supply response generated by tax cuts dominates investment drop caused by credit crunch on financial markets. We however abstract from default costs associated to the breaking of existing contracts, external sanctions and risk spillovers between countries, that might also be relevant in addition to financial disruption effects. Besides, there exist considerable trade-offs for short and long run path of economic variables related to government and banks' behaviour.

Financial distress as a collapse of incentive scheme

This paper explaina why workers lack motivation near bankruptcy, why they tend to leave companies in financiai distreas, and why thoae who remam require higher compensation. Theae indirect costa of financiai diatresa adie becauae the optimal combination of debt and incentive achem.ea, deaigned to minimize agency costa, ends up underpaying managers when there ia a bankruptcy threat. The paper a1so providea new empirica1 implications on the intera.ction between financiai reatructuring and changea in managerial compensation. Theae predictions are supported by the findings of Gilson and Vetsuypens (1992).

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.

Assesment of port governance in Brazil: a managerial perspective on the port of Santos

The role of maritime transportation within international trade was drastically revamped during the inception of the globalization process, which enhanced the contribution of ports in world economy as main logistics gateways for global production and trade. As a result, the relationship between ports and governments has changed. Devolution ideologies that had been applied in other industries decades ago were now being considered by governments for the port industry. Many central governments sought to extract themselves from commercial activities of ports and devolving this responsibility to local governments, communities or private entities. The institution of devolution programs also changed the governance structures of ports further influencing port performance. Consequently, the recent worldwide trend towards devolution in the port industry has spawned considerable variety of governance models that are now set in place around the world. While some countries opt for more decentralized structures others prefer to retain a centralization of powers. In this way some governments consider local features and national integration more than others, which ultimately influence the success of a port reform implementation. Nevertheless, the prime intent of governments is now to maximize the efficiency and performance of their domestic ports. This issue intends to examine the changed port governance environment in Brazil by determining how and why imposed port reforms of the Brazilian federal government have been affecting the overall performance of the national port system, over the last decades, using the Port of Santos as a sample upon an exploratory study. For that, the study will use a contingency theory-based framework – the Matching Framework - that views port performance as a function of the fit among the dimensions of external operating environment, strategy and structure of a port organization. In essence, the greater the fit among these dimensions the better the expected performance of a port will be, and vice-versa. Port managers, government officials and academics alike shall be interested in this document.