Superannuation Funds: Ensuring the Financial Health of Australians in Retirement. Superannuation is relevant to all Australians, providing a foundation for their lifestyle in retirement. The protection and enhancement of superannuation savings have been high priorities of both government and regulatory agencies. Recent legislative changes include mandated choice of superannuation fund and increased disclosure requirements. Regulators have also flagged the need for increased corporate governance ....Superannuation Funds: Ensuring the Financial Health of Australians in Retirement. Superannuation is relevant to all Australians, providing a foundation for their lifestyle in retirement. The protection and enhancement of superannuation savings have been high priorities of both government and regulatory agencies. Recent legislative changes include mandated choice of superannuation fund and increased disclosure requirements. Regulators have also flagged the need for increased corporate governance among superannuation funds. This project assesses the impact of these developments through an assessment of competition, performance and accountability within the superannuation industry. Monitoring the industry in this way will strongly contribute to the financial and economic health of Australians in retirement.
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MANAGING AND MODELLING RISK AND COMPLEXITY IN THE INVESTMENT AND HEDGE FUNDS INDUSTRY. The project will develop an evolutionary learning algorithm for modeling non-linear financial asset price movements and conduct simulations to gain a better understanding of price formation in securities markets with a focus on the equity market. We will focus on extreme market conditions to calibrate the benefits and efficiency of risk management techniques. The models will be applied to benchmarking and eval ....MANAGING AND MODELLING RISK AND COMPLEXITY IN THE INVESTMENT AND HEDGE FUNDS INDUSTRY. The project will develop an evolutionary learning algorithm for modeling non-linear financial asset price movements and conduct simulations to gain a better understanding of price formation in securities markets with a focus on the equity market. We will focus on extreme market conditions to calibrate the benefits and efficiency of risk management techniques. The models will be applied to benchmarking and evaluating portfolio decisions of hedge funds; investment risk management and dynamic portfolio selection strategies. The research will result in new theoretical approaches and empirical methods to study price movements and evaluate fund performance.Read moreRead less
Complexity, Risk Management and Dynamic Portfolio Selection in Investment Management using Advances in Evolutionary Parallel-computing Artificial Intelligence. With over $1 trillion of investors' monies in the hands of fund managers, the health of the Australian economy is critically dependent on the investment decisions of these managers. However, the majority of the funds are invested in risky assets with histories of volatile price movements about which we do not possess a deep understanding. ....Complexity, Risk Management and Dynamic Portfolio Selection in Investment Management using Advances in Evolutionary Parallel-computing Artificial Intelligence. With over $1 trillion of investors' monies in the hands of fund managers, the health of the Australian economy is critically dependent on the investment decisions of these managers. However, the majority of the funds are invested in risky assets with histories of volatile price movements about which we do not possess a deep understanding. This project draws upon a set of inter-disciplinary concepts and models centred in neural networks that allow for learning over time to advance our understanding of complexity, leading to superior quantitative tools and models to allow for improved decision-making in respect of risk management and asset allocation.
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Hedge Funds in Superannuation Portfolios: Are the Returns Worth the Risks? In recent years superannuation funds have delivered negative returns to members due to poorly performing stockmarkets. In striving to achieve higher rates of return, superannuation trustees have commenced allocating retirement savings to a new type of investment opportunity, termed hedge funds. There is a paucity of research about this new type of investment, particularly relating to the non-linear nature of hedge funds ....Hedge Funds in Superannuation Portfolios: Are the Returns Worth the Risks? In recent years superannuation funds have delivered negative returns to members due to poorly performing stockmarkets. In striving to achieve higher rates of return, superannuation trustees have commenced allocating retirement savings to a new type of investment opportunity, termed hedge funds. There is a paucity of research about this new type of investment, particularly relating to the non-linear nature of hedge funds returns. This study will investigate the risk and return trade-off of including hedge funds in superannuation portfolios and provide trustees with empirical tools to determine the optimal allocation to hedge funds.Read moreRead less
The Value of Growth and Risk in the Australian Stock Market. The pricing of stock returns remains a ?holy grail? in financial economics. This project will take us closer to this prize by investigating new models for the pricing of risk in stock prices, focusing upon key questions specific to Australia including the role of liquidity, influence of goodwill and power of dividends. Tests will be conducted in the context of a new paradigm model. Outcomes are improved data management, improved risk c ....The Value of Growth and Risk in the Australian Stock Market. The pricing of stock returns remains a ?holy grail? in financial economics. This project will take us closer to this prize by investigating new models for the pricing of risk in stock prices, focusing upon key questions specific to Australia including the role of liquidity, influence of goodwill and power of dividends. Tests will be conducted in the context of a new paradigm model. Outcomes are improved data management, improved risk control, improved tools and knowledge for investment decision-making for industry. The industry partner, DFA Australia, is a commercial fund manager highly committed through its strong links to US academe.Read moreRead less
