Several studies incorporating estimated volatilities into option pricing formulas have appeared in the literature. However, the models described in these studies tend to perform quite poorly in out-of-sample tests. In particular, significant departures from the observed prices can be seen for...

In this paper, we develop a search-based model of asset trading. We assume that investors differ in their horizons, and can invest in two identical assets. The asset markets are partially segmented: investors can search in only one market, but can decide which one. We show that there exist a...

The properties and applications of the normal log-normal (NLN) mixture are considered. The moment of the NLN mixture is shown to be finite for any positive order. The expectations of exponential functions of a NLN mixture variable are also investigated. The kurtosis and skewness of the NLN...

This paper is concerned with specification for modelling financial leverage effect in the context of stochastic volatility (SV) models. Two alternative specifications co-exist in the literature. One is the Euler approximation to the well known continuous time SV model with leverage effect and...

It is well known that the distributions of assets returns have heavier tails than the Gaussian's. To capture such a distributional characteristic, the Generalized Hyperbolic(GH) distribution and its subclasses have been applied to assets returns as the distribution with heavier tails. GH...

We propose a novel estimator for the stochastic discount factor (SDF) in a panel-data context. Under general conditions it depends exclusively on appropriate averages of asset returns, and its computation is a direct exercise, as long as one has enough observations to our asymptotic results. We...

We consider the behavior of the price of a continuously stored commodity, for which discounted price is a non-constant martingale, and thus not-predictable. We prove that the discounted price realization is within any given neighborhood of zero, with any given probability less than 1, beyond a...

While the existence of fixed costs in entering asset markets is the leading rationalization of the "participation puzzle" -the fact that most households do not hold stocks, despite the diversification gains and the significant risk-premium involved-, most motivations of these fixed costs are as...

This article analyzes the specifications of option pricing models based on time-changed Levy processes. We classify option pricing models based on (i) the structure of the jump component in the underlying return process, (ii) the source of stochastic volatility, and (iii) the specification of...

The aim of this work is to study the pricing problem for derivatives depending on two stocks driven by a bidimensional Lévy process. The main idea is to apply Girsanov's Theorem for Lévy processes, in order to reduce the posed problem to the pricing of a one Lévy driven stock in an auxiliary...