Among the group of physics honors students huddled in 1957 on a Colorado mountain watching Sputnik bisect the heavens, one young scientist was destined, three short years later, to become a key player in America s own top-secret spy satellite program. One of our era s most prolific mathematicians, Karl Gustafson was given just two weeks to write the first US spy satellite s software. The project would fundamentally alter America s Cold War strategy, and this autobiographical account of a remarkable academic life spent in the top flight tells this fascinating inside story for the first time.

Gustafson takes you from his early pioneering work in computing, through fascinating encounters with Nobel laureates and Fields medalists, to his current observations on mathematics, science and life. He tells of brushes with death, being struck by lightning, and the beautiful women who have been a part of his journey."

The stochastic calculus of variations of Paul Malliavin (1925 - 2010), known today as the Malliavin Calculus, has found many applications, within and beyond the core mathematical discipline. Stochastic analysis provides a fruitful interpretation of this calculus, particularly as described by David Nualart and the scores of mathematicians he influences and with whom he collaborates. Many of these, including leading stochastic analysts and junior researchers, presented their cutting-edge research at an international conference in honor of David Nualart's career, on March 19-21, 2011, at the University of Kansas, USA. These scholars and other top-level mathematicians have kindly contributed research articles for this refereed volume.

Stochastic instantaneous volatility models such as Heston, SABR or SV-LMM have mostly been developed to control the shape and joint dynamics of the implied volatility surface. In principle, they are well suited for pricing and hedging vanilla and exotic options, for relative value strategies or for risk management. In practice however, most SV models lack a closed form valuation for European options. This book presents the recently developed Asymptotic Chaos Expansions methodology (ACE) which addresses that issue. Indeed its generic algorithm provides, for any regular SV model, the pure asymptotes at any order for both the static and dynamic maps of the implied volatility surface. Furthermore, ACE is programmable and can complement other approximation methods. Hence it allows a systematic approach to designing, parameterising, calibrating and exploiting SV models, typically for Vega hedging or American Monte-Carlo.

"Asymptotic Chaos Expansions in Finance" illustrates the ACE approach for single underlyings (such as a stock price or FX rate), baskets (indexes, spreads) and term structure models (especially SV-HJM and SV-LMM). It also establishes fundamental links between the Wiener chaos of the instantaneous volatility and the small-time asymptotic structure of the stochastic implied volatility framework. It is addressed primarily to financial mathematics researchers and graduate students, interested in stochastic volatility, asymptotics or market models. Moreover, as it contains many self-contained approximation results, it will be useful to practitioners modelling the shape of the smile and its evolution.

Sie wollen Ihr Geld erfolgreich anlegen, wissen aber nicht wie? Die Wirtschafts- und Finanzjournalisten Judith Engst und Janne JArg Kipp zeigen in diesem Buch nicht nur die vielen verschiedenen MAglichkeiten der Geldanlage auf, sondern stellen auch die richtigen Fragen und helfen Ihnen so, die fA1/4r Sie geeigneten Anlageformen auszuwAhlen: vom guten alten Sparkonto A1/4ber Aktienfonds, Riester- und RA1/4rup-Rente hin zu Immobilien und Wertpapieren.

Toward the late 1990s, several research groups independently began developing new, related theories in mathematical finance. These theories did away with the standard stochastic geometric diffusion "Samuelson" market model (also known as the Black-Scholes model because it is used in that most famous theory), instead opting for models that allowed minimax approaches to complement or replace stochastic methods. Among the most fruitful models were those utilizing game-theoretic tools and the so-called interval market model. Over time, these models have slowly but steadily gained influence in the financial community, providing a useful alternative to classical methods. A self-contained monograph, The Interval Market Model in Mathematical Finance: Game-Theoretic Methods assembles some of the most important results, old and new, in this area of research. Written by seven of the most prominent pioneers of the interval market model and game-theoretic finance, the work provides a detailed account of several closely related modeling techniques for an array of problems in mathematical economics. The book is divided into five parts, which successively address topics including: * probability-free Black-Scholes theory; * fair-price interval of an option; * representation formulas and fast algorithms for option pricing; * rainbow options; * tychastic approach of mathematical finance based upon viability theory. This book provides a welcome addition to the literature, complementing myriad titles on the market that take a classical approach to mathematical finance. It is a worthwhile resource for researchers in applied mathematics and quantitative finance, and has also been written in a manner accessible to financially-inclined readers with a limited technical background.

