July 2011
Modelling stock price behaviour: The Kernel approach
The efficient market hypothesis asserts that financial markets are always efficient and therefore cannot be predicted in order to make abnormal returns. This paper investigates the predictability of stock prices in more efficient and developed markets (U.S and U.K) using two econometric methods namely, the random walk and the non-parametric methods. Based on the out-of-sample predicted mean square error, and...
July 2011
Lead - lag relationship between the futures and spot prices
This paper examined the relationship between the futures market and spot market for the lean hogs and pork bellies markets during the sample period January 2001 through May 2010 and quantifies the price discovery function of commodity futures prices in relation to spot prices of the sample markets. The econometric tools like Unit root tests and Pairwise Granger Causality tests were employed in the study. The...
July 2011
Official intervention in the foreign exchange market in Malawi: Evidence from GARCH and equilibrium exchange rate methods
This paper analyses the effectiveness of foreign exchange market interventions by the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM). The study uses a GARCH (1,1) model to simultaneously estimate the effect of intervention on the mean and volatility of the Malawi Kwacha. The study also run an equilibrium exchange rate model and uses the equilibrium exchange rate criterion to compare results with those from GARCH model. Results from...
July 2011
The impact of insurance contributions on economic growth in Nigeria
In the last decade, most studies on the interaction between the financial sector and economic growth has focused mainly on the banks and the stock market. Recently, growing attention has shifted to the interaction between the non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) such as the insurance companies and economic growth. In this study, we examined the impact of insurance contributions on economic growth in...
July 2011
Information technology and customer relationship management (CRM) in some selected insurance firms in Nigeria
In this study, we explore the question of how IT could enhance firm performance in the areas of customer’s service and organization’s profitability in the Nigerian insurance industry. To draw our sample size of 90, 30 insurance companies were randomly selected from the 49-member insurance umbrella body, the Nigerian Insurers Association. Each company received 3 copies of the questionnaire meant...
July 2011
Political crises and risk of financial contagion in developing countries: Evidence from Africa
The recent waves of political crises in Africa and the Middle East have inspired the debate over how political instability could pose a risk of financial contagion to emerging countries. With retrospect to the Kenyan political crisis, our findings suggest stock markets in Lebanon, Mauritius were contaminated while Nigeria experienced a positive spillover. Our results have two major implications. Firstly, we have...
July 2011
Transmission of returns between the U.S. stock market and four other major international stock market indexes
This paper explored the transmission of returns between the U.S. stock market and four international (Canada, Japan, France, U.K.) stock market indexes from January 1996 to December 2006, using a nonlinear model which focused on threshold effects. The nonlinear, MARS (multivariate adaptive regression spline) model was applied to study this relationship at the general as well as industry specific levels. The...
Advertisement
Advertisement