Recent studies in the empirical finance literature have reported evidence of two types of asymmetries in the joint distribution of stock returns. The first is skewness in the distribution of individual stock returns. The second is an asymmetry in the dependence between stocks: stock returns...

We propose a new nonparametric estimator for the volatility structure of the zero-coupon yield curve inside the Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework. The estimator incorporates cross-sectional restrictions along the maturity dimension, and also allows for measurement errors, which can arise from...

The article evaluates the performance of several recently proposed change-point tests applied to conditional variance dynamics and conditional distributions of asset returns. These are CUSUM-type tests for β-mixing processes and EDF-based tests for the residuals of such nonlinear dependent...

Using the tail index of returns on U.S. equities as a summary measure of extreme behavior, we examine changes in the equity markets surrounding the development of program trading for portfolio insurance, the crash of 1987, and the subsequent introduction of circuit breakers and other changes in...

Recent developments in the theory of choice under uncertainty and risk yield a pessimistic decision theory that replaces the classical expected utility criterion with a Choquet expectation that accentuates the likelihood of the least favorable outcomes. A parallel theory has recently emerged in...

This article proposes a new approach to testing for the hypothesis of a single priced risk factor driving the term structure of interest rates. The method does not rely on any parametric specification of the state variable dynamics or the market price of risk. It simply exploits the constraint...

Financial risk model evaluation or backtesting is a key part of the internal model's approach to market risk management as laid out by the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision. However, existing backtesting methods have relatively low power in realistic small sample settings. Our contribution...