Other Alternative Investments - Articles & White Papers
Articles and research on other alternative asset classes (those outside of mainstream alternatives). Some alternatives within this section are insurance-related, so there are a number of white papers on catastrophe bonds, reports on reinsurance securities, and securities backed by life settlements (secondary market for life insurance policies). Is volatility an asset class? This is debatable, but we have included in this section papers on volatility as an asset class or "opportunity class", including the use of short volatility to... enhance portfolio returns. Master Limited Partnerships are another, relatively new alternative asset, and our listing includes white papers on MLPs, which provide relatively high income with stable cash flows. Other exotic alternatives include institutional investment in wine and institutional investment in art, with one paper examining the characteristics of art funds and their typical investments, while another examines the history of bubbles in the art market. PwC author a report on alternative investment asset classes which considers oil and gas MLPs and insurance flavored products, among others.
As emitters of nearly one quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, industrial sectors are key players in the effort to mitigate damages from climate change. However, investing in the low-carbon technologies necessary to reduce industrial carbon emissions—particularly for industrial sectors with energy-…
This paper provides a systematic evaluation of the different types of digital currencies. We express skepticism regarding centralized digital currencies and therefore focus our economic analysis on private digital currencies. Specifically, we highlight the potential for private digital currencies to improve welfare within an…
While historically Asia Pacific (APAC) has trailed North America and Europe in establishing markets for new asset classes, when it comes to digital assets, the region’s FinTech industry is setting the pace. Many of its exchanges and regulators are moving swiftly to put new supporting infrastructure in place, and regional…
This paper outlines the current U.S. regulatory framework applicable to cryptocurrency and other digital asset investment funds (“digital asset funds”) offered to U.S. investorsand how those regulatory considerations affect fund structuring decisions.
Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) have experienced significant interest from investors over the last 20 years. ILS investments have generally been in catastrophe bonds (cat bonds). Anoth-er equally long-standing ILS strategy, private credit for small to mid-sized insurance companies, is the focus of this white paper.
The emergence of third-party (or “alternative”) capital entering the reinsurance market through the use of insurance linked securities (“ILS”) has put a ceiling on reinsurance rates.This has led to a flattening of the reinsurance cycle, whereby large insured catastrophes no longer result in spikes of reinsurance prices. This…
This report provides an overview of the stablecoin ecosystem and the need to improve payment systems and services. It also the regulatory, oversight and policy issues associated with stablecoin initiatives, highlighting the particular challenges inherent in global stablecoins (GSCs). It further provides a preliminary review…
We derive the Bitcoin exchange rate dynamics by solving the exchange rate equation of the standard flexible-price monetary model to investigate whether Bitcoin behaves like a currency. The dynamics is driven by an asymmetric mean-reverting fundamental shock which can be attributed to a money demand shock. A crash occurs when…
The spread of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in finance could help to improve the efficiency and quality of supervision. This paper makes the case for embedded supervision, i.e. a regulatory framework that provides for compliance in tokenised markets to be automatically monitored by reading the market’s ledger, thus…
How well can a cryptocurrency serve as a means of payment? Cryptocurrencies need to overcome double spending by using costly mining and by delaying settlement. We formalize this insight through an incentive constraint that rules out double spending and pins down the welfare costs of a cryptocurrency. We find that it is…
Investors are increasingly considering the environmental, social and governance (ESG) properties of their portfolios, say John Seo and Joanna Syroka of Fermat Capital Management. They believe insurance-linked securities (ILS) are aligned with positive ESG attributes which could help protect and enhance portfolio returns.
Investing in water is well-established in Australia where water rights have been unbundled from land and are considered separate property rights. Water rights are freely traded in an open market designed with the dual objectives of economically efficient water use and environmental sustainability. Australia’s water markets…
Facebook created a big stir globally when it announced plans to issue its own cryptocurrency, Libra. Libra is designed to meet the minimum requirements of a means-of-payment (currency–price stability, scalability and privacy) but it may need more work both technologically and on the regulatory front.
US climate resilience is a complex mix of inter-agency coordination, national disaster insurance programs, building codes and support for scientific research. Which makes it incredibly vulnerable to the policy agenda of each administration. Learn how US climate policy responses are undermining critical infrastructure and…
On 18 June, Facebook announced plans to issue its own currency. By giving every individual with a smart phone the ability to purchase tokens in their own domestic currency, Libra would improve the efficiency of payments, reduce costs, and expand financial access—or so Facebook argues. This column, part of a VoxEU debate on…
The announcement of the launch of Libra, a private global cryptocurrency, has reignited the debate on the costs and benefits of digital forms of payments controlled by the private sector. This column introduces a new Vox debate on the future of digital money intended to foster a conversation among academics and policymakers…
Cryptocurrencies have emerged in the last decade as a new asset class unlikely to disappear despite its extraordinary volatility. Futures contracts on Bitcoins were introduced in December 2017 by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and options are being traded on crypto exchanges. Our goal in this paper is threefold: i) present…
Plans by Facebook and its partners to launch a global digital currency have the FinTech sphere buzzing with rumours, and regulators, central banks, and ‘old finance’ worried. This column, part of the Vox debate on the future of digital money, argues that while we may be witnessing a seismic shift in the monetary system,…
New entrants are vying to occupy the space once used by paper bills. This column, part of the VoxEU debate on the future of digital money, proposes a simple framework to make sense of who is attempting to pry our wallets open. It argues that the adoption of new digital means of payment could be rapid and bring significant…
