We investigate the cross-section of option returns using a model-free approach, by constructing a stochastic discount factor (SDF) that features minimal variance and accounts for frictions. We find that incorporating transaction costs in the form of bid-ask spreads is essential in order to...

Canonical theories of trading assume that financial asset payoffs are linear in their fundamentals.This study argues that the nonlinearity of equity and corporate bond payoffs (by virtue of their issuer’s solvency) has novel, important effects on their price formation. We show that informed...

We develop Residual MisPricing (RMP), an index capturing mispricing relative to a linear benchmark asset pricing model, from the structure imposed by no-arbitrage. RMP is fully conditional and depends only on the returns of basic assets. Return data for several economies reveal that RMP is...

I study the degree of market integration between U.S. corporate bonds and stocks of their issuers. I document that trading costs and short-selling constraints, which are often imposed on market participants, regularize optimal Sharpe ratio portfolios. These novel trading frictions are consistent...

We provide a theoretical framework to uncover in a model-free way the relationship between international stochastic discount factors (SDFs), stochastic wedges, and financial market structures. Exchange rates are in general different from the ratio of international SDFs in incomplete markets, as...