Many continuous time term structure of interest rate models assume a factor structure where the drift and volatility functions are affine functions of the state variable process. These models involve very specific parametric choices of factors and functional specifications of the drift and...

Understanding the dynamics of interest rates and the term structure has important implications for issues as diverse as real economic activity, monetary policy, pricing of interest rate derivative securities and public debt financing. Our paper follows a longstanding tradition of using factor...

This paper proposes a new nonparametric test for conditional independence, which is based on the comparison of Bernstein copula densities using the Hellinger distance. The test is easy to implement because it does not involve a weighting function in the test statistic, and it can be applied in...

In this paper we propose a generic procedure for estimating and pricing options in the context of stochastic volatility models using simultaneously the fundamental price and a set of option contracts. We appraise univariate and multivariate estimation of the model in terms of pricing and hedging...

Unlike European-type derivative securities, there are no simple analytic valuation formulas for American options, even when the underlying asset price has constant volatility. The early exercise feature considerably complicates the valuation of American contracts. The strategy taken in this...

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new class of jump diffusions which feature both stochastic volatility and random intensity jumps. Previous studies have focussed primarily on pure jump processes with constant intensity and log-normal jumps or constant jump intensity combined with a one...

This paper exploits the natural link between observed wages and productivity that is inherent in piece-rate wage data to estimate worker productivity profiles. Piece-rate wages are functions of the parameters of the compensation system and worker effort. Identifying productivity from such data...

In this paper, we survey some of the recent nonparametric estimation methods which were developed to price derivative contracts. We focus on equity options and start with a so-called model-free approach which incolves very little financial theory. Next we discuss nonparametric and...

In this paper, we consider American option contracts when the underlying asset has stochastic dividends and stochastic volatility. We provide a full discussion of the theoretical foundations of American option valuation and exercise boundaries. We show how they depend on the various sources of...