24,401 research outputs found
Dual representations for general multiple stopping problems
In this paper, we study the dual representation for generalized multiple
stopping problems, hence the pricing problem of general multiple exercise
options. We derive a dual representation which allows for cashflows which are
subject to volume constraints modeled by integer valued adapted processes and
refraction periods modeled by stopping times. As such, this extends the works
by Schoenmakers (2010), Bender (2011a), Bender (2011b), Aleksandrov and Hambly
(2010), and Meinshausen and Hambly (2004) on multiple exercise options, which
either take into consideration a refraction period or volume constraints, but
not both simultaneously. We also allow more flexible cashflow structures than
the additive structure in the above references. For example some exponential
utility problems are covered by our setting. We supplement the theoretical
results with an explicit Monte Carlo algorithm for constructing confidence
intervals for the price of multiple exercise options and exemplify it by a
numerical study on the pricing of a swing option in an electricity market.Comment: This is an updated version of WIAS preprint 1665, 23 November 201
From Black-Scholes to Online Learning: Dynamic Hedging under Adversarial Environments
We consider a non-stochastic online learning approach to price financial
options by modeling the market dynamic as a repeated game between the nature
(adversary) and the investor. We demonstrate that such framework yields
analogous structure as the Black-Scholes model, the widely popular option
pricing model in stochastic finance, for both European and American options
with convex payoffs. In the case of non-convex options, we construct
approximate pricing algorithms, and demonstrate that their efficiency can be
analyzed through the introduction of an artificial probability measure, in
parallel to the so-called risk-neutral measure in the finance literature, even
though our framework is completely adversarial. Continuous-time convergence
results and extensions to incorporate price jumps are also presented
Empirical analysis of countervailing power in business-to-business bargaining
This paper provides a comprehensive econometric framework for the empirical analysis of countervailing power. It encompasses the two main features of pricing schemes in business-to-business relationships: nonlinear price schedules and bargaining over rents. Disentangling them is critical to the empirical identification of countervailing power. Testable predictions from the theoretical analysis for a pragmatic reduced form empirical pricing model are delineated. This model is readily implementable on the basis of transaction data, routinely collected by antitrust authorities and illustrated using data from the UK brick industry. The paper emphasizes the importance of controlling for endogeneity of volumes and established supply chains and for heterogeneity across buyers and sellers due to intrinsically unobservable outside options
Governance arrangements for state owned enterprises
The aim of this paper is to shed new light on key challenges in governance arrangements for state owned enterprises in infrastructure sectors. The paper provides guidelines on how to classify the fuzzy and sometimes conflicting development goals of infrastructure and the governance arrangements needed to reach such goals. Three policy recommendations emerge. First, some of the structures implied by internationally adopted principles of corporate governance for state owned enterprises favoring a centralized ownership function versus a decentralized or dual structure have not yet been sufficiently"tested"in practice and may not suit all developing countries. Second, general corporate governance guidelines (and policy recommendations) need to be carefully adapted to infrastructure sectors, particularly in the natural monopoly segments. Because the market structure and regulatory arrangements in which state owned enterprises operate matters, governments may want to distinguish the state owned enterprises operating in potentially competitive sectors from the ones under a natural monopoly structure. Competition provides not only formidable benefits, but also unique opportunities for benchmarking, increasing transparency and accountability. Third, governments may want to avoid partial fixes, by tackling both the internal and external governance factors. Focusing only on one of the governance dimensions is unlikely to improve SOE performance in a sustainable way.National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Debt Markets,Public Sector Expenditure Analysis&Management
Fast Estimation of True Bounds on Bermudan Option Prices under Jump-diffusion Processes
Fast pricing of American-style options has been a difficult problem since it
was first introduced to financial markets in 1970s, especially when the
underlying stocks' prices follow some jump-diffusion processes. In this paper,
we propose a new algorithm to generate tight upper bounds on the Bermudan
option price without nested simulation, under the jump-diffusion setting. By
exploiting the martingale representation theorem for jump processes on the dual
martingale, we are able to explore the unique structure of the optimal dual
martingale and construct an approximation that preserves the martingale
property. The resulting upper bound estimator avoids the nested Monte Carlo
simulation suffered by the original primal-dual algorithm, therefore
significantly improves the computational efficiency. Theoretical analysis is
provided to guarantee the quality of the martingale approximation. Numerical
experiments are conducted to verify the efficiency of our proposed algorithm
Robust pricing--hedging duality for American options in discrete time financial markets
We investigate pricing-hedging duality for American options in discrete time
financial models where some assets are traded dynamically and others, e.g. a
family of European options, only statically. In the first part of the paper we
consider an abstract setting, which includes the classical case with a fixed
reference probability measure as well as the robust framework with a
non-dominated family of probability measures. Our first insight is that by
considering a (universal) enlargement of the space, we can see American options
as European options and recover the pricing-hedging duality, which may fail in
the original formulation. This may be seen as a weak formulation of the
original problem. Our second insight is that lack of duality is caused by the
lack of dynamic consistency and hence a different enlargement with dynamic
consistency is sufficient to recover duality: it is enough to consider
(fictitious) extensions of the market in which all the assets are traded
dynamically. In the second part of the paper we study two important examples of
robust framework: the setup of Bouchard and Nutz (2015) and the martingale
optimal transport setup of Beiglb\"ock et al. (2013), and show that our general
results apply in both cases and allow us to obtain pricing-hedging duality for
American options.Comment: 29 page
Empirical analysis of countervailing power in business-to-business bargaining
This paper provides a comprehensive econometric framework for the empirical analysis of countervailing power. It encompasses the two main features of pricing schemes in business-to-business relationships: nonlinear price
schedules and bargaining over rents. Disentangling them is critical to the empirical identification of countervailing power. Testable predictions from the theoretical analysis are delineated, and a pragmatic empirical methodology
is presented. It is readily implementable on the basis of transaction data, routinely collected by antitrust authorities. The empirical framework is illustrated using data from the UK brick industry. The paper emphasizes the
importance of controlling for endogeneity of volumes and for heterogeneity across buyers and sellers
Empirical analysis of countervailing power in business-to-business bargaining
This paper provides a comprehensive econometric framework for the empirical analysis of countervailing power. It encompasses the two main features of pricing schemes in business-to-business relationships: nonlinear price schedules and bargaining over rents. Disentangling them is critical to the empirical identiļ¬cation of countervailing power. Testable predictions from the theoretical analysis for a pragmatic reduced form empirical pricing model are delineated. This model is readily implementable on the basis of transaction data, routinely collected by antitrust authorities and illustrated using data from the UK brick industry. The paper emphasizes the importance of controlling for endogeneity of volumes and established supply chains and for heterogeneity across buyers and sellers due to intrinsically unobservable outside options.
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