We show that if an agent is uncertain about the precise form of his utility function, his actual relative risk aversion may depend on wealth even if he knows his utility function lies in the class of constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility functions. We illustrate the consequences of this...

We study the optimal insurance demand in the μ,σ space when the decision-maker faces a first-order risk increase. In particular, we investigate the effect of an increase in the expected damage when the variance is held constant. An unambiguous result is derived on insurance demand that differs...

We propose a model to assess the credit risk features of fixed income portfolios assuming they can be characterized by two parameters: their default probability and their default correlation. We rely on explicit expressions to assess their credit risk and demonstrate the benefits of our approach...

Ambiguity aversion has been suggested as a potential explanation for the equity premium puzzle in recent theoretical models. To test this hypothesis, we measure the amount of ambiguity aversion in a large-scale international survey. A comparison to the average equity premia in these countries...

This note examines a numerical approach for computing American option prices in the lognormal jump–diffusion context. The approach uses the known transition density of the process to build a discrete-time, homogenous Markov chain to approximate the target jump–diffusion process. Numerical...

We test the accuracy and hedging performance of the deltas given by a range of nonparametric measure changes. The nonparametric models accurately estimate deltas across a number of asset price dynamics. The optimal nonparametric measure change displays superior estimation bias, which depends on...

In the mean–variance framework, insurance demand goes down when the expected size of insurable losses decreases or insurance premia increase if the elasticity of risk aversion with respect to expected wealth exceeds -1. In terms of the expected-utility approach, this condition is equivalent to...

This paper examines the optimal capital structure of a firm that delegates its financing decision of a risky project to a manager who is both risk averse and regret averse. Regret aversion is characterized by a utility function that includes disutility from having chosen ex-post suboptimal...