Window dressing, preferred habitat,

Risk-shifting window dressing and a preferred habitat for liquidity have been offered as possible explanations as to why US money market rates are higher before the year-end than afterwards. The two hypotheses differ in the timing of the rate decline at the year-end and the evidence on the timing of the decline supports the preferred habitat hypothesis in US money markets. This paper extends this line of research to the behavior of international short-term interest rates at year-ends and quarter-ends using London interbank offer rates (LIBOR) for 11 different currencies. The results suggest that the behavior of LIBOR for five currencies: the US Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and German Mark is consistent with year-end or quarter-end preferred habitats for liquidity. Other currencies do not demonstrate consistently distinct patterns in turn-of-the-year and turn-of-the-quarter yields. None of the results provides any support for risk-shifting window dressing.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to document and compare the characteristics of two student-managed investment funds at the University. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a case study approach to achieve this purpose. Findings Consistent with other studies, this study finds considerable differences in funding, oversight and the structure of the courses in which the students manage the portfolios. This is the case even though the portfolios are managed by students in courses offered by the same department at the same university. Originality/value This study presents different possible ways of obtaining funds and structuring courses in which the students manage investment portfolios.

We examine the impact on the settlement Wednesday effect in daily fed funds rates following the change from contemporaneous reserve requirements (CRR) to lagged reserve requirements (LRR). The Federal Reserve changed from CRR to LRR, in part, to make it easier for banks to settle their reserve accounts. Our hypothesis is that the switch to LRR will reduce the demand for reserves on settlement Wednesdays, thus reducing the settlement Wednesday effect in fed funds rates. Our empirical results provide strong support for our hypothesis.

The two main explanations for the crisis in the commercial paper (CP) market are credit concerns and liquidity issues. The CP market is not homogeneous in terms of credit quality, maturities and types of issues. We find that lower credit-quality CP suffered more during the crisis. Additionally, we find little evidence that Federal Reserve (Fed) liquidity facilities reduced the impact of the crisis, but that when the Fed became a lender in the CP market, the crisis pressures were dramatically reduced. We conclude that the crisis in the money markets is related more to increases in credit risk. Liquidity is a secondary issue.