The economic theory of option pricing imposes constraints on the structure of call functions and state price densities (SPDs). Except in a few polar cases, it does not prescribe functional forms. This paper proposes a nonparametric estimator of option pricing models which incorporates various...

The state price density is a second derivative of the discounted European options prices with respect to the strike price. We use Maximum Likelihood method to derive a simple estimator of the curve such that it is decreasing, convex and its second derivative integrates to one. Confidence...