While the market for credit instruments grew continuously in the decade before 2008, its liquidity has dried up significantly in the current crisis, and investors have become aware of the possible consequences of being exposed to credit risk. In this thesis we address these issues by pricing credit instruments using utility indifference pricing, a method that takes into account the investor's personal risk aversion and which is not affected by the lack of liquidity. Through stochastic optimal control methods, we use indifference pricing with exponential utility to determine corporate bond prices and CDS spreads. In the first part we examine how these quantities are affected by risk aversion under different models of default. The emphasis lies on a hybrid model, in which a regime switch of the reference entity is triggered by a creditworthiness index correlated to its stock price. The second part generalizes this setup by introducing uncertainty in the model parameters. Robust optimal control has been used independently in the literature to address model uncertainty for portfolio selection problems. Here, we incorporate this approach with utility indifference and derive some analytical and numerical results on how model uncertainty affects credit spreads.

While the market for credit instruments grew continuously in the decade before 2008, its liquidity has dried up significantly in the current crisis, and investors have become aware of the possible consequences of being exposed to credit risk. In this thesis we address these issues by pricing credit instruments using utility indifference pricing, a method that takes into account the investor's personal risk aversion and which is not affected by the lack of liquidity. Through stochastic optimal control methods, we use indifference pricing with exponential utility to determine corporate bond prices and CDS spreads. In the first part we examine how these quantities are affected by risk aversion under different models of default. The emphasis lies on a hybrid model, in which a regime switch of the reference entity is triggered by a creditworthiness index correlated to its stock price. The second part generalizes this setup by introducing uncertainty in the model parameters. Robust optimal control has been used independently in the literature to address model uncertainty for portfolio selection problems. Here, we incorporate this approach with utility indifference and derive some analytical and numerical results on how model uncertainty affects credit spreads.

In this report, we explore the theory behind utility-based valuation of stock options. In particular, we focus on the underwater employee stock options, which give rise to an incomplete-market setting. We begin with basic concepts and terminology in stock-option pricing. Then, we review the valuation by replication process both in the binomial model and the Black-Scholes model. These two methods apply to valuation in the complete-market setting. Then we introduce the concept of utility function and utility maximization in the context of portfolio allocation. An example is worked out to demonstrate how to solve the optimization problem subject to a portfolio constraint. In the end, we explore indifference pricing, i.e., utility-based valuation of stock options in an incomplete single-period binomial model. / text

博士（経営） / 85 p. / 一橋大学

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We propose a model for an insurance loss index