This paper proposes a novel methodology, based on the Common Principal Component analysis, allowing one to estimate the factors driving the term structure of interest rates, in the presence of time-varying covariance structure. The advantages of this method are first, that, unlike classical...

We develop a new methodology to measure conditional dependency between time series each driven by complicated marginal distributions. We achieve this by using copula functions that link marginal distributions, and by expressing the parameter of the copula as a function of predetermined...

Investment Banks invest in R&D to design innovative securities even when imitation is possible, i.e., when innovations cannot be patented. We show how a financial institution can profit from the development of financial products even if they are unpatentable. For certain types of financial...

Agent based models take into account limited rational behaviour of individuals acting on financial markets. Explicit simulation of this behaviour and the resulting interac-tion of individuals provide a description of aggregate financial market time series. Al-though the outcomes of such...

Over the period 2002 to 2003,Switzerland and the European Union (EU) were engaged in negotiations regarding banking secrecy. The EU's stated goal was for Switzerland to abolish banking secrecy. Switzerland refused and offered to impose a withholding tax on interest income instead. The two...

We consider a nonparametric method to estimate conditional expected shortfalls, i.e. conditional expected losses knowing that losses are larger than a given loss quantile. We derive the asymptotic properties of kernal estimators of conditional expected shortfalls in the context of a stationary...

We aim at accommodating the existing affine jump-diffusion and quadratic models under the same roof, namely the linear-quadratic jump-diffusion (LQJD) class. We give a complete characterization of the dynamics underlying this class of models as well as identification constraints, and compute...

This article proposes an estimation procedure for the affine stochastic volatility models with jumps both in the asset price and variance processes. The estimation procedure is based on the joint (here bi-variate) unconditional characteristic function for the stochastic process for which we...

This paper derives optimal perfect hedging portfolios in the presence of transaction costs within the binomial model of stock returns, for a market maker that establishes bid and ask prices for American call options on stocks paying dividends prior to expiration. It is shown that, while the...

We consider option pricing when dynamic portfolios are discretely rebalanced. The portfolio adjustments only occur after ¯xed relative changes in the stock price. The stock price follows a marked point process and the market is incomplete. We first characterisethe equivalent martingale...