Recent empirical evidence suggests that the variance risk premium predicts aggregate stock market returns. We demonstrate that statistical finite sample biases cannot “explain” this apparent predictability. Further corroborating the existing evidence of the U.S., we show that country...

This paper estimates how the shape of the implied volatility smile and the size of the variance risk premium relate to parameters of GARCH-type time-series models measuring how conditional volatility responds to return shocks. Markets in which return shocks lead to large increases in conditional...

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:...

This paper studies the predictability of S&P500 returns using short term risk premia as a conditioning variable. We construct dividend prices using futures data and identify short term risk premia by projecting excess returns of dividend claims on their lagged prices. Regression results for...

In this paper, we study the role of the volatility risk premium for the forecasting performance of implied volatility. We introduce a non-parametric and parsimonious approach to adjust the model-free implied volatility for the volatility risk premium and implement this methodology using more...

We re-examine the market efficiency of commodity futures using a new approach that accounts for both time-varying risk premium and conditional heteroscedasticity of spot prices. The conventional market efficiency tests so far in the literature are based on either risk neutral or constant risk...

This paper proposes alternative specifications of the conditional CAPM with dynamic conditional beta and tests the models' performance in explaining the value premium for the period 1963-2011. The conditional alphas on the value-minus-growth portfolio are estimated to be economically and...

This paper develops a new approach for variance trading. We show that the discretely-sampled realized variance can be robustly replicated under very general conditions, including when the price can jump. The replication strategy specifies the exact timing for rebalancing in the underlying. The...

The payoff of many credit derivatives depends on the level of credit spreads. In particular, the payoff of credit derivatives with a leverage component is sensitive to jumps in the underlying credit spreads. In the framework of first passage time models we address these issues by specifying a...

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,...