This pa per suggests a simple method based on Chebyshev approximation at Chebyshev nodes to approximate partial differential equations. The methodology simply consists in determining the value function by using a set of nodes and basis functions. We provide two examples. Pricing an European option and determining the best policy for chatting down a machinery. The suggested method is flexible, e...

The relation between physical probabilities (rating) and risk-neutral probabilities (pricing) is derived in a large market with a quasi-factor structure. Factor sensitivities and default probabilities can be estimated for all kinds of credits on historical rating data. Since factor prices are obtainable from market data, the model allows the pricing of non-marketable credits and structured prod...

By introducing repo markets we understand how agents need to borrow issued securities before shorting them: (re)-hypothecation is at the heart of shorting. Non-negative amounts of securities in the box of an agent (amounts borrowed or owned but not lent on) can be sold, and recursive use of securities as collateral allows agents to leverage their positions. A binding box constraint induces a li...

This paper tests whether traders react more strongly as a series of similar earnings surprises continues, as predicted by several important behavioral finance models. We compile measures of buying and selling from NYSE TAQ data for a large ten-year sample. Results show strong, consistent, evidence that small traders exhibit an increasing reaction – with significant increases in reaction strengt...

This paper presents a regime-switching model of the yield curve with two states. One is a normal state, the other is a zero-bound state that represents the case when the monetary policy target rate is at its zero lower bound for a prolonged period. The model delivers estimates of the time-varying probability of exiting the zero-bound state, and it outperforms standard threeand four-factor term ...

The paper presents a bivariate SVAR model including growth rates of industrial production and of stock prices. Imposing a long-run restriction à la Blanchard and Quah (1989) that excludes long-run influences of the stock market on real activity allows to decompose stock prices in a fundamental and a nonfundamental component. The results of the forecast error variance decompositions as well as o...

Recent research has documented the existence of common factors in individual asset’s idiosyncratic variances or squared idiosyncratic returns. We provide an Arbitrage Pricing Theory that leads to a linear factor structure for prices of squared excess returns. This pricing representation allows us to study the interplay of factors at the return level with those in idiosyncratic variances. We doc...

We examine the impact of risk-based portfolio constraints on asset prices in an exchange economy. We show that constrained agents scale down their portfolio and behave locally like power utility investors with risk aversion that depends on current market conditions. In contrast to previous results in the literature, we show that the imposition of constraints dampens fundamental shocks, challeng...

We analyze a simple sunspot model that represents a standard securities market without sidebets on an exogenous sunspot event. The multiple self–fulfilling equilibria that arise in the model are based on investors’ uncertainty about other investors’ beliefs. Hence, these multiple equilibria are “endogenous sunspots.” We show that endogenous sunspots can arise even with complete markets to which...

We evaluate predictive regressions that explicitly consider the time-variation of coefficients in a comprehensive Bayesian framework. This allows for fast and consistent adjustment of regression coefficients to changes in the underlying economic relationships (e.g., changes in the regulatory environment) as we document explicitly for the coefficient of the dividend yield. For monthly returns of...