I propose a model in which the price of an option is partly determined by macro-finance variables. In an application using an index of current business conditions, the new model outperforms existing benchmarks in fitting underlying asset returns and in pricing options. The model performs particularly well when business conditions are deteriorating. Using the recent financial crisis as an out-of-sample experiment, the new model has option-pricing errors that are 18% below those of a nested 2-component volatility benchmark. Results are robust to using alternative business conditions proxies and comparing to different benchmark models.

Given equity's convex payoff function, shareholders can transfer wealth from bondholders by increasing firm risk. We test the existing hypothesis that convertible debt reduces this classical agency problem of risk-shifting. First, we derive a measure of shareholders' risk incentives induced by convertible debt using a contingent claims framework. We then document that when risk-shifting incentives are high, the propensity to issue convertible (rather than straight) debt increases and the negative stock market reaction following convertible debt issue announcements is amplified. We further highlight that convertible debt is the only type of security that affects business risk durably downwards. Our conclusions support the agency theoretic rationale for convertible debt financing especially for financially distressed firms.

The recent literature provides conflicting empirical evidence about the pricing of idiosyncratic risk. This paper sheds new light on the matter by exploiting the richness of option data. First, we find that idiosyncratic risk explains 28% of the variation in the risk premium on a stock. Second, we show that the contribution of idiosyncratic risk to the equity premium arises exclusively from jump risk. Third, we document that the commonality in idiosyncratic tail risk is much stronger than that in total idiosyncratic risk documented in the literature. Tail risk thus plays a central role in the pricing of idiosyncratic risk. Received May 15, 2017; editorial decision September 12, 2018 by Editor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh.

We develop an asset pricing model with endogenous corporate policies that explains how inflation jointly affects real asset prices and corporate default risk. Our model includes two empirically founded nominal rigidities: fixed nominal debt coupons (sticky leverage) and sticky cash flows. These two frictions result in lower real equity prices and credit spreads when expected inflation rises. A decrease in expected inflation has opposite effects, with even larger magnitudes. In the cross-section, the model predicts that the negative impact of higher expected inflation on real equity values is stronger for low leverage firms. We find empirical support for the model’s predictions.