Pricing Reinsurance Contracts on FDIC Losses

This paper proposes a pricing model for the FDIC's reinsurance risk. We derive a closed‐form Weibull call option pricing model to price a call‐spread a reinsurer might sell to the FDIC. To obtain the risk‐neutral loss‐density necessary to price this call spread we risk‐neutralize a Weibull distributed FDIC annual losses by a tilting coefficient estimated from the traded call options on the BKX index. An application of the proposed approach yield reasonable reinsurance prices.     

An Analysis of Intertemporal Pricing for Forward Foreign Exchange Contracts

An asset-pricing model with an unobservable time-varying risk premium is used to price forward foreign exchange contracts. Specifically, the term spectrum of forward foreign exchange contracts is examined in order to focus on country-specific and maturity-specific information. The testable restrictions imposed by the model are consistent with both cross-country and cross-maturity forward contracts except at the short end of the maturity spectrum for cross-country forward exchange rates. This indicates that the intertemporal model is relatively robust in valuing forward contracts of different maturities and for different exchange rates but that it may fail when there are significant short-term country-specific shocks.     

Relative Pricing of Eurodollar Futures and Forward Contracts

Past research explains observed spreads between futures and forward Eurodollar yields as being due to the futures contract's mark-to-market feature. We derive closed form solutions for this yield spread and show that, theoretically, it should be small. Also, differences in liquidity, taxation, and default risk cannot account for the large spreads observed. We also present evidence that the spreads, which are nonnegligible primarily in the first half of the sample period, are likely to be attributable to the mispricing of futures contracts relative to the forward rates and that the mispricing was gradually eliminated over time.     

Pricing Double-Trigger Reinsurance Contracts: Financial Versus Actuarial Approach

This article discusses various approaches to pricing double‐trigger reinsurance contracts—a new type of contract that has emerged in the area of ‘‘alternative risk transfer.’’ The potential coverage from this type of contract depends on both underwriting and financial risk. We determine the reinsurer's reservation price if it wants to retain the firm's same safety level after signing the contract, in which case the contract typically must be backed by large amounts of equity capital (if equity capital is the risk management measure to be taken). We contrast the financial insurance pricing models with an actuarial pricing model that has as its objective no lessening of the reinsurance company's expected profits and no worsening of its safety level. We show that actuarial pricing can lead the reinsurer into a trap that results in the failure to close reinsurance contracts that would have a positive net present value because typical actuarial pricing dictates the type of risk management measure that must be taken, namely, the insertion of additional capital. Additionally, this type of pricing structure forces the reinsurance buyer to provide this safety capital as a debtholder. Finally, we discuss conditions leading to a market for double‐trigger reinsurance contracts.     

A Strategic Asset Pricing Model for Relative Performance Concern

We propose a strategic asset pricing model for the relative performance concern with heterogeneous beliefs in the framework of Nash equilibrium. In our model, the presence of heterogeneous beliefs generates the upward pressure on the stock market volatility and gives rise to the separation of agents’ perceived Sharpe ratios. We show that if one of the agents temporarily wins the market, the presence of relative performance concern will reduce the impacts of the winner and make the investors who have been edged out of the market more inclined to return. Besides, the sufficiently strong concern of relative performance will bring investors the extreme aversion to losing and get them to trade similarly.     

A Labor Capital Asset Pricing Model

We show that labor search frictions are an important determinant of the cross‐section of equity returns. Empirically, we find that firms with low loadings on labor market tightness outperform firms with high loadings by 6% annually. We propose a partial equilibrium labor market model in which heterogeneous firms make dynamic employment decisions under labor search frictions. In the model, loadings on labor market tightness proxy for priced time‐variation in the efficiency of the aggregate matching technology. Firms with low loadings are more exposed to adverse matching efficiency shocks and require higher expected stock returns.     

The Effects of Macroeconomic Factors on Pricing Mortgage Insurance Contracts

Numerous empirical studies, including Abraham and Hendershott (1996) , Muellbauer and Murphy (1997) , Leung (2004) , and Oikarinen (2009) , have identified a significant relationship between housing prices and macroeconomic factors. Using a linear regression on the comovement of macroeconomic factors and housing prices, this article employs an option‐pricing framework to price and hedge the fair premia of mortgage insurance (MI). Our model provides improved performance in terms of MI premium pricing, especially during periods that are characterized by high housing prices. Ignoring the impacts of macroeconomic factors on housing prices will lead to an underestimation of MI premia.     

LAPM: A Liquidity-Based Asset Pricing Model

The intertemporal CAPM predicts that an asset's price is equal to the expectation of the product of the asset's payoff and a representative consumer's intertemporal marginal rate of substitution. This paper develops an alternative approach to asset pricing based on corporations' desire to hoard liquidity. Our corporate finance approach suggests new determinants of asset prices such as the distribution of wealth within the corporate sector and between the corporate sector and the consumers. Also, leverage ratios, capital adequacy requirements, and the composition of savings affect the corporate demand for liquid assets and, thereby, interest rates.     

