Multiple Interest Rate Analysis Theory and Applications

Although mathematicians have known about complex numbers as solutions to equations since the seventeenth century, the numbers had few applications until the twentieth century. Today, their applications include mobile phones, satellite navigation, imaging techniques (MRI, PET), and circuit design in computers. Until recently, however, there were few applications of complex numbers to finance. This situation has changed.

Multiple Interest Rate Analysis is the study of all interest rates solving the time value of money equation - not only the orthodox rates of conventional economics, but also the unorthodox rates that are complex-valued. The unorthodox rates are employed to convert conventional financial equations containing a single interest rate into 'dual' expressions containing every rate. These dual expressions solve long-standing puzzles and lead to revised conclusions about best practice and sound policy advice in various areas of financial economics, including loan finance, investment appraisal, bond risk management, and capital theory.

Mike Osborne is a Lecturer in Finance at the University of Sussex, UK. Dr Osborne's career has spanned both academia and industry with previous positions including: Director of the MasterCard Academy, delivering payments education to banking clients in Europe; Vice President at Gulf International Bank, managing HR projects and policy; Director of Education at ACI - the Financial Markets Association - managing ACI's global education and examination program for financial market professionals; Head of Banking Studies at the Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance; and Economic Advisor in HM Treasury. Dr Osborne has a BA in Economics from Newcastle University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the University of Oxford, an MA in the Economics of Money and Finance from the University of Sheffield, an MPhil in International Monetary Economics from the University of Liverpool, and a PhD in Financial Economics from Middlesex University.

1. Multiple Interest Rate Analysis: What it is and Why it is Important
2. Motivation
3. Four Key Results of Multiple Interest Rate Analysis
4. Is APR a Robust Measure of the Cost of Consumer Credit?
5. Multiple Interest Rate Analysis Demonstrates Why the IRR Pitfalls are Irrelevant and Provides a Better Reason to Prefer NPV as an Investment Criterion
6. An Accurate Formula is Derived for the Impact of a Shift in Yield on the Price of a Bond
7. Multiple Interest Rate Analysis Sheds Light on the Reswitching Phenomenon
8. A Summing Up