Venastul (Norway), February 14-15, 2008

Workshop

Fundamental and Non-Fundamental Asset Price Dynamics:
Where do we stand?

in Venastul (Norway), February 14-15, 2008

organized by Pierre L. Siklos (Wilfrid Laurier University),
Martin T. Bohl (University of Münster)
and Norges Bank, Norway

 

 

Call for Papers

Please find the detailed "Call for Papers" here.

 

Program

Please find the detailed "Program" here.

 

Papers

  • Lieven Baele, Geert Bekaert, Koen Inghelbrecht - The Determinants of Stock and Bond Return Comovements
  • Melisso Boschi - Sovereign spreads, currency crises, and fundamentals: A non-linear analysis
  • Sergey Gelman, Bernd Wilfling - Switching volatility in target stocks during takeover bids
  • Erik Kole, Nadja Guenster, Ben Jacobsen - Riding Bubbles
  • Kevin J. Lansing - Rational and Near-Rational Bubbles without Drift 
  • Bruce Mizrach, Jie Lu - Is Talk Cheap Online: Strategic Interaction in A Stock Trading Chat Room
  • Paolo Pasquariello, Jarl Kallberg, Crocker H. Liu - Is There Excess Comovement in the U.S. Real Estate Markets? Pierre L. Siklos - Presentation
  • Christian A. Salm, Martin T. Bohl - The other January Effect - Nothing More than a Statistical Artifact
  • David Sondermann, Martin T. Bohl, Pierre L. Siklos - Shocking Markets: European Stock Markets and the ECB's Monetary Policy Surprises
  • Eugene N. White: Lessons from The Great American Real Estate Bubble: Florida 1926 Part 2
  • Yangru Wu, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu - Explosive Behavior in the 1990s Nasdaq: When Did Exuberance Escalate Asset Values?

 

Accomodation

Accomodation are made available at the Norges Bank’s conference centre in Venastul (near Lillehammer). All workshop participants will be accommodated at the venue for the workshop from Wednesday 13th to Friday 15th. The check out will be by noon on Friday. Norges Bank will cover the accommodation including all meals for the workshop participants.

Further information regarding accomodation

  • Venastul
    Persons accompanying workshop participants may also stay at Venastul from 13-15 February. There is a fee of 545 NOK per night per accompanying person for accommodation and meals which should be paid to an account number to be provided. There are also limited number of rooms available at Venastul until Saturday 16th for guests who want to extend their stay by one night to enjoy skiing. These rooms will be distributed on "first come first serve basis”. All guests who extend their stay at Venastul will be requested to pay the above noted fee for accommodation and meals to the account number to be provided. For a stay over until Sunday, we suggest a hotel in Oslo city center, Lillehammer or at Gardermoen Airport. The latter option would suit an early flight. The temperature is expected to be around -10 Celsius. We therefore strongly recommend warm shoes and clothes.
  • Oslo
    The bank often uses Hotel First Millennium (five minutes walking distance from Norges Bank, 10 minutes walking distance from Oslo Central Station for the Airport Express Train). Please ask for special price to Norges Bank’s guests. For links to other hotels in the city centre close to Norges Bank; see Map on Norges Bank homepage . For a useful link to other hotels, see here.
  • Lillehammer First Hotel Breiseth, Radisson SAS Lillehammer Hotel, Birkebeineren Hotel, Clarion Collection Hotel Hammer, Mølla Hotel.
  • Hotels close to the Alpine resort in Hafjell Quality Hotel and Resort Hafjell.

 

 

Arrival

On 13th February, a bus will take the participants in Oslo to Venastul via Gardermoen Airport. The bus will start from the (main) entrance of Norges Bank from Kirkegata at 1pm, stopping at Gardermoen at about 2pm for participants travelling directly from Gardermoen to Venastul. The bus is expected to arrive at Venastul around 5.30 pm.

On 15th February, a bus will depart from Venastul around 3-3.30 pm and take people to selected destinations along the route like Lillehammer, Gardermoen Airport and Oslo city centre (Norges Bank). The bus will arrive in Oslo (Norges Bank) around 7.30-8 pm.

  • From Gardermoen Airport to Oslo city center: Oslo Gardermoen Airport is the main international airport in Oslo. We suggest that you take the airport express train to Oslo. Turn right in the main airport arrival hall for the airport express train to Oslo Central Station (l). The fare is NOK 160 and you can buy tickets at the airport with your credit-card from machines on the left (offer English as option on screen), or from kiosk on the right. The train leaves Gardemoen every 10th minute, starting 6 minutes past the hour. It takes about 20 minutes to the Oslo Central Station. Watch out for the local train which is much slower. Leave the Oslo central station to your left and you will find a taxi stand. It’s a short drive to your hotel (<5 min). Taxis also accept cards. If you want to walk it’s about 10 to 15 minutes walk.
  • From Venastul to Oslo city centre Take a taxi from Venastul to Ringebu railway station and from there a direct train to Oslo. The taxi drive will be for about ½ hour and costs about 300/350 NOK. The trains leave from Ringebu at 12.12, 17.59 (not Saturday) and 20.01. The trains stop at Gardermoen Airport at 14.43, 20.14 (not Saturday) and 22.14 and arrive Oslo resp. 15.13, 20.42 (not Saturday) and 22.42. From Ringebu, the train costs 430 NOK to Oslo and 320 NOK to Gardermoen.
  • From Venastul to Lillehammer Take a taxi from Venastul to Ringebu railway station and from there any train towards Oslo. Lillehammer station is the 2nd station from Ringebu. Alternatively, one can take a taxi directly to Lillehammer. The taxi from Venastul to Lillehammer costs ca. NOK 1.000. Minibus ca. NOK 1.300,-. You can take an express bus from Ringebu to Lillehammer, Gardermoen Airport and Oslo Bus Terminal.

 

Additional Information

 

Tourist information Oslo
We will of course be helpful with suggestions if you want to see some sights. You can also check the official tourist information of Oslo, which also has a map on their homepage.

Skiing
If you decide to stay at Venastul from Friday to Saturday you could get a day of skiing starting from Venastul. If you want to do cross-country skiing there would be plenty of opportunities just outside the doorstep at Venastul. Spidsbergseter (ca. 8 km. from Venastul) is another option; see link here. Or, if you rather prefer alpine skiing or snowboard there are two great resorts close by. One is Kvitfjell (about 30 min by Taxi from Venastul) where the downhill slopes from the Olympics at Lillehammer are located (see link here). The second is Hafjell, which is just north of Lillehammer (about 40 minutes with Taxi). See and also link here. After skiing on Saturday evening you could then take the train to Gardermoen or Oslo for a hotel closer to the airport (depending on your flight schedules). A bus will depart from Venastul around 3-3.30 pm and take people to selected destinations along the route like Lillehammer, Gardermoen Airport and Oslo city centre (Norges Bank). The bus will arrive in Oslo (Norges Bank) around 7.30-8 pm.

 

Contact

Prof. Dr. Martin T. Bohl
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Chair of Monetary Economics
Am Stadtgraben 9
48143 Muenster
Germany
Phone: +49 251 83 25 005
Fax:       +49 251 83 22 846
Email: martin.bohl@wiwi.uni-muenster.de