注册会计师职业责任保险合约的差异化定价与审计质量效应

注册会计师职业责任保险作为会计师事务所的一项风险分散机制,近年来受到我国政府主管部门和公共会计行业组织的关注.一方面,事务所购买注责险可能使审计人员的尽责程度下降,不利于审计质量的维护;另一方面,保险公司作为风险被转移方,有动机对高风险事务所加以约束,以避免审计失败对自身利益造成损失.基于近年来我国证券业务会计师事务所的注责险合约数据,我们发现保险公司对中小型证券所购买注责险收取了显著更高的保费,且更不倾向于与其签订特殊赔偿条款.双重差分模型结果显示,中小型证券所购买注责险后,审计调整(尤其是调减利润的审计调整)幅度显著提高.这些证据支持保险合约对高风险审计中介的治理功能.     

A Stochastic Correlation Model with Mean Reversion for Pricing Multi-Asset Options

We set up a new kind of model to price the multi-asset options. A square root process fluctuating around its mean value is introduced to describe the random evolution of correlation between two assets. In this stochastic correlation model with mean reversion term, the correlation is a random walk within the region from −1 to 1, and it is centered around its equilibrium value. The trading strategy to hedge the correlation risk is discussed. Since a solution of high-dimensional partial differential equation may be impossible, the Quasi-Monte Carlo and Monte Carlo methods are introduced to compute the multi-asset option price as well. Taking a better-of two asset rainbow as an example, we compare our results with the price obtained by the Black–Scholes model with constant correlation.     

基于期货理论的矿业权竞买定价模型研究

我国国有矿业权的交易基本上是通过拍卖的方式进行的,投资人在竞买过程中必须不断更新自己的报价.因此,需要一个利于调整各种参数的矿业权评价模型,或称竞买定价模型.竞买定价需要一个包含投资人期望收益率、无风险利率、投资方案、资源量期望与回采率等直接影响矿业投资项目价值的因素在内的综合定价模型,以期货定价理论为基础推导出来的模型满足了投资者对竞买定价的这些要求,它与贴现现金流量法有相似之处,更适应于采矿投资项目的评价.     

Pricing of Futures Contracts on Coupon Bonds: Empirical Evidence from Finland

This paper investigates the pricing of the two year old Finnish bond futures market. We show that the market has mispriced the futures contracts during the test period with the futures contracts being underpriced most of the time. We also measure whether the futures market has prediction power over the bond market. Our results suggest that there is a lead-lag relationship between the Finnish bond and the futures markets.     

A Note on Option Pricing for the Constant Elasticity of Variance Model

We study the arbitrage free optionpricing problem for the constant elasticity of variance (CEV) model. To treatthestochastic aspect of the CEV model, we direct attention to the relationship between the CEV modeland squared Bessel processes. Then we show the existence of a unique equivalentmartingale measure and derive the Cox's arbitrage free option pricing formulathrough the properties of squared Bessel processes. Finally we show that the CEVmodel admits arbitrage opportunities when it is conditioned to be strictlypositive.     

The Pricing of Futures and Options Contracts on the Value Line Index

This paper considers the problems peculiar to the Value Line Index, because of its use of geometric averaging, as regards the pricing of options and futures on that index. The Value Line Composite Index (VLCI) is an equally weighted geometric average index of nearly 1700 stocks. The VLCI futures market has existed since 1982 while the VLCI options market was established in 1985. This paper provides valuation formulas and analyzes the economic properties of these contracts. Because of the geometric averaging in the VLCI, its contingent claims have special properties. For example, the futures price may fall short of the spot price and the value of a VLCI call option may decline when the volatility of the index is increased. VLCI futures are shown to provide a direct means for duplicating an equally weighted portfolio of the underlying stocks.     

A Pricing Model for Residential Homes with Poisson Arrivals and a Sales Deadline

We introduce a pricing model for single-family residences on the real estate market. The model considers purchase offers that arrive according to a Poisson process. The homeowner’s problem is to set a price that will maximize his net profit. The selling agent suggests a price to the homeowner that will maximize her net profit, which consists of her sales commission minus her costs. Our model accounts for a deadline to sell the home, a common feature of the housing market, beyond which fixed and variable penalty costs accrue to both the homeowner and selling agent. We demonstrate the behavior of the model and show under what conditions the owner’s and agent’s incentives are aligned. Our computational results suggest, in most circumstances, that agents should not pressure owners to substantially lower their asking prices in the presence of a deadline.     

Pricing Derivatives in Zone Model

In this paper, we propose a new interest rate model with a zone as ageneralization of C.I.R. model. Using a perturbation method, we can have anapproximation price of interest derivatives in our model.     

A Cross-Sectional Empirical Test of a Dual-State Multi-Factor Pricing Model

During empirical testing of the Capital Asset Pricing Model an assumption is typically made that risk is intertemporally constant. However, prior research finds that risk changes over time. We empirically test a conditional dual-state cross-sectional model allowing risk to change through prior identification of different market and economic states. We examine relationships between returns and conditional market and economic-factor betas, size, book-to-market equity, and earnings-price ratios. We find that relationships shift across regimes, suggesting the importance of a conditional, as opposed to unconditional, model. Relationships also change in January.