My dissertation is titled "Economic and Financial Risks in Different Asset Classes and Different Regions," which encompasses three essays on economic activity and financial risks for the United States, interactions between Islamic and conventional stock markets, and downside risks and optimal diversified equity, bond and commodity portfolios for the PIIGs and CORE of the eurozone. The dissertation investigates migration and cascading of the different kinds of risks in the respected financial markets or regions in an economic policy uncertainty and financial stress environment.

This dissertation consists of three essays on financial economics, focusing on different types of financial and economic risks and covering different geographical regions. These risk types are related to stock, bond and commodity markets, financial stress and country risk ratings. The first essay investigates directional relationships, regime variances, transition probabilities and expected regime durations for two systems of economic and financial variables. The first system consists of daily series which include credit and market risks. The second system is based on monthly data, and encompasses credit, and market risks and economic activity and oil variables. The methodology is based on the Markov-Switching cointegrated VAR model. The results suggest there is a pronounced regime-specific behavior in both systems with FTP-MS model. There is a significant difference between the higher expected duration in the low volatility regime and the lower duration in the high volatility regime in both systems. Both models suggest that during the 2007/2008 Great Recession, the system stays mainly in regime 2 but returns to the normality state in the 2009 recovery period. The fundamental variables (industrial production, oil prices and the real interest rate) have varying effects in both regimes and both systems. Quantitative easing has significant effects on the bond expected volatility index MOVE in the high volatility regime and industrial production in both regimes. I also examine the driving forces of the time-varying transition probabilities and find that increases of oil price will decrease the probability that the financial markets stay in the low volatility regime. The second essay examines the asymmetric adjustments of the stock markets of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to changes in the economic, financial and political country risk ratings of these countries in the short run and long run, using the momentum threshold autoregression (MTAR) and the vector error-correction(VEC) models. The findings suggest that the long-run relationships between these four variables respond asymmetrically depending on the direction of the shocks. The adjustment is faster when the spread between the actual level of stock market index and the level suggested by country risk ratings is narrowing than when it is widening, except for Russia which has the opposite response. The Chinese stock market seems to have the fastest adjustments in the short-and long-run among those of the five BRICS. In terms of the three country risk ratings the financial risk ratings for the five BRICS show the most responsiveness to all the variables in the long-run, while the political risk ratings exhibit the least. The economic and political risk ratings show the fastest adjustments for Brazil, while the financial risk rating is most pronounced in Russia. The third essay examines the Value-at-Risk for ten euro-zone equity markets individually and when divided into two groups: PIIGS and the Core, employing four VaR estimation methods. The results are evaluated according to four statistical properties as well as the Basel capital requirements for the period including the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The estimation and the evaluation are applied to the individual assets as well as to the portfolios consisting of the two groups. The results demonstrate that the CEVT method applied to the ten individual equity assets meet all the statistical criteria the best. The two optimal equity portfolios do not show diversification benefits as the PIIGS portfolio selects Spain's IBEX only and that of the Core opts for Austria's ATX only. The asset class-augmented portfolio that includes the Austrian (ATX) index, oil and gold gives the highest diversification gains. Adding other commodities such as corn and silver, or commodities indices to the augmented portfolio does not enhance the gains. At the optimal portfolio level, the Duration-Peak-Over-the-Threshold (DPOT) is recommended the best in terms of satisfying the Basel rules.

This first volume in a three-volume exposition of Shubik's vision of "mathematical institutional economics" explores a one-period approach to economic exchange with money, debt, and bankruptcy. This is the first volume in a three-volume exposition of Martin Shubik's vision of "mathematical institutional economics"--a term he coined in 1959 to describe the theoretical underpinnings needed for the construction of an economic dynamics. The goal is to develop a process-oriented theory of money and financial institutions that reconciles micro- and macroeconomics, using as a prime tool the theory of games in strategic and extensive form. The approach involves a search for minimal financial institutions that appear as a logical, technological, and institutional necessity, as part of the "rules of the game." Money and financial institutions are assumed to be the basic elements of the network that transmits the sociopolitical imperatives to the economy. Volume 1 deals with a one-period approach to economic exchange with money, debt, and bankruptcy. Volume 2 explores the new economic features that arise when we consider multi-period finite and infinite horizon economies. Volume 3 will consider the specific role of financial institutions and government, and formulate the economic financial control problem linking micro- and macroeconomics.

This paper discusses the impact of the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the financial sector. It highlights the benefits these technologies bring in terms of financial deepening and efficiency, while raising concerns about its potential in widening the digital divide between advanced and developing economies. The paper advances the discussion on the impact of this technology by distilling and categorizing the unique risks that it could pose to the integrity and stability of the financial system, policy challenges, and potential regulatory approaches. The evolving nature of this technology and its application in finance means that the full extent of its strengths and weaknesses is yet to be fully understood. Given the risk of unexpected pitfalls, countries will need to strengthen prudential oversight.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.