We study the term structure of variance swaps, equity and variance risk premia. A model-free analysis reveals a significant price jump component in variance swap rates. A model-based analysis shows that investors' willingness to ensure against volatility risk increases after a market drop. This...

A random variable dominates another random variable with respect to the covariance order if the covariance of any two monotone increasing functions of this variable is smaller. We characterize completely the covariance order, give strong sufficient conditions for it, present a number of examples...

We propose a novel no-arbitrage framework, which exploits convex asset pricing constraints to study investors’ marginal utility of wealth or, more generally, Stochastic Discount Factors (SDFs). We establish a duality between minimum dispersion SDFs and penalized portfolio selection problems,...