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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An Evaluation of the Morningstar System of Managed Fund Ratings in Australia and New Zealand. This project evaluates the Morningstar system of rating managed funds. Fund ratings considerably influence who manages A$590 billion (June 2000 - AXISS Australia) in investment funds and are thus important to the efficient operation of the Australian capital market. Key project elements are: (1) thorough investigation of the domestic Morningstar ratings methodology, identifying its strengths and weaknes ....An Evaluation of the Morningstar System of Managed Fund Ratings in Australia and New Zealand. This project evaluates the Morningstar system of rating managed funds. Fund ratings considerably influence who manages A$590 billion (June 2000 - AXISS Australia) in investment funds and are thus important to the efficient operation of the Australian capital market. Key project elements are: (1) thorough investigation of the domestic Morningstar ratings methodology, identifying its strengths and weaknesses; (2) comparison of the US and Australasian methodologies; (3) analysis of the predictive ability of ratings; (4) an investigation into the feasibility of rating funds on stock selection and market timing; and (5) an investigation of the impact of Morningstar ratings on fund flows.Read moreRead less
Regional financial stability: ownership linkages of financial institutions and propagation of systemic risk. Financial stability in our region has a significant effect on the prosperity, competitiveness and viability of the Australian financial industry. This project will analyse how the ownership of financial institutions in the Asian and European regions can contribute to regional and global financial stability with a focus on systemic risk and governance.
Dynamic Asset Pricing and Portfolio Decision Rules under Heterogeneous Expectations and Adaptive Learning. The outcomes of this project will provide two benefits to Australian financial market researchers in academe, in industry and financial market regulators. First, a better theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding and analysing optimal portfolio decision rules in a setting that captures many realistic features of market behaviour such as heterogeneity of investor types and adapt ....Dynamic Asset Pricing and Portfolio Decision Rules under Heterogeneous Expectations and Adaptive Learning. The outcomes of this project will provide two benefits to Australian financial market researchers in academe, in industry and financial market regulators. First, a better theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding and analysing optimal portfolio decision rules in a setting that captures many realistic features of market behaviour such as heterogeneity of investor types and adaptive behaviour by market participants. Second, new tools to more effectively understand and manage portfolio risk in financial markets. Consequently Australia will have a more efficient and competitive financial system. It also has the potential to lead to the development of more finance related industries such as financial market software.Read moreRead less
New valuation and parallel simulation methods for finance and insurance. Many Australians have superannuation savings and hold life insurance contracts. Hence, the price and risk of these investments is of particular importance to the welfare of Australia. The proposed research will improve the financial security of Australians by demonstrating that many long term insurance and superannuation products require far less capital than currently suggested. This project will provide path breaking fron ....New valuation and parallel simulation methods for finance and insurance. Many Australians have superannuation savings and hold life insurance contracts. Hence, the price and risk of these investments is of particular importance to the welfare of Australia. The proposed research will improve the financial security of Australians by demonstrating that many long term insurance and superannuation products require far less capital than currently suggested. This project will provide path breaking frontier technology for enhancing the performance of superannuation funds, insurance companies and banks, giving these Australian institutions a competitive advantage. An additional outcome will be global growth for sectors of Australia's IT industry, developing related software and tailored hardware.
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Pricing and Hedging Extreme Maturity Contracts. Most Australians belong to superannuation schemes. Hence, the long term performance and risk of these investments is of particular importance to the welfare of Australia. This research will improve the life-long financial security of Australians by clearly demonstrating that many superannuation targets can be achieved with less capital than currently suggested. This project will provide new technology for enhancing the long term performance of sup ....Pricing and Hedging Extreme Maturity Contracts. Most Australians belong to superannuation schemes. Hence, the long term performance and risk of these investments is of particular importance to the welfare of Australia. This research will improve the life-long financial security of Australians by clearly demonstrating that many superannuation targets can be achieved with less capital than currently suggested. This project will provide new technology for enhancing the long term performance of superannuation funds, managed funds, investment banks and insurance companies, giving these Australian institutions a competitive advantage and permitting them to offer innovative financial products to mitigate extreme maturity financial risk in retirement.Read moreRead less
Cycles and Size: Long Term Valuation and Investment Performance. This project will significantly enhance our understanding of the cyclical variation in the returns and volatility of size-related equity classes. A better understanding of these cyclical phenomena may also lead to improvements in the asset allocation process, in particular the investment in medium- and
small-sized enterprise shares. The current neglect by analysts and reluctance of institutional investors to research and invest in ....Cycles and Size: Long Term Valuation and Investment Performance. This project will significantly enhance our understanding of the cyclical variation in the returns and volatility of size-related equity classes. A better understanding of these cyclical phenomena may also lead to improvements in the asset allocation process, in particular the investment in medium- and
small-sized enterprise shares. The current neglect by analysts and reluctance of institutional investors to research and invest in this sizable market segment offers significant opportunities for linkage research. This project will focus on the valuation, (il)liquidity, and macroeconomic sources of momentum profits as they related to the economic cycle, across the size spectrum.
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Investment Opportunities and the Impact of Interaction Between Global Integration, International Capital Flows and Price Movements in Emerging Stock Markets. Emerging stock markets now represent an integral component of international investment portfolios comprising billions of dollars. But stocks in these markets are perceived as excessively volatile and frequently inconsistent with economic fundamentals. This project investigates the linkage between emerging stock prices and both local and glo ....Investment Opportunities and the Impact of Interaction Between Global Integration, International Capital Flows and Price Movements in Emerging Stock Markets. Emerging stock markets now represent an integral component of international investment portfolios comprising billions of dollars. But stocks in these markets are perceived as excessively volatile and frequently inconsistent with economic fundamentals. This project investigates the linkage between emerging stock prices and both local and global economic influences; develops quantifiable time-varying measures of capital market integration based on fundamentals allowing ranking across markets; and explores how integration levels are affected by capital flows. The project will benefit the investment community and governments in understanding, and modelling, the impact of policy and trade flows on market integration and the consequent effect on stock markets.Read moreRead less
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
Three Decades of Financial Distress and Corporate Restructuring in Australia. Corporate financial distress is costly and disruptive to Australia's economy. While shareholders are the first to lose, the flow-on effects include bankruptcies, unemployment, and a negative impact on economic growth. By analysing three decades of Australian experience we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics underlying financial distress and corporate restructuring. The potential benefits include improvem ....Three Decades of Financial Distress and Corporate Restructuring in Australia. Corporate financial distress is costly and disruptive to Australia's economy. While shareholders are the first to lose, the flow-on effects include bankruptcies, unemployment, and a negative impact on economic growth. By analysing three decades of Australian experience we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics underlying financial distress and corporate restructuring. The potential benefits include improvements to corporate practice in responding to financial distress, improvements to ASX governance (regarding listing rules and transparency in particular for small-capitalization firms), and ultimately to economic policy by elucidating the corporate sector's dynamic response across the business cycle. Read moreRead less