This paper presents three possible methods by which the credit value at risk estimates coming from the Basel II IRB approach can be significantly improved upon. The feasibility of the suggested approaches is substantiated by applying it to an exemplary model portfolio.

Based on a derivation of the asymptotic sampling distribution of the generalized entropy mobility measures, this paper provides a statistically rigorous analysis of income mobility in Germany and the United States using the panel data set PSID-SOEP equivalent data file. Several alternative measures of income aggregation, inequality measures, and groupings are considered to establish robustness. We find that, to a high degree of statistical confidence, post-government income mobility is much higher in Germany. Possible reasons for these findings are revealed through disaggregation of the samples by population subgroups.

In this paper, we challenge the often implemented herding measure by Chang et al. (2000). They regress the cross-sectional absolute deviation of returns on the absolute and squared excess market return. A coefficient on the squared excess market return significantly smaller than zero is interpreted as evidence for herding. However, we show that the true coefficient is positive under the null hypothesis of no herding. Hence, their test is biased against finding evidence in favour of herding. Empirical examinations for the S&P 500 and the EuroStoxx 50 confirm the misleading implications of Chang, Cheng and Khorana’s measure, while our modified test provides clear-cut evidence for herding behaviour.