Pension funds have played a critical role in the evolution of the markets for debt and equity securities and their derivatives in the U.S. over the last 15 years. The new securities and markets can largely be explained as responses to the investment demands of pension funds in an environment of...

A contract to insure $1 against inflation is equivalent to a European call option on the consumer price index. When there is no deductible this call option is equivalent to a forward contract on the CPI. Its price is the difference between the prices of a zero coupon real bond and a zero coupon...