This paper provides the mathematical foundation for polynomial diffusions. They play an important role in a growing range of applications in finance, including financial market models for interest rates, credit risk, stochastic volatility, commodities and electricity. Uniqueness of polynomial...

We develop a comprehensive mathematical framework for polynomial jump-diffusions in a semimartingale context, which nest affine jump-diffusions and have broad applications in finance. We show that the polynomial property is preserved under polynomial transformations and Lévy time change. We...

Empirical evidence suggests that fixed income markets exhibit unspanned stochastic volatility (USV), that is, that one cannot fully hedge volatility risk solely using a portfolio of bonds. While Collin-Dufresne and Goldstein (2002) showed that no two-factor Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (CIR) model can...

This paper studies the relation between concavity, stochastic or state dependent utility functions, and risk aversion. Using the common definition of risk aversion, but modified for state dependent preferences, we show that concavity does not imply risk aversion. Instead, it implies a weaker...