A lot of economic problems can formulated as constrained optimizations and equilibration of their solutions. Various mathematical theories have been supplying economists with indispensable machineries for these problems arising in economic theory. Conversely, mathematicians have been stimulated by various mathematical difficulties raised by economic theories. The series is designed to bring together those mathematicians who were seriously interested in getting new challenging stimuli from economic theories with those economists who are seeking for effective mathematical tools for their researchers. Members of the editorial board of this series consists of following prominent economists and mathematicians: Managing Editors: S. Kusuoka (Univ. Tokyo), T. Maruyama (Keio Univ.) Editors: R. Anderson (U.C.Berkeley), C. Castaing (Univ. Montpellier), F. H. Clarke (Univ. Lyon I), G. Debreu (U.C. Berkeleyer), E. Dierker (Univ. Vienna), D. Duffie (Stanford Univ.), L.C. Evans (U.C. Berkeley), T. Fujimoto (Okayama Univ.), J. -M. Grandmont (CREST-CNRS), N. Hirano (Yokohama National Univ.), L. Hurwicz (Univ. of Minnesota), T. Ichiishi (Ohio State Univ.), A. Ioffe (Israel Institute of Technology), S. Iwamoto (Kyushu Univ.), K. Kamiya (Univ. Tokyo), K. Kawamata (Keio Univ.), N. Kikuchi (Keio Univ.), H. Matano (Univ. Tokyo), K. Nishimura (Kyoto Univ.), M. K. Richter (Univ. Minnesota), Y. Takahashi (Kyoto Univ.), M. Valadier (Univ. Montpellier II), M. Yano (Keio Univ).

The role of asymmetric information in allocation of resources, together with the associated information-revelation process, has long been a central focus of economic research. While the bulk of the literature addresses these is sues within the framework of principal-agent relationship, which essentially reduces the problem to the sole principal's (the sole Stackelberg leader's) optimization problem subject to the agents' (the Stackelberg followers') re sponses, there are recent attempts to extend analysis to other economic setups characterized by different relationships among decision-makers. A notable strand of such attempts is the core analysis of incomplete in formation. Here, there is no Stackelberg-type relationship, and more impor tantly the players can talk to each other for coordinated choice of strategies. See, e.g., Wilson (1978) for a pioneering work; Yannelis (1991) for formula tion of feasibility of a strategy as its measurability; Ichiishi and Idzik (1996) for introduction of Bayesian incentive-compatibility to this strand; Ichiishi, Idzik and Zhao (1994) for information revelation (that is, endogenous deter mination of updated information structures); Ichiishi and Radner (1997) and Ichiishi and Sertel (1998) for studies of a specific model of Chandler's firm in multidivisional form for sharper results; and Vohra (1999) for a recent work. It is a common postulate in these works that every player takes part in design of a mechanism and also in execution of the signed contract."

A lot of economic problems can be formulated as constrained optimizations and equilibration of their solutions. Various mathematical theories have been supplying economists with indispensable machineries for these problems arising in economic theory. Conversely, mathematicians have been stimulated by various mathematical difficulties raised by economic theories. The series is designed to bring together those mathematicians who are seriously interested in getting new challenging stimuli from economic theories with those economists who are seeking effective mathematical tools for their research. The editorial board of this series comprises the following prominent economists and mathematicians: Managing Editors: S. Kusuoka (Univ. Tokyo), T. Maruyama (Keio Univ.). Editors: R. Anderson (U.C. Berkeley), C. Castaing (Univ. Montpellier), F.H. Clarke (Univ. Lyon I), G. Debreu (U.C. Berkeley), E. Dierker (Univ. Vienna), D. Duffie (Stanford Univ.), L.C. Evans (U.C. Berkeley), T. Fujimoto (Okayama Univ.), J.-M. Grandmont (CREST-CNRS), N. Hirano (Yokohama National Univ.), L. Hurwicz (Univ. of Minnesota), T. Ichiishi (Ohio State Univ.), A. Ioffe (Israel Institute of Technology), S. Iwamoto (Kyushu Univ.), K. Kamiya (Univ. Tokyo), K. Kawamata (Keio Univ.), N. Kikuchi (Keio Univ.), H. Matano (Univ. Tokyo), K. Nishimura (Kyoto Univ.), M.K. Richter (Univ. Minnesota), Y. Takahashi (Kyoto Univ.), M. Valadier (Univ. Montpellier II), A. Yamaguti (Kyoto Univ./Ryukoku Univ.), M. Yano (Keio Univ.).

