This paper finds necessary and sufficient conditions of Nth-order stochastic dominance (SD) for risk aversion and develops linear tests for Nth-order SD. We introduce a linear FDSD (fourth-order SD and decreasing absolute risk aversion SD) test for standard risk aversion. A positive research...

This paper introduces a structural credit default model that is based on a hyper-exponential jump diffusion process for the value of the firm. For credit default swap prices and other quantities of interest, explicit expressions for the corresponding Laplace transforms are derived. As an...

We develop a dynamic model of belief dispersion with a continuum of investors differing in beliefs. The model is tractable and qualitatively matches many of the empirical regularities in a stock price, its mean return, volatility, and trading volume. We find that the stock price is convex in...

Stock prices aggregate the beliefs of different investors. Using this insight, we estimate the fraction of stock market investors holding survey beliefs. We find that 42% of investors hold beliefs matching those of equity analysts and 25% hold beliefs as observed in individual investor return...

The booms and busts in U.S. stock prices over the post-war period can to a large extent be explained by fluctuations in investors' subjective capital gains expectations. Survey measures of these expectations display excessive optimism at market peaks and excessive pessimism at market throughs....

The booms and busts in U.S. stock prices over the post-war period can to a large extent be explained by fluctuations in investors' subjective capital gains expectations. Survey measures of these expectations display excessive optimism at market peaks and excessive pessimism at market troughs....

In a model where investors disagree about the fundamentals of two stocks, the state price density depends on investor disagreements for both stocks, especially the larger stock. This implies that disagreement among investors in a large firm has a spillover effect on the pricing of other stocks...