Ever since Kirk proposed an approximate price formula for a European call spread option in 1995, Kirk's approximation has become the most widely used among the practitioners, especially in the energy markets. It is well known that Kirk's approximation extends from Margrabe's exchange option...

In this paper we have derived the analytical kernels of the pricing formulae of the CEV knockout options with time-dependent parameters for a parametric class of moving barriers. By a series of similarity transformations and changing variables, we are able to reduce the pricing equation to one...

In this paper we have formulated a simple theoretical model for the dynamics of the time-varying target leverage ratio of a firm under some assumptions based upon empirical observations. In our theoretical model the time evolution of the target leverage ratio of a firm can be derived...

This article provides a generalized two-firm model of default correlation, based on the structural approach that incorporates interest rate risk. In most structural models default is driven by the firms' asset dynamics. In this article, a two-firm model of default is instead driven by the...

This paper assesses whether agency ratings and market-based default risk measures are consistent for East Asian banks during the period from 1996 to 2006. While the market-based measures are broadly consistent with the credit rating assessments for the banks in the developed economies, the...

Empirical findings and theoretical studies suggest that firms adjust toward time-varying target leverage ratios. This paper studies the performances of the default probabilities generated from two structural credit risk models (one with time-dependent leverage ratios and one with constant target...

This article provides a generalized two-firm model of default correlation, based on the structural approach that incorporates interest rate risk. In most structural models default is driven by the firms' asset dynamics. In this article, a two-firm model of default is instead driven by the...

The Lie-algebraic approach has been applied to solve the bond pricing problem in single-factor interest rate models. Four of the popular single-factor models, namely the Vasicek model, Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model, double square-root model, and Ahn-Gao model, are investigated. By exploiting the...

Based upon the Strang operator splitting method, we have presented a simple approach to improve Kirk's approximation for spread options in a straightforward manner. Illustrative numerical examples have demonstrated that our proposed approximation scheme is able to provide very accurate estimates...