This is a collection of Harald Cramer's extensive works on number theory, probability, mathematical statistics and insurance mathematics. Many of these are not easily found nowadays in their original sources, for instance his pioneering works on risk theory published in jubilee volumes of the Skandia Insurance Company in 1930 and 1955. Despite their age, these eminent examples of Cramer's expository style remain highly readable. Cramer (Stockholm 1893-1985) was one of the "fathers" of modern mathematical statistics. His famous book on the subject is still an important reference. His statistical papers included here were seminal to the subsequent development of the subject. The collection includes a complete bibliography of Cramer's work.

For successful innovation in business the responsible managers need a consistent view of the individual processes as well as an assessment of key projects in all phases of the development. Generating new ideas, fast examination of its feasibility requires skilled methods for evaluation of these ideas, plans and especially costs and revenues. Business models, calculation methods and some assessments of certain options are presented by the authors. The ability to identify risks and appropriate responses to misperceptions are important milestones in the innovation process. From analysis of problems to the introduction of market-ready solutions, legal requirements, business demands and risk management systems are discussed. Concepts promoting uniform, binding rules for ratings in the innovation process are treated. The identification of target pricing, target costing and litigation, the evaluation of the solution to calculate risk aspects as tasks in financial management and innovation controlling are part of the content. The authors demonstrate that any innovation in different industries requires a strategic and financial project management. Monetary assessment of the individual processes, a detailed patent portfolio and accounts management for innovation processes are of enormous importance. The book is completed by applications of the Berlin Balanced Scorecard Concept with practical examples from the innovation projects in pharmaceutical and technical business.

IT Governance is finally getting the Board's and top management's attention. The value that IT needs to return and the associated risks that need to be managed, have become so important in many industries that enterprise survival depends on it. Information integrity is a significant part of the IT Governance challenge. Among other things, this conference will explore how Information Integrity contributes to the overall control and governance frameworks that enterprises need to put in place for IT to deliver business value and for corporate officers to be comfortable about the IT risks the enterprise faces. The goals for this international working conference are to find answers to the following questions: * what precisely do business managers need in order to have confidence in the integrity of their information systems and their data; * what is the status quo of research and development in this area; * where are the gaps between business needs on the one hand and research I development on the other; what needs to be done to bridge these gaps. The contributions have been divided in the following sections: * Refereed papers. These are papers that have been selected through a blind refereeing process by an international programme committee. * Invited papers. Well known experts present practice and research papers upon invitation by the programme committee. * Tutorial. Two papers describe the background, status quo and future development of CobiT as well as a case of an implementation of Co biT.

Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems V represents a continuation of the dialogue between researchers, information security specialists, internal control specialists and the business community. The objectives of this dialogue are: -To present methods and techniques that will help business achieve the desired level of integrity in information systems and data; -To present the results of research that may be used in the near future to increase the level of integrity or help management maintain the desired level of integrity; -To investigate the shortcomings in the technologies presently in use, shortcomings that require attention in order to protect the integrity of systems in general. The book contains a collection of papers from the Fifth International Working Conference on Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems (IICIS), sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Bonn, Germany in November 2002.

