|
||||
Erdem Aktug
Welcome to my home page! At this site, you can find descriptions and updates of my research, professional experience, teaching, and other fun stuff. My research focuses on various aspects of sovereign credit risk, spanning international finance and macroeconomic theory as well as financial engineering applications. About MeCurrently, I am a Doctoral Candidate at Lehigh University in the College of Business and Economics. I intend to receive my Ph.D. degree in Economics by December 2009. I am lucky enough to work with two outstanding advisors, Professor Nandu (Nandkumar) Nayar and Professor Geraldo Vasconcellos on my dissertation titled "Essays on Sovereign Risk". The first chapter of my dissertation sheds light on the effect of banking sector on sovereign credit ratings. In the second chapter, I examine the long-run equilibrium relationship between sovereign bond and credit default swap (CDS) markets. Specifically, I focus on the 2001 - 2007 period for 30 Emerging Markets. So far, I have presented my research at Moody's KMV (San Francisco), at Moody's Economy.com (West Chester), at the Eastern Economic Association Annual Meetings (New York, February 27 - March 1, 2009), at the Mid-Atlantic Research Conference in Finance (MARC, Philadelphia, March 20, 2009), at the Eastern Finance Association 2009 Annual Meetings (Washington DC, April 29 - May 2, 2009), at the European Financial Management Association Conference (Milano-Italy, June 24-27, 2009), and at the Financial Management Association Annual Meetings (Reno-Nevada, October 21-24, 2009). In addition, I attended the AEA-AFA Meetings in Boston (2006), New Orleans (2008), and the meetings in San Francisco, in January 2-5, 2009. My prospective research agenda includes exploring the contingent claims approach to sovereign risk analysis. I am particularly interested in addressing the weaknesses of Merton Modeling in sovereign context. In addition, I am planning to examine the role of foreign investors in Emerging Stock Markets. It would be interesting to see how the US monetary policy and money market regulations would affect the equity returns in developing markets. Furthermore, I am also involved in a corporate governance research project carried out by the finance and accounting departments at Lehigh University. Lastly, I will shortly submit a report on the newly developing Private Pension System of Turkey for the Lehigh University Martindale Center's annual publication, Perspectives on Business and Economics. Recently, I have also received a Master of Science in Analytical Finance (MSAF) degree at Lehigh University. The MSAF Program at Lehigh University combines key concepts in financial theory, mathematical finance and engineering decision making. Throughout the program, I was involved in a project to help PPL Corporation manage its interest rate risk dynamically. You can find additional information about this project and the MSAF program at Resolve, Lehigh University's Engineering and Applied Science Magazine. My most recent professional experience was with HSBC Securities - Turkey, Istanbul office. At HSBC, I had a chance to work with the chief economist and equity research group. Another noticeable experience is the internship I had at Fitch Ratings Quantitative Financial Research Group in New York City. The tasks I worked on included the Sovereign Ratings Model, the Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities Model, and the Chicago O’Hare Airport Revenue Generating Bonds Rating Project. Previously, I also gained some noteworthy experience in Turkey. During my internship at Deloitte, I learned the nuts and bolts of auditing and financial reporting. In terms of teaching, I enjoyed being a teaching assistant for Introduction to Economics course with the supervision of Professor Frank Gunter and Professor Thomas Hyclak, and Money & Banking course with Professor Anthony O'Brien. Moreover, I have been teaching Online Introduction to Economics classes at Lehigh University as an instructor via myeconlab.com over the summers. In the 2008-2009 academic year, I taught Statistical Methods and Applied Microeconomics classes at Lehigh University, and Introduction to Economics and Business Statistics classes at Kutztown University as an Adjunct Faculty. Currently, I am teaching the Applied Microeconomics course at Lehigh University.
|
Research Teaching |
|||
 |
||||
