Kerry Back – författare

This book is intended as a textbook for Ph.D. students in finance and as a reference book for academics. It is written at an introductory level but includes detailed proofs and calculations as section appendices. It covers the classical results on single-period, discrete-time, and continuous-time models. It also treats various proposed explanations for the equity premium and risk-free rate puzzles: persistent heterogeneous idiosyncratic risks, internal habits, external habits, and recursive utility. Most of the book assumes rational behavior, but two topics important for behavioral finance are covered: heterogeneous beliefs and non-expected-utility preferences. There are also chapters on asymmetric information and production models. The book includes numerous exercises designed to provide practice with the concepts and also to introduce additional results. Each chapter concludes with a notes and references section that supplies references to additional developments in the field.

This volume includes the five lecture courses given at the CIME-EMS School on "Stochastic Methods in Finance" held in Bressanone/Brixen, Italy 2003. It deals with innovative methods, mainly from stochastic analysis, that play a fundamental role in the mathematical modelling of finance and insurance: the theory of stochastic processes, optimal and stochastic control, stochastic differential equations, convex analysis and duality theory. Five topics are treated in detail: Utility maximization in incomplete markets; the theory of nonlinear expectations and its relationship with the theory of risk measures in a dynamic setting; credit risk modelling; the interplay between finance and insurance; incomplete information in the context of economic equilibrium and insider trading.

This book aims at a middle ground between the introductory books on derivative securities and those that provide advanced mathematical treatments. It is written for mathematically capable students who have not necessarily had prior exposure to probability theory, stochastic calculus, or computer programming. It provides derivations of pricing and hedging formulas (using the probabilistic change of numeraire technique) for standard options, exchange options, options on forwards and futures, quanto options, exotic options, caps, floors and swaptions, as well as VBA code implementing the formulas. It also contains an introduction to Monte Carlo, binomial models, and finite-difference methods.