Skewness is specifically considered to develop semi-parametric upper bounds for option prices and expected payoffs for call options. Bounds on variance default swaps, a new asset, and for the variance risk premium are derived.The Technical Proof for this paper is available at the following URL:...

A growing body of literature confirms the significance of the commodity futures basis factor: It has a significantly positive premium and it explains the cross-section of commodity-futures excess returns. We extend the literature by documenting predictive relation between this factor and the...

Using a detailed data set of electricity forward prices in Central Europe, we compute the intra-day risk premium and market price of risk for the two electricity exchanges European Energy Exchange (EEX) and Energy Exchange Austria (EXAA). Given the significant volatility and jump risk of...

Spreads of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) vary significantly in the cross section and over time, but the sources of this variation are not well understood. We document that, in the cross section, MBS spreads adjusted for the prepayment option show a pronounced smile with respect to the...

The mechanism behind price formation in electricity futures markets is still under discussion. Theory suggests that hedging pressure caused by deviating risk preferences is the most promising approach. This paper contributes to this discussion through an empirical investigation of electricity...

In this paper we present a tree model for defaultable bond prices which can be used for the pricing of credit derivatives. The model is based upon the two-factor Hull-White (1994) model for default-free interest rates, where one of the factors is taken to be the credit spread of the defaultable...

The payoff of many credit derivatives depends on the level of credit spreads. In particular, credit derivatives with a leverage component are subject to gap risk, a risk associated with the occurrence of jumps in the underlying credit default swaps. In the framework of first passage time models,...