Even though a multi-factor linear asset pricing model can be equivalently represented in a Beta or in a stochastic discount factor (SDF) form, its inferential efficiency and pricing accuracy features may differ when estimated by the generalized method of moments (GMM), both in small and in large...

Three concepts: stochastic discount factors, multi-beta pricing and mean-variance efficiency, are at the core of modern empirical asset pricing. This chapter reviews these paradigms and the relations among them, concentrating on conditional asset-pricing models where lagged variables serve as...

Option-implied moments, like implied volatility, contain useful information about an underlying asset's return distribution, but are derived under the risk-neutral probability measure. This paper shows how to convert risk-neutral moments into the corresponding physical ones. The main theoretical...

Derivatives, especially equity and volatility options, contain valuable and oftentimes essential information for estimating stochastic volatility models. Absent strong assumptions, their typically highly nonlinear pricing dependence on the state vector prevents or at least severely impedes their...