This paper is concerned with the behavior of the risk premium on the market portfolio of risky assets. The paper provides a characterization of the evolution of the market risk prem ium in economies where the variance of the return on the market has constant variance and market index options can...

This empirical study is motivated by the literature on “smile-consistent” arbitrage pricing with stochastic volatility. We investigate the number and shape of shocks that move implied volatility smiles and surfaces by applying Principal Components Analysis. Two components are identified...