We prove that in a discrete-time market model the lower arbitrage bound of an American contingent claim is itself an arbitrage-free price if and only if it corresponds to the price of the claim optimally exercised under some equivalent martingale measure

There is strong empirical evidence that the pricing kernel is Ushaped,which provides a way to explain the substantial coskewnesspremium. Existing studies typically use a polynomial approximationof the pricing kernel. Problematically, these polynomials have, inmost cases, increasing parts by...

To shed light on the empirical relevance of the limits to arbitrage, we study hedge funds’ trading patterns in the stock market during liquidity crises. Consistent with arbitrageurs’ limited ability to provide liquidity, we find that at the time of liquidity crises hedge funds reduce their...