In equity option markets, traders face margin requirements both for the options themselves and for hedging-related positions in the underlying stock market. We show that these requirements carry a significant margin premium in the cross-section of equity option returns. The sign of the margin...

We show that the mixed evidence on how financial leverage affects stock returns can be reconciled by accounting for firms' debt maturity structures. In our model, firms jointly optimize leverage and debt maturity by balancing benefits and rollover risk of short-term relative to long-term debt....

This paper studies whether the evident statistical predictability of bond risk premia translates into economic gains for investors. We propose a novel estimation strategy for a ne term structure models that jointly fits yields and bond excess returns, thereby capturing predictive information...

We explore the link between a firm's stock returns and its credit risk using a simple insight from structural models following Merton (1974): risk premia on equity and credit instruments are related because all claims on assets must earn the same compensation per unit of risk. Consistent with...