Contributions published at Department of Banking and Finance (Pablo Koch Medina)

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This article addresses some of the valuation problems, in the Black and Scholes setting of a geometric Brownian motion for the underlying asset dynamics, for options whose pay-off is related to the terminal price of the stock and an arithmetic average of fixing and/or involves stopping times related to excursions. In all cases, we are able to provide at least the Laplace transform in time of the option price under a form whose complexity varies with the number of exotic features. We emphasize that we do not give closed form formulas for the general case, but we aim to develop a methodology which may be used in many cases.

In this paper we study a new kind of option, called hereinafter a Parisian barrier option. This option is the following variant of the so-called barrier option: a down-and-out barrier option becomes worthless as soon as a barrier is reached, whereas a down-and-out Parisian barrier option is lost by the owner if the underlying asset reaches a prespecified level and remains constantly below this level for a time interval longer than a fixed number, called the window. Properties of durations of Brownian excursions play an essential role. We also study another kind of option, called here a cumulative Parisian option, which becomes worthless if the total time spent below a certain level is too long.

The paper studies the role and the formulation of the survival assumption with incomplete markets. We are able to show the existence of a competitive equilibrium when the agents' endowments lie on the boundary of their consumption set. However, for this some additional assumptions with respect to the complete market case are needed. These are joint restrictions on the asset structure and the distribution of the endowments and preferences.

We derive a result on the limit of certain sequences of principal eigenvalues associated with some elliptic eigenvalue problems. This result is then used to give a complete description of the global structure of the curves of positive steady states of a parameter dependent diffusive version of the classical logistic equation. In particular, we characterize the bifurcation values from infinity to positive steady states. The stability of the positive steady states as well as the asymptotic behaviour of positive solutions is also discussed.

There are basic misunderstandings on derivative markets. Some professionals believe that they are a kind of casinos and have no utility for the investors. This work looks at the effects of options introduction in the Brazilian market, seeking for another benefit for this introduction: changes in the stocks risk leveI. Our results are the same found in the US and other markets: the options introduction reduces the stocks volatility. We also found that there is a slight indication that the volatility becames more stochastic with this alternative.

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This paper describes three insolvency codes, those of the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, and the United States (US) and compares their efficiency against a number of benchmarks. These codes have been chosen because they cover a broad spectrum of debtor- and creditor-oriented insolvency procedures. The paper also compares the plans of distressed firms' reorganizations both within and outside the formal bankruptcy process, including the size of write downs and creditors' claims and the deviations from absolute priority which have accrued both to equityholders and different classes of creditors. Some evidence of the costs of bankruptcy is also provided for each country.

We use wehn-issued transactions data to assess the Treasury's current experiment with uniform auctions, suggesting a higher information release, which should reduce pre-auction uncertainty and the winner's curse. Under uniform auctions, wehn-issued volatility falls after the auction and again after the outcome announcement. The pattern is the opposite for discriminatory auctions. This is further evidence that uniform auctions increase pre-auction information and lower the short squeeze. A direct comparison of markups in uniform and discriminatory auctions yields mixed results.