This sixth volume in the series Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems is a state-of-the-art collection of papers in the area of integrity within information systems and the relationship between integrity in information systems and the overall internal control systems that are established in organizations to support corporate governance codes. Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems VI represents a continuation of the dialogue between information security specialists, internal control specialists and the business community. The objectives of this dialogue are: To present methods and techniques that will help business achieve the desired level of integrity in information systems and data; To present the results of research that may in future be used to increase the level of integrity or help management maintain the desired level of integrity; To investigate the shortcomings in the technologies presently in use, shortcomings that require attention in order to protect the integrity of systems in general.The book contains a collection of papers from the Sixth International Working Conference on Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems (IICIS), sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Lausanne, Switzerland in November 2003. It will be essential reading for academics and practitioners in computer science, information technology, business informatics, accountancy and IT-auditing.

Delve into ETFs for smarter investing and a weatherproof portfolio Beyond Smart Beta is the investor's complete guide to index investing, with deep analysis, expert clarification and smart strategies for active portfolio management. From the general to the obscure, this book digs into every aspect of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) including ETCs and ETNs to break down the jargon and provide accessible guidance on utilising the indices as part of a more productive investment strategy. Succinct explanations of terms and concepts help you better grasp ETP anatomy, mechanics and practices, while examples, charts and graphs provide quick visual reference for total understanding. The expert author team examines the risks and benefits associated with various indexing approaches, sharing critical review of next-generation methods to help you make well-informed investment decisions. ETFs provide a solid foundation within mature and well-researched markets, allowing investors to focus on areas where active management has the potential to reap higher returns. This book shows you how to take full advantage of the growth of this market to strengthen your portfolio for the long term. * Assess the current landscape and the anatomy of ETFs/ETPs * Understand ETP handling, costs, trading, and investment * Evaluate the pros and cons of next-generation indexing approaches * Avoid risk while incorporating indices into an active portfolio management strategy Index concepts have evolved from basic, passive investments through Smart Beta, and are evolving into a third generation of products that will quickly become an important element of investor portfolios. Key benefits have propelled ETFs to surpass hedge funds in global capital, and the growth shows no sign of slowing. Beyond Smart Beta provides a primer for investors seeking to understand and take advantage of these lucrative new products.

This book deals with the numerical analysis and efficient numerical treatment of high-dimensional integrals using sparse grids and other dimension-wise integration techniques with applications to finance and insurance. The book focuses on providing insights into the interplay between coordinate transformations, effective dimensions and the convergence behaviour of sparse grid methods. The techniques, derivations and algorithms are illustrated by many examples, figures and code segments. Numerical experiments with applications from finance and insurance show that the approaches presented in this book can be faster and more accurate than (quasi-) Monte Carlo methods, even for integrands with hundreds of dimensions.

Separation of signal from noise is the most fundamental problem in data analysis, arising in such fields as: signal processing, econometrics, actuarial science, and geostatistics. This book introduces the local regression method in univariate and multivariate settings, with extensions to local likelihood and density estimation. Practical information is also included on how to implement these methods in the programs S-PLUS and LOCFIT.

Implementing Management Innovations: Lessons Learned from Activity Based Costing in the U.S. Automobile Industry is the result of a long-term study of the implementation of activity based costing (ABC) inside two of America's largest automobile companies. The research advances our theoretical and practical understanding of the implementation of management innovations by tracing the evolution of ABC from the corporate level down to its eventual rollout at the plants. Another distinguishing feature of the study is the blend of field research methods and hypothesis testing to determine the factors that led to implementation success for managers and ABC development teams. Many of the findings of the study have implications for the implementation of other types of management innovations.