The Ethics of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). This project investigates the ethical credentials of ethical investment - also known as Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) - in Australia. It will examine problems with SRI operations (such as screening, application of decision-making criteria and compliance monitoring) from the perspective of ethical theory; issues of shareholder advocacy; and the clash of ethical and fiduciary responsibility. It aims to make SRI more effective in connec ....The Ethics of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). This project investigates the ethical credentials of ethical investment - also known as Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) - in Australia. It will examine problems with SRI operations (such as screening, application of decision-making criteria and compliance monitoring) from the perspective of ethical theory; issues of shareholder advocacy; and the clash of ethical and fiduciary responsibility. It aims to make SRI more effective in connecting investors? values to their investments by developing tools for SRI fund managers to exercise more sophisticated forms of ethical reasoning and decision making. This project opens up possibilities of significant transformation of capital markets within Australia.Read moreRead less
An econometric investigation of technical analysis as a portfolio selection strategy in Australia. This project will provide an in-depth analysis of the returns of portfolios of Australian equities formed by using technical trading rules. The research will determine whether or not any abnormal returns earned by these means are attributable to firm-specific or market-wide factors. This project represents the first attempt to interpret technical analysis in a portfolio framework and will provide v ....An econometric investigation of technical analysis as a portfolio selection strategy in Australia. This project will provide an in-depth analysis of the returns of portfolios of Australian equities formed by using technical trading rules. The research will determine whether or not any abnormal returns earned by these means are attributable to firm-specific or market-wide factors. This project represents the first attempt to interpret technical analysis in a portfolio framework and will provide valuable information on the informational efficiency of Australian capital markets. As there is currently no single definitive study of technical analysis in Australia, this project will fill a significant void in the current academic literature and provide evidence of great practical relevance to Australian investment practitioners.Read moreRead less
Price Discovery in Equity and Volatility Futures for Trading and Hedging. This project aims to develop a multivariate asynchronous technique to analyse the price discovery of movements in equity stock indices, volatility index futures and exchange traded products. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of financial econometrics using an innovative mixed frequency sampling approach to establish robust causal inferences. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced econome ....Price Discovery in Equity and Volatility Futures for Trading and Hedging. This project aims to develop a multivariate asynchronous technique to analyse the price discovery of movements in equity stock indices, volatility index futures and exchange traded products. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of financial econometrics using an innovative mixed frequency sampling approach to establish robust causal inferences. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced econometric theory and its implementation in applied finance. This should provide significant benefits in the price discovery of the equity index in Australia, including insights that will help Australian funds in hedging and trading volatility.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100253
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$373,700.00
Summary
Bank governance and financial crisis: implications for bank risk-taking, earnings management, and information efficiency. The global financial crisis signified that the connections between the governance of banks, their performance, and the long-term stability of the financial system are not well understood. This project investigates how executives' compensation, audit efforts and ownership structure in banks impact their risk-taking, accounting choices and information flows in a global setting ....Bank governance and financial crisis: implications for bank risk-taking, earnings management, and information efficiency. The global financial crisis signified that the connections between the governance of banks, their performance, and the long-term stability of the financial system are not well understood. This project investigates how executives' compensation, audit efforts and ownership structure in banks impact their risk-taking, accounting choices and information flows in a global setting for the periods before and around the crisis. The project findings will advance our knowledge of how to improve the existing monitoring systems of banks to safeguard the economy and to provide a more transparent bank system. The project will also facilitate an evaluation of the effectiveness of various reforms that were initiated following the crisis.Read moreRead less
The Importance of Being Politically Connected. The literature on the importance of political connections to firms and their value implications is scant. This project aims to develop a framework that depicts the interplay of political connections, institutional factors, corporate governance, media coverage and firm value. In particular, it investigates how political connections enhance the value of firms in China and how this changes as the market transitions.