Value stocks covary with aggregate consumption more than growth stocks during periods when financial wealth is low relative to consumption. However, the conditional value premium does not exhibit such countercyclical behavior. Consequently, a one-factor conditional consumption-based asset...

This paper proposes a Gaussian estimator for nonlinear continuous time models of the short term interest rate. The approach is based on a stopping time argument that produces a normalizing transformation facilitating the use of a Gaussian likelihood. A Monte Carlo study shows that the finite...

The Multifractal Model of Asset Returns (See lt;a HREF=http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=78588gt;Mandelbrot, Fisher, and Calvet, 1997lt;/Agt; ) proposes a class of multifractal processes for the modelling of financial returns. In that paper, multifractal processes are defined by a...

In this paper we propose three nonparametric methods for testing conditional mean-variance efficiency of a benchmark portfolio. These approaches avoid functional form misspecification and share a pleasant feature that the test statistics are based on estimators that converge at the fast...

A system of nonlinear asset flow differential equations (AFDE) gives rise to an inverse problem involving optimization of parameters that characterize an investor population. The optimization procedure is used in conjunction with daily market prices and net asset values to determine the...

We develop a new closed-form approximation method for pricing spread options. Numerical analysis shows that our method is more accurate than existing analytical approximations. Our method is also extremely fast, with computing time more than two orders of magnitude shorter than one-dimensional...

The Margrabe formula is used extensively by theorists and practitioners not only on exchange options, but also on executive compensation schemes, real options, weather and commodity derivatives, etc. However, the crucial assumption of bivariate normal distribution is not fully satisfied in...

We examine the dynamic behavior of Equity Real Estate Investment Trust (EREIT) volatility in a GARCH context 1972-2006 using monthly EREIT returns, and comparing volatility performance for quot;earlyquot; Equity REITs 1972-1992 with that of quot;modernquot; EREITs 1993-2006. Consistent with...

This paper develops a new estimation procedure for characteristic-based factor models of security returns. We treat the factor model as a weighted additive nonparametric regression model, with the factor returns serving as time-varying weights, and a set of univariate non-parametric functions...

We introduce an alternative version of the Fama-French three-factor model of stock returns together with a new estimation methodology. We assume that the factor betas in the model are smooth nonlinear functions of observed security characteristics. We develop an estimation procedure that...