Knowledge that Transforms

This paper shows that Edgeworth expansions for option valuation are equivalent to approximating option payoffs using Hermite polynomials. Consequently, the value of an option is the value of an infinite series of replicating polynomials. The resultant formulas express option values in terms of skewness, kurtosis, and higher moments. Unfortunately, the Hermite series diverges for fat-tailed models, so we provide alternative moment-based formulas. These formulas are a computationally efficient alternative to Fourier transform valuation and can value options even when the characteristic function is unknown. Applications include the first convergent solution for Hull and White’s stochastic volatility model.

We analyze the contribution of leisure preferences to a model of long-run risks in leisure and consumption growth. The marginal utility of consumption is affected by short- and long-run risks in leisure under nonseparable and recursive preferences. We match equity risk premia and macroeconomic moments with plausible coefficients of relative-risk aversion. Additionally, the model generates a less negative to positively sloped average real yield curve, depending on the elasticity of substitution between the consumption of nondurables and services and leisure. Further, the incorporation of leisure in utility allows us to derive model implications for the return on human capital.

We propose a novel regime-switching model to study correlation asymmetries in international equity markets. We decompose returns into frequent-but-small diffusion and infrequent-but-large jumps and derive an estimation method for many countries. We find that correlations due to jumps, not diffusion, markedly increase in bad markets, leading to correlation breaks during crises. Our model provides a better description of correlation asymmetries than do GARCH, copula, and stochastic volatility models. Good and bad regimes are persistent. Regime changes are detected rapidly, and risk diversification allocations are improved. Asset allocation results in- and out-of-sample are superior to other models, including the 1/N strategy.

We propose a dynamic asset pricing model in which two assets with identical cash flows can trade at different prices not only because of differences in liquidity but counterparty risk. Counterparty risk reduces lenders or borrowers’ willingness to supply funds and collateral, incentives to shortsell and lend, and the likelihood for new bonds to be on special, thereby narrowing on-/off-the-run spreads and affecting asset prices in spot markets. Consistent with this prediction, we find that on-/off-the-run spreads are low when counterparty risk is high and this relationship is much stronger during the financial crisis.

We study the implications of creative destruction on asset prices. We develop a general equilibrium model of endogenous firm creation and destruction in which “incremental” innovation by incumbents and “radical” innovation by entrants drive productivity improvements. Firms’ incentives to innovate generate time-varying economic growth and countercyclical economic uncertainty. The model matches key properties of consumption and asset prices, as well as novel facts on the process of creative destruction in the United States obtained using a sample of patents from 1975–2013. We show that the interplay between incumbents and entrants is an important determinant of risks priced in the financial markets.

We show that the noninformation component of trading costs is priced in the cross-section of stock returns using intraday data for NYSE/AMEX stocks. More importantly, we show that the noninformation component is much larger and more strongly related to stock returns than is the adverse-selection component, indicating that the noninformation component plays a more important role in asset pricing than does the adverse-section component. We conduct a variety of robustness tests and show that our main results hold for different estimation methods, measures of the adverse-selection cost, subsample periods, and control variables. We offer plausible explanations for these results.

Stocks with increases in idiosyncratic risk tend to earn low subsequent returns for a few months. However, high idiosyncratic risk stocks eventually earn persistently high returns. These results are consistent with positively priced idiosyncratic risk and temporary underreaction to idiosyncratic risk innovations. Because risk levels and innovations are correlated, the relation between historical idiosyncratic risk and returns may reflect both risk premiums and underreaction and yield misleading inference regarding the price of risk. The results reconcile previous work offering conflicting evidence on the price of idiosyncratic risk and help to discriminate among explanations for the idiosyncratic risk-return relation.

Journal Article Subscription Page Get access The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Volume 5, Issue 2, December 2015, Page i3, https://doi.org/10.1093/rapstu/rau016 Published: 03 November 2015

Journal Article Announcements Get access The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Volume 5, Issue 2, December 2015, Page 155, https://doi.org/10.1093/rapstu/rav009 Published: 03 November 2015