Benchmarking in two price financial markets

No arbitrage for two price economies with no locally risk free asset implies that suitably benchmarked prices are nonlinear martingales. However, both the benchmarking asset and the measure change depend on the process being benchmarked. Further assumptions allow the nonlinear martingales in discrete time to become expectations with respect to a nonadditivity probability. Such nonlinear expectations are imminently reasonable given the lack of experience with tail events on both sides of the gain loss spectrum. Continuous time extensions employ measure distortions. The general valuation of economic activities and the leveraging of stability in benchmarked price processes is then addressed. Traditional asset pricing questions and investigations are then reopened for benchmarked prices. In particular, the analytics for benchmarked option pricing and the asset pricing theory for benchmarked prices in a limiting stationary state are developed.     

Dynamics of international financial networks with risk management

In this paper, we develop an international financialnetwork model in which the sources of funds and the intermediaries are multicriteria decision-makers and are concerned with both net revenue maximization and risk minimization. The model allows for both physical as well as electronic transactions and considers three tiers of decision-makers who may be located in distinct countries and may conduct their transactions in different currencies. We describe the behaviour of the various decision-makers, along with their optimality conditions, and derive the variational inequality formulation of the governing equilibrium conditions. We then propose a dynamic adjustment process which yields the evolution of the financial flows and prices and demonstrate that it can be formulated as a projected dynamical system. We also provide qualitative properties including stability analysis results. Finally, we discuss a discrete-time algorithm which can be applied to track the dynamic trajectories and yields the equilibrium financial flows and prices. We illustrate both the modelling framework as well as the computational procedure with several numerical international financial network examples.     

Chief financial officer overconfidence and stock price crash risk

Numerous studies have shown the prevalence of overconfidence among Chief Financial Officers (CFOs). Surprisingly, the real effect of CFO overconfidence is under-researched. Using data from a large sample of US-listed firms over the period 1993–2019 and adopting an eclectic theoretical approach, we find that overconfident CFOs are more likely to increase stock price crash risk than non-overconfident CFOs through risk-taking and bad news hoarding. These findings pass a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, departing from most overconfident studies that merely examine one type of top managers (i.e., Chief Executive Officer (CEO)), we consider the influence of CEO and CFO overconfidence jointly. Interestingly, we find that CFO overconfidence outweighs CEO overconfidence in influencing stock price crash risk. Moreover, the overconfidence effect is intensified when overconfident CFOs collaborate with overconfident CEOs, thus raising stock price crash risk. However, stronger governance and a transparent information environment constrain overconfident CFOs' effect on stock price crash risk. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of CFO overconfidence in determining stock return tail risks.     

Asset pricing theory for two price economies

We show that nonlinearly discounted nonlinear martingales are related to no arbitrage in two price economies as linearly discounted martingales were related to no arbitrage in economies satisfying the law of one price. Furthermore, assuming risk acceptability requires a positive physical expectation, we demonstrate that expected rates of return on ask prices should be dominated by expected rates of return on bid prices. A preliminary investigation conducted here, supports this hypothesis. In general we observe that asset pricing theory in two price economies leads to asset pricing inequalities. A model incorporating both nonlinear discounting and nonlinear martingales is developed for the valuation of contingent claims in two price economies. Examples illustrate the interactions present between the severity of measure changes and their associated discount rates. As a consequence arbitrage free two price economies can involve unique discount curves and measure changes that are however specific to both the product being priced and the trade direction. Furthermore the developed valuation operators call into question the current practice of Debt Valuation Adjustments.     

A general equilibrium model of changing risk premia: theory and tests

We derive and test a dynamic discrete-time model of asset returns.Both the risks of individual securities and equilibrium riskpremia change predictably in the model, but these changes canbe attributed to movements in the returns and prices of onlytwo well-diversified portfolios. Any other components of returnsshould be unpredictable. Using the generalized method of moments,the model is estimated and tested on portfolios of equities.We find the data supportive of the model's restrictions, evenwhen instruments designed to capture the January effect areemployed.     

The dispositif of risk management: Reconstructing risk management after the financial crisis

Despite its dubious role during the global financial crisis of 2008, risk management has continued its expansion. This paper addresses the question why risk management, in the face of its evident failure to manage risks during the crisis, has retained its importance even today. We build on the existing critical literature on risk management (Power, 2007) and advance it by introducing a more rigorous consideration of power. We refer to the notion of the “permanent state of exception” as conceptualized by the Italian social theorist Giorgio Agamben, 1998, Agamben, 2005 in order to argue that risk is a powerful social category as it reflects a potential exception, challenging norms as well as normalizing forms of control. We conclude that a dispositif of risk management, an assemblage of institutions, regulations and models, lies at the heart of risk management. This dispositif provides elites engaged in risk management with an argument that allows them – in exceptional situations – to take extraordinary measures which cannot be rescinded after the initial state of exception has ended. The logic of the state of exception can be used as a discursive resource and adds to, but also gradually replaces, other forms of management control. Our study contributes to management control theory by focusing on post-disciplinary forms of control and provides a novel focus on how elites use management control systems for their own interests.     