Mathematical modelling is ubiquitous. Almost every book in exact science touches on mathematical models of a certain class of phenomena, on more or less speci?c approaches to construction and investigation of models, on their applications, etc. As many textbooks with similar titles, Part I of our book is devoted to general qu- tions of modelling. Part II re?ects our professional interests as physicists who spent much time to investigations in the ?eld of non-linear dynamics and mathematical modelling from discrete sequences of experimental measurements (time series). The latter direction of research is known for a long time as "system identi?cation" in the framework of mathematical statistics and automatic control theory. It has its roots in the problem of approximating experimental data points on a plane with a smooth curve. Currently, researchers aim at the description of complex behaviour (irregular, chaotic, non-stationary and noise-corrupted signals which are typical of real-world objects and phenomena) with relatively simple non-linear differential or difference model equations rather than with cumbersome explicit functions of time. In the second half of the twentieth century, it has become clear that such equations of a s- ?ciently low order can exhibit non-trivial solutions that promise suf?ciently simple modelling of complex processes; according to the concepts of non-linear dynamics, chaotic regimes can be demonstrated already by a third-order non-linear ordinary differential equation, while complex behaviour in a linear model can be induced either by random in?uence (noise) or by a very high order of equations.

In this book, we synthesize a rich and vast literature on econometric challenges associated with accounting choices and their causal effects. Identi?cation and es- mation of endogenous causal effects is particularly challenging as observable data are rarely directly linked to the causal effect of interest. A common strategy is to employ logically consistent probability assessment via Bayes' theorem to connect observable data to the causal effect of interest. For example, the implications of earnings management as equilibrium reporting behavior is a centerpiece of our explorations. Rather than offering recipes or algorithms, the book surveys our - periences with accounting and econometrics. That is, we focus on why rather than how. The book can be utilized in a variety of venues. On the surface it is geared - ward graduate studies and surely this is where its roots lie. If we're serious about our studies, that is, if we tackle interesting and challenging problems, then there is a natural progression. Our research addresses problems that are not well - derstood then incorporates them throughout our curricula as our understanding improves and to improve our understanding (in other words, learning and c- riculum development are endogenous). For accounting to be a vibrant academic discipline, we believe it is essential these issues be confronted in the undergr- uate classroom as well as graduate studies. We hope we've made some progress with examples which will encourage these developments.

The essays, written by leading experts, examine the history of the international financial system in terms of the debate about globalization and its limits. In the nineteenth century, international markets existed without international institutions. A response to the problems of capital flows came in the form of attempts to regulate national capital markets (for instance through the establishment of central banks). In the inter-war years, there were (largely unsuccessful) attempts at designing a genuine international trade and monetary system; and at the same time (coincidentally) the system collapsed. In the post-1945 era, the intended design effort was infinitely more successful. The development of large international capital markets since the 1960s, however, increasingly frustrated attempts at international control. The emphasis has shifted in consequence to debates about increasing the transparency and effectiveness of markets; but these are exactly the issues that already dominated the nineteenth-century discussions.

Stochastic analysis has a variety of applications to biological systems as well as physical and engineering problems, and its applications to finance and insurance have bloomed exponentially in recent times. The goal of this book is to present a broad overview of the range of applications of stochastic analysis and some of its recent theoretical developments. This includes numerical simulation, error analysis, parameter estimation, as well as control and robustness properties for stochastic equations. The book also covers the areas of backward stochastic differential equations via the (non-linear) G-Brownian motion and the case of jump processes. Concerning the applications to finance, many of the articles deal with the valuation and hedging of credit risk in various forms, and include recent results on markets with transaction costs.

How could Finance benefit from AI? How can AI techniques provide an edge? Moving well beyond simply speeding up computation, this book tackles AI for Finance from a range of perspectives including business, technology, research, and students. Covering aspects like algorithms, big data, and machine learning, this book answers these and many other questions.

Clearing forms the core part of a smooth and efficiently functioning financial market infrastructure. Traditionally, it has been provided by clearing houses, most of which today act as a 'central counterparty' (CCP) between the two sides of a trade. The rapid growth of cross-border trading has sparked discussion on the most efficient industry structure - particularly in Europe and the US. At the heart of this discussion lies the question of whether the implementation of a single clearing house creates greater benefits than a more competitive but interlinked market structure. This is the starting point for this book, which analyses the efficiency of clearing and clearing industry structure. Along with clear-cut definitions and a concise characterisation and descriptive analysis of the clearing industry, the book determines the efficiency impact of various cross-border integration and harmonisation initiatives between CCPs. This serves to identify the most preferable future structure for the clearing industry.