1. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-25 // 1996

    Delta-Neutral Volatility Trading with Intra-Day Prices: An Application to Options on the DAX

    This paper evaluates the profitability of applying four different volatility forecastingmodels to the trading of straddles on the German stock market index DAX. Special carehas been taken to use simultaneous…

  2. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-24 // 1996

    Competition Policy Convergence: Where Next?

    As the 20th Century dawned, there were radical divergences in the policies individual nations pursued toward restraints of competition by cartels and monopolies. Since World War II there has been considerable…

  3. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-22 // 1996

    Environmental Policy Instruments and Their Effects on Innovation

    The influence of environmental policy on innovative behaviour of companies has so far recieved little attention in scientific discourse. Based on recent literature, the paper analyses the impact of requirements,…

  4. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-21 // 1996

    Steuer-Klientel-Effekte: Realität oder Illusion ?

    In this article we examine how model selection in neural networks can be guided by statistical procedures such as hypotheses tests,information criteria and cross validation. The application of these methods in…

  5. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-20 // 1996

    Option Pricing Using EGARCH Models

    Various empirical studies have shown that the time-varying volatility of asset returns can be described by GARCH (generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) models. The corresponding GARCH option…

  6. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-19 // 1996

    Patents and R&D. An Econometric Investigation Using Applications for German, Europeans and US Patents by German Companies

    Based on the data of the first wave of the Mannheim Innovation panel,this paper explores the link between R&D expenditures and patents. Ourdata allow a detailed analysis of the firm size distribution of R&Dand…

  7. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-18 // 1996

    International Trade and Competition Policy

    With the completion of the Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations, attention turns to plausible next steps. One question on the agenda of possibilities is the adoption of competition policies that…

  8. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-17 // 1996

    Price Indexes for PC Database Software and the Value of Code Compatibility

    Changing product quality poses a challenge for the computation of price indexes, in particular in technologically advanced industries. We assess the differences between traditional and quality-corrected indexes…

  9. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-16 // 1996

    Tests of Representative Firm Models: Results from German Manufacturing Industries

    Many studies of producer behavior consider cost and input demand functions derived from microeconomic theory and estimate them on the basis of aggregate data. If firms' characteristics differs, the neglect…

  10. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-14 // 1996

    Employment and Wage Effect of Sicial Security Financing. An Empirical Analysis of the West German Experience and Some Policy Simulations

    This paper follows up recent work on the relationship between (un -- )employment and wage effects of social security financing undertaken by the OECD Jobs Study. Based on a simple macroeconometric model of the…