A derivative asset is a security whose payoff is entirely determined by the prices of one or more underlying securities. Call and put options on stocks are simple examples. Since 1973, when Black and Scholes published their path-breaking option price formula, a rapidly growing literature has...

We empirically study individual pension choice between two di.erent defined benefit (DB) plans and a defined contribution (DC) plan. The DB plans differ in their contribution rates and in the way retirement benefits are calculated, as a proportion of final salary or as a proportion of lifetime...

This paper examines the performance of personal pensions (exempt unit trusts) in the UK 1980-2000. Unitised personal pension schemes are a type of mutual fund that is constituted as a contractual savings scheme, whose value can only be accessed at retirement. By studying the performance of these...

I study an economy in which entrepreneurs seek financing for long-term projects from intermediaries, who specialise in monitoring, and uninformed investors. Monitoring enables an intermediary to affect investment decisions, and to learn the firms probability of success. Optimal financial...

In many countries, pension funds based on individual accounts have been affected by high operating costs. Contract theory helps to unravel the nature of such problems: managers of pension funds have strong incentives to manipulate market expectations about their capacity through wasteful...

Recovery rates are negatively related to default probabilities (Altman et al.,2005). This paper proposes and estimates a model in which this dependence is the result of an unobserved credit cycle: When times are bad, the default probability is high and recovery rates are low; when times are...

This survey summarises the recent theoretical developments in understanding price processes. After introducing the rational expectations equilibria (REE) concept the limitations of this approach are shown. We illustrate the relationship between partially-revealing REE and incomplete markets and...

We investigate the valuation of catastrophe insurance derivatives that are traded at the Chicago Board of Trade. By modelling the underlying index as a compound Poisson process we give a representation of no-arbitrage price processes using Fourier analysis. This characterization enables us to...

A model of optimal accumulation of capital and portfolio choice over an infinite horizon in continuous time is formulated in which the vector process representing returns to investments is a general semimartingale. Methods of stochastic calculus and calculus of variations are used to obtain...

We develop an incomplete contract model to analyze the enlargement strategy of a club. An applicant is characterized by his wealth and the degree of conformity with the club standard. The club gains only from a fully reformed new members, but reforms is costly. The club chooses between early...