We study portfolio choice when labor income and dividends are cointegrated. Economically plausible calibrations suggest young investors should take substantial short positions in the stock market. Because of cointegration the young agent's human capital electively becomes stock-like. However,...

Prior to the stock market crash of 1987, Black-Scholes implied volatilities of Samp;P 500 index options were relatively constant across moneyness. Since the crash, however, deep out-of-the-money Samp;P 500 put options have become 'expensive' relative to the Black-Scholes benchmark. Many...

Empirical evidence shows that changes in aggregate labor income and stock market returns exhibit only weak correlation at short horizons. As we document below, however, this correlation increases substantially at longer horizons, which provides at least suggestive evidence that stock returns and...

Most term structure models with stochastic volatility are restrictive in that they assume the risk in derivative securities can be perfectly hedged by a portfolio consisting solely of bonds. Below, we demonstrate that this prediction fails in practice. In particular, we find that the changes in...

Empirical evidence shows that changes in aggregate labor income and stock market returns exhibit only weak correlation at short horizons. As we document below, however, this correlation increases substantially at longer horizons, which provides at least suggestive evidence that stock returns and...

Structural models of default calibrated to historical default rates, recovery rates, and Sharpe ratios typically generate Baa-Aaa credit spreads that are significantly below historical values. However, this credit spread puzzle can be resolved if one accounts for the fact that default rates and...

We model oil price dynamics in a general equilibrium production economy with two goods: a consumption good and oil. Production of the consumption good requires drawing from oil reserves. Investment necessary to replenish oil reserves is costly and irreversible. We solve for the optimal...

Previous research (e.g., Lando (1998), Duffie, Schroder and Skiadas (1996), Duffie and Singleton (1999)) has shown that under a suitable no-jump condition, the price of a defaultable security is equal to its risk-neutral expected discounted cash flows if a modified discount rate is introduced to...

We study the pricing and hedging of contingent claims that are subject to Event Risk which we define as rare and unpredictable events whose occurrence may be correlated to, but cannot be hedged perfectly with standard marketed instruments. The super and sub-replication costs of such event...

Most models of the term structure are restrictive in that they assume the bond market forms a complete market. That is, they assume all sources of risk affecting fixed income derivatives can be completely hedged by a portfolio consisting solely of bonds. Below, we present empirical evidence...