Risk Appetite and Endogenous Risk
Speaker:
Jon Danielsson, London School of Economics
Date and Time:
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - 1:30pm to 2:20pm
Location:
Fields Institute, Room 230
Abstract:
Risk is endogenous. Equilibrium risk is the fixed point of the mapping that takes perceived risk to actual risk. When risk-neutral traders operate under Value-at-Risk constraints, market conditions exhibit signs of fluctuating risk appetite and amplification of shocks through feedback effects. Correlations in returns emerge even when
underlying fundamental shocks are independent. We derive a closedform solution of equilibrium returns, correlation and volatility by solving the fixed point problem in closed form. We apply our results to stochastic volatility and option pricing.