This paper examines the impact of technical change on European bank costs and profits between 1992 and 2000. The estimates suggest that technological change reduced the total costs of European banks at an average rate of 3.8% per annum. However, technical change reduced profits by 0.45% annually over the same period. As found in an earlier study by Altunbas et al (1999) pure and non-neutral com...

In this paper we analyze the source and level of the marketing gains when structured debt securities are sold at yields that reflect only their credit ratings, or specifically at the yield on an equivalently rated reference bond. We distinguish between credit ratings that are based on probabilities of default and ratings that are based on the expected default losses. We show that the marketing ...

We address in this paper the problem of modifying both profits and costs of a fractional knapsack problem optimally such that a prespectified solution becomes an optimal solution with prespect to new parameters. This problem is called the inverse fractional knapsack problem. Concerning the l1-norm, we first prove that the problem is NP -hard. The problem can be however solved in quadratic time ...

In this paper we analyse the source and magnitude of marketing gains from selling structured debt securities at yields that reflect only their credit ratings, or specifically at yields on equivalently rated corporate bonds. We distinguish between credit ratings that are based on probabilities of default and ratings that are based on expected default losses. We show that subdividing a bond issue...

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period of uncertainty. Profits are being squeezed by increasing costs and competitive pressures, and new drug production is slowing down. This Perspective reviews two policies that could assist in realigning incentives toward genuine innovation while also keeping drug spending growth under check. Value-based pricing can incentivize genuinely new disco...