DOI: https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2022.5
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2416
Date of Award
3-2022
Degree Name
MS in Mathematics
Department/Program
Mathematics
College
College of Science and Mathematics
Advisor
Dana Paquin
Advisor Department
Mathematics
Advisor College
College of Science and Mathematics
Abstract
In this thesis, we study how sovereign credit default swaps are able to measure systemic risk as well as how they can be used to construct optimal portfolios to minimize risk. We define the clustering coefficient as a proxy for systemic risk and design an optimization problem with the goal of minimizing the mean absolute deviation of the clustering coefficient on a group of nine European countries. Additionally, we define a metric we call the diversity score that measures the diversification of any given portfolio. We solve this problem for a baseline set of parameters, then spend the remainder of the thesis modifying these parameters to investigate how the optimal solution and diversity score are impacted.