Is it possible to predict equity returns and premiums with the use of empirical models? This is one of the most frequently pondered and studied questions in finance. In this research we examine the predictability of returns, taking the actuarial long term view and basing predictions on yearly data.

Debt runs played a central role in the financial crisis of 2007-2008, reigniting the debate about their causes and how they can be prevented. This research uses the 2007 asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) crisis as a basis to study the determinants of debt runs.

This paper can may be of specific interest to financial institutions, as it has clear implications about the design of off-balance sheet investments, the degree of maturity mismatch between debt and assets, the strength of the credit guarantees and, most importantly, exactly how much leverage is unsafe. This discussion is timely, given the efforts by the Vickers report and the Liikanen report to address the problems of shadow banking.

Managers are acknowledged to have their own style when taking corporate decisions. Personal characteristics of CEOs are empirically important determinants of a large range of corporate variables. However, there are still a number of unexplored research questions. One of these is to what extent the corporate risk management policies of non-financial firms departs from textbook hedging.

In this paper, Cass researchers study to what extent CEO personal beliefs and individual characteristics explain the time-series variation of foreign currency derivatives beyond industry, firm, and market fundamentals.

After the post-2008 global financial crisis, people are much more interested in knowing more about human capital as a key indicator of future value in firms. Investors increasingly need to see early warning signs of failure or growth prospects in their investments. For bankers, lending proposals are either accepted or rejected on the basis of set financial ratios, such as debt to equity and loan to valuation.

Do these ratios tell the real story of the value which is being created, or destroyed, within a company? Is it dangerous for investors to rely on quantitative measures alone?