The focus of this volume is on the development of new approaches for the market-conform valuation of newly issued derivatives. The first chapter presents a flexible approach to construct the binomial process of the underlying asset price by using a simultaneously backward and forward induction algorithm. This framework can be used to price and hedge a wide range of plain-vanilla and exotic options. In the second chapter this new approach is compared to existing models using a sample of plain-vanilla options, American call options and European Barrier options from two competing markets. In the third chapter new methods to value American-style options via Monte Carlo simulations in accordance with given market prices are discussed. After a short introduction to Monte Carlo methods, two new approaches are proposed. These new frameworks are illustrated via pricing examples for standard American put options.

Economists do more than merely describe an external economic world. They shape it in the image of their theories and models. This idea, following the philosophy of language, puts forward that economic theories are performative, and not only descriptive. This idea has become a powerful critique of the scientificity of economics since it removes the idea of an external world against which our description could be evaluated as truth. If any theory can become true, there are no true theories per se because there is no such thing as a pre-existing economy to describe. Is such a relativist stance a fatality? This is the question at stake in this book. Furthermore, the author asks if any theory is able to ‘perform’ the social reality, or are there actually some limits to performativity? For philosophers, a performative statement is a statement that cannot fail to mean something, but can fail to do what it calls for. The state of the world may or may not be changed; the performative statement may be happy or unhappy. In economic terms, this can be interpreted as: some theories change the world while some do not. This book argues that this possibility of failure, a perspective previously missing from discussions on the subject, should be at the heart of any definition of failure. Taking on the question of why some theories change the world while others do not, this volume will be of interest to those studying advances courses on the philosophy of economics as well as those studying and researching in the areas of the philosophy of sciences and sociology of science and economics.

This collection of original articles—8 years in the making—shines a bright light on recent advances in financial econometrics. From a survey of mathematical and statistical tools for understanding nonlinear Markov processes to an exploration of the time-series evolution of the risk-return tradeoff for stock market investment, noted scholars Yacine Aït-Sahalia and Lars Peter Hansen benchmark the current state of knowledge while contributors build a framework for its growth. Whether in the presence of statistical uncertainty or the proven advantages and limitations of value at risk models, readers will discover that they can set few constraints on the value of this long-awaited volume. - Presents a broad survey of current research—from local characterizations of the Markov process dynamics to financial market trading activity - Contributors include Nobel Laureate Robert Engle and leading econometricians - Offers a clarity of method and explanation unavailable in other financial econometrics collections

Decision-makers in business and economics face a staggering array of problems. For example, managers of growing firms have to decide when to expand their business, governments have to decide whether to undertake large infrastructure investments, and managers of oil firms must decide how rapidly to deplete their reserves. While these problems seem quite diverse, they all share many important features. In each case, the decision-maker must choose when to take a particular action that will be potentially impossible to reverse, and the consequences of taking (or not taking) that action are uncertain. Also, the timing and nature of these actions directly affect the cash flows generated by the entities they manage. This book explains how techniques originally developed to price financial derivatives can be used to analyze real-world decisions, and provides the tools necessary to put them into practice. The real options analysis approach to decision-making is built on strong theoretical foundations, and is widely discussed in practitioner literature, but often only at a fairly intuitive level. What practitioners need-and what this book delivers-is a structured approach to systematically applying real options analysis to the wide variety of problems they will meet in business and economics. Real Options in Theory and Practice focuses on building up a general approach to solving real options problems from the ground up. Rather than aiming to build a "black box" to solve a small set of standardized real options problems, it describes the building blocks of any successful real options analysis and shows how they can be assembled in a way that is appropriate to the problem being analyzed. For both practitioners and academics, Real Options in Theory and Practice will serve as an authoritative and invaluable resource for those looking for effective and practical solutions to complex, real-life problems.

This book covers the classical results on single-period, discrete-time, and continuous-time models of portfolio choice and asset pricing. It also treats asymmetric information, production models, various proposed explanations for the equity premium puzzle, and topics important for behavioral finance.

Who could have predicted that the S ́ eminaire de Probabilit ́ es would reach the age of 40? This long life is ?rst due to the vitality of the French probabil- tic school, for which the S ́ eminaire remains one of the most speci?c media of exchange. Another factor is the amount of enthusiasm, energy and time invested year after year by the R ́ edacteurs: Michel Ledoux dedicated himself tothistaskuptoVolumeXXXVIII,andMarcYormadehisnameinseparable from the S ́ eminaire by devoting himself to it during a quarter of a century. Browsing among the past volumes can only give a faint glimpse of how much is owed to them; keeping up with the standard they have set is a challenge to the new R ́ edaction. In a changing world where the status of paper and ink is questioned and where, alas, pressure for publishing is increasing, in particular among young mathematicians, we shall try and keep the same direction. Although most contributions are anonymously refereed, the S ́ eminaire is not a mathema- cal journal; our ?rst criterion is not mathematical depth, but usefulness to the French and international probabilistic community. We do not insist that everything published in these volumes should have reached its ?nal form or be original, and acceptance–rejection may not be decided on purely scienti?c grounds.