危机之下问道金融创新与风险管理

盛世华彩,国之华诞!新中国成立60周年之际,各行各业相继推出各色国庆主题产品和活动,共同见证这不平凡的时刻.我国的信用卡行业从无到有,取得了辉煌的成绩:截至2009年第二季度末,我国累计发行银行卡197 953.62万张,其中,信用卡发卡量为16 261.51万张.乘盛世之光烘托盛世,借发展之际纪念发展--中国信用卡行业发行以歌颂祖国、体现建国60年来建设成果为主题的信用卡,推出一系列优惠活动为伟大祖国60周年献礼.     

现代金融风险管理的发展与挑战

风险管理已成为人类文明进步的标志 以前,金融风险在人们眼里是事后的问题,就是处理损失与不良资产,这种对于风险的认识已经持续了很长时间.伴随着这些年风险管理的发展,很多人已开始把风险的概念回归到它正确的位置.但是,西方教科书里比较常见的对于风险的定义,损失的可能性、波动性以及不确定性这三个概念,目前仍然没有一个版本能够统一人们对于金融风险的认识.     

Applying CVaR for decentralized risk management of financial companies

Over the past decade, financial companies have merged diverse areas including investment banking, insurance, retail banking, and trading operations. Despite this diversity, many global financial firms suffered severe losses during the recent recession. To reduce enterprise risks and increase profits, we apply a decentralized risk management strategy based on a stochastic optimization model. We extend the decentralized approach with the CVaR risk-metric, showing the advantages of CVaR over traditional risk measures such as value-at-risk. An example taken from the earthquake insurance area illustrates the concepts.     

Enterprise risk management in financial groups: analysis of risk concentration and default risk

In financial groups, enterprise risk management is becoming increasingly important in controlling and managing the different independent legal entities in the group. The aim of this paper is to assess and relate risk concentration and joint default probabilities of the group’s legal entities in order to achieve a more comprehensive picture of a financial group’s risk situation. We further examine the impact of the type of dependence structure on results by comparing linear and nonlinear dependencies using different copula concepts under certain distributional assumptions. Our results show that even if financial groups with different dependence structures do have the same risk concentration factor, joint default probabilities of different sets of subsidiaries can vary tremendously.

A new measure of cross-sectional risk and its empirical implications for portfolio risk management

Litterman et al. [Litterman, R., Scheinkman, J., Weiss, L., 1991. Volatility and the yield curve. Journal of Fixed Income 1 (June), 49–53] and Engle and Ng [Engle, R.F., Ng, V.K., 1993. Time-varying volatility and the dynamic behavior of the term structure. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 25(3), 336–349] provide empirical evidence of a relation between yield curve shape and volatility. This study offers theoretical support for that finding in the general context of cross-sectional time series. We introduce a new risk measure quantifying the link between cross-sectional shape and market risk. A simple econometric procedure allows us to represent the risk experienced by cross-sections over a time period in terms of independent factors reproducing possible cross-sectional deformations. We compare our risk measure to the traditional cross-yield covariance according to their relative performance. Empirical investigation in the US interest rate market shows that (1) cross-shape risk factors outperform cross-yield risk factors (i.e., yield curve level, slope, and convexity) in explaining the market risk of yield curve dynamics; (2) hedging multiple liabilities against cross-shape risk delivers superior trading strategies compared to those stemming from cross-yield risk management.     

完善风险管理推动金融创新

2007年发端于美国次贷危机的全球性金融危机,给全球金融机构带来了惨重的损失.根据彭博(Bloomberg)公司的统计,2008年全球金融资产缩水达到50万亿美元,相当于全球一年GDP的总量.当前随着全球经济的逐渐复苏,席卷全球的金融危机似乎正在渐渐远去,中国金融机构如何从中总结经验、吸取教训,并转变为金融创新的动力?在2009年9月2～5日北京举办的第十届中国金融发展论坛"金融危机背景下的金融创新与风险防范"的主题论坛上,中国人民银行、中国银行业监督管理委员会及中国工商银行、中国农业银行、中国建设银行等来自监管部门和商业银行的多位嘉宾,从不同的角度对这一话题展开了多方诠释.     

基于金融衍生工具视角的长寿风险管理

长寿风险已成为养老保障发展所面临的重要风险,而作为养老保障产品供给者的政府、年金和寿险公司等机构难以持续、有效地管理长寿风险。本文在分析长寿风险发展态势和现有管理方案的缺陷后,研究了最近的长寿风险管理工具创新及其发展动向,即死亡率巨灾债券、EIB/BNP长寿债券和远期等,并在此基础上分析了基于资本市场的长寿/死亡率风险相关衍生品设计与交易,包括长寿债券、死亡率互换、死亡率期货和死亡率期权,最后是长寿/死亡率衍生品交易市场建设的启示。     

Optimal and equilibrium execution strategies with generalized price impact

This paper examines the execution problems of large traders with a generalized price impact. Constructing two related models in a discrete-time setting, we solve these problems by applying the backward induction method of dynamic programming. In the first problem, we formulate the expected utility maximization problem of a single large trader as a Markov decision process and derive an optimal execution strategy. Then, in the second model, we formulate the expected utility maximization problem of two large traders as a Markov game and derive an equilibrium execution strategy at a Markov perfect equilibrium. Both of these two models enable us to investigate how the execution strategies and trade performances of a large trader are affected by the existence of other traders. Moreover, we find that these optimal and equilibrium execution strategies become deterministic when the total execution volumes of non-large traders are deterministic. We also show, by some numerical examples, the comparative statics results with respect to several problem parameters.     

A theory of corporate financial decisions with liquidity and solvency concerns

This paper studies the impact of both liquidity and solvency concerns on corporate finance. I present a tractable model of a firm that optimally chooses capital structure, cash holdings, dividends, and default while facing cash flows with long-term uncertainty and short-term liquidity shocks. The model explains how changes in solvency affect liquidity and also how liquidity concerns affect solvency via capital structure choice. These interactions result in a dynamic cash policy in which cash reserves increase in profitability and are positively correlated with cash flows. The optimal dividend distributions implied by the model are smoothed relative to cash flows. I also find that liquidity concerns lead to a decrease of dispersion of credit spreads.     

Rational expectations equilibrium with transaction costs in financial markets

We obtain a closed-form solution to a rational expectations equilibrium model with transaction costs in the framework of Grossman and Stiglitz [1980. American Economic Review 70, 543–566]. Individual private information incorporated into prices is reduced due to suppressed trading activities by transaction costs. The fraction of informed traders in equilibrium increases (decreases) with transaction costs when the costs are low (high). The informativeness of prices decreases with transaction costs.     

美欧金融危机中CDS泡沫形成的原因与影响以及相关风险管理问题的思考

2007年以来的国际金融危机中,大规模的CDS合约交易起到了推波助澜的作用,放大了实际风险。然而,也不能完全否定CDS产品在促进金融衍生品市场繁荣,尤其是有效对冲风险中的重要作用。目前,国内已出现了引入CDS的相关研究。本文以欧美危机为鉴,就完善COS市场监管,以及国内引入CDS类似的产品后如何把握好金融监管与市场繁荣之间的平衡进行了相关思考,以期及早进行相应的制度设计,实现市场的良性发展。     

The price of risk and ambiguity in an intertemporal general equilibrium model of asset prices

We consider a version of the intertemporal general equilibrium model of Cox et?al. (Econometrica 53:363–384, 1985) with a single production process and two correlated state variables. It is assumed that only one of them, Y ₂, has shocks correlated with those of the economy’s output rate and, simultaneously, that the representative agent is ambiguous about its stochastic process. This implies that changes in Y ₂ should be hedged and its uncertainty priced, with this price containing risk and ambiguity components. Ambiguity impacts asset pricing through two channels: the price of uncertainty associated with the ambiguous state variable, Y ₂, and the interest rate. With ambiguity, the equilibrium price of uncertainty associated with Y ₂ and the equilibrium interest rate can increase or decrease, depending on: (i) the correlations between the shocks in Y ₂ and those in the output rate and in the other state variable; (ii) the diffusion functions of the stochastic processes for Y ₂ and for the output rate; and (iii) the gradient of the value function with respect to Y ₂. As applications of our generic setting, we deduct the model of Longstaff and Schwartz (J Financ 47:1259–1282, 1992) for interest-rate-sensitive contingent claim pricing and the variance-risk price specification in the option pricing model of Heston (Rev Financ Stud 6:327–343, 1993). Additionally, it is obtained a variance-uncertainty price specification that can be used to obtain a closed-form solution for option pricing with ambiguity about stochastic variance.     

Corporate risk management and dividend signaling theory

This article investigates the effect of corporate risk management on dividend policy. We extend the signaling framework of Bhattacharya [1979. Bell Journal of Economics 10, 259–270] by including the possibility of hedging the future cash flow. We find that the higher the hedging level, the lower the incremental dividend. This result is intuitive. It is in line with studies suggesting that cash flows’ predictability decreases the marginal gain from costly signaling through dividends and the assertion that corporate hedging decreases cash flow volatility. It is also in line with the purported positive relation between information asymmetry and dividend policy (e.g., Miller and Rock [1985. The Journal of Finance 40, 1031–1051]) and the assertion that risk management alleviates the information asymmetry problem (e.g., DaDalt et al. [2002. The Journal of Future Markets 22, 261–267]). Our theoretical model has testable implications.     

A theory of price limits in futures markets

The existence of price limits in certain futures markets is explained by demonstrating that price limits may act as a partial substitute for margin requirements in ensuring contract performance. Their effectiveness is a decreasing function of the amount of information available to traders about the equilibrium futures price which is unobservable in the event of a limit move, and the theory predicts that no limits will exist in the markets for financial futures. Actual limits are broadly consistent with the theory.“His interpretation…, plausible as it was, was totally misleading, with the dangerous verisimilitude of a theory which will fit all, or nearly all, the facts, and yet more entirely miss the truth, by a mere accident, then would a frank perplexity.” Heritage, V. Sackville-West