In this book the relation between the characteristics of investors' preferences and expectations and equilibrium asset price processes are analysed. It is shown that declining elasticity of the pricing kernel can lead to positive serial correlation of short term asset returns and negative serial correlation of long term returns. Analytical asset price processes are also derived. In contrast to the widely used "empirical" time-series models these processes do not lack a sound economic foundation. Moreover, in contrast to the popular Ornstein Uhlenbeck process and the Constant Elasticity of Variance model the proposed stochastic processes are consistent with a classical representative investor economy.

An introduction to the theory and methods of empirical asset pricing, integrating classical foundations with recent developments. This book offers a comprehensive advanced introduction to asset pricing, the study of models for the prices and returns of various securities. The focus is empirical, emphasizing how the models relate to the data. The book offers a uniquely integrated treatment, combining classical foundations with more recent developments in the literature and relating some of the material to applications in investment management. It covers the theory of empirical asset pricing, the main empirical methods, and a range of applied topics. The book introduces the theory of empirical asset pricing through three main paradigms: mean variance analysis, stochastic discount factors, and beta pricing models. It describes empirical methods, beginning with the generalized method of moments (GMM) and viewing other methods as special cases of GMM; offers a comprehensive review of fund performance evaluation; and presents selected applied topics, including a substantial chapter on predictability in asset markets that covers predicting the level of returns, volatility and higher moments, and predicting cross-sectional differences in returns. Other chapters cover production-based asset pricing, long-run risk models, the Campbell-Shiller approximation, the debate on covariance versus characteristics, and the relation of volatility to the cross-section of stock returns. An extensive reference section captures the current state of the field. The book is intended for use by graduate students in finance and economics; it can also serve as a reference for professionals.

'The book is an ideal complement to existing monographs on financial risk management. The reader will benefit from a standard background in no-arbitrage pricing. A tour of risk types and risk management principles is presented in a terse, no-fuss manner. Plenty of pointers to additional literature are given, allowing the interested reader to go deeper into any of the topics presented.'Newsletter of the Bachelier Finance Society The Economic Foundations of Risk Management presents the theory, the practice, and applies this knowledge to provide a forensic analysis of some well-known risk management failures. By doing so, this book introduces a unified framework for understanding how to manage the risk of an individual's or corporation's or financial institution's assets and liabilities. The book is divided into five parts. The first part studies the markets and the assets and liabilities that trade therein. Markets are differentiated based on whether they are competitive or not, frictionless or not (and the type of friction), and actively traded or not. Assets are divided into two types: primary assets and financial derivatives. The second part studies models for determining the risks of the traded assets. Models provided include the Black-Scholes-Merton, the Heath-Jarrow-Morton, and the reduced form model for credit risk. Liquidity risk, operational risk, and trading constraint models are also contained therein. The third part studies the conceptual solution to an individual's, firm's, and bank's risk management problem. This formulation involves solving a complex dynamic programming problem that cannot be applied in practice. Consequently, Part IV investigates how risk management is actually done in practice via the use of diversification, static hedging, and dynamic hedging. Finally, Part V applies these collective insights to six case studies, which are famous risk management failures. These are Penn Square Bank, Metallgesellschaft, Orange County, Barings Bank, Long Term Capital Management, and Washington Mutual. The credit crisis is also discussed to understand how risk management failed for many institutions and why.

Winner of the prestigious Paul A. Samuelson Award for scholarly writing on lifelong financial security, John Cochrane's Asset Pricing now appears in a revised edition that unifies and brings the science of asset pricing up to date for advanced students and professionals. Cochrane traces the pricing of all assets back to a single idea—price equals expected discounted payoff—that captures the macro-economic risks underlying each security's value. By using a single, stochastic discount factor rather than a separate set of tricks for each asset class, Cochrane builds a unified account of modern asset pricing. He presents applications to stocks, bonds, and options. Each model—consumption based, CAPM, multifactor, term structure, and option pricing—is derived as a different specification of the discounted factor. The discount factor framework also leads to a state-space geometry for mean-variance frontiers and asset pricing models. It puts payoffs in different states of nature on the axes rather than mean and variance of return, leading to a new and conveniently linear geometrical representation of asset pricing ideas. Cochrane approaches empirical work with the Generalized Method of Moments, which studies sample average prices and discounted payoffs to determine whether price does equal expected discounted payoff. He translates between the discount factor, GMM, and state-space language and the beta, mean-variance, and regression language common in empirical work and earlier theory. The book also includes a review of recent empirical work on return predictability, value and other puzzles in the cross section, and equity premium puzzles and their resolution. Written to be a summary for academics and professionals as well as a textbook, this book condenses and advances recent scholarship in financial economics.

The book presents models for the pricing of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and options. The models are formulated and analyzed using concepts and techniques from mathematics and probability theory. It presents important classic models and some recent 'state-of-the-art' models that outperform the classics.

Bonds without Borders tells the extraordinary story of how the market developed into the principal source of international finance for sovereign states, supranational agencies, financial institutions and companies around the world. Written by Chris O'Malley – a veteran practitioner and Eurobond market expert- this important resource describes the developments, the evolving market practices, the challenges and the innovations in the Eurobond market during its first half- century. Also, uniquely, the book recounts the development of security and banking regulations and their impact on the development of the international securities markets. In a corporate world crying out for financing, never has an understanding of the international bond markets and how they work been more important.Bonds without Bordersis therefore essential reading for those interested in economic development and preserving a free global market for capital.

Economic growth, low inflation, and financial stability are among the most important goals of policy makers, and central banks such as the Federal Reserve are key institutions for achieving these goals. In Asset Prices and Monetary Policy, leading scholars and practitioners probe the interaction of central banks, asset markets, and the general economy to forge a new understanding of the challenges facing policy makers as they manage an increasingly complex economic system. The contributors examine how central bankers determine their policy prescriptions with reference to the fluctuating housing market, the balance of debt and credit, changing beliefs of investors, the level of commodity prices, and other factors. At a time when the public has never been more involved in stocks, retirement funds, and real estate investment, this insightful book will be useful to all those concerned with the current state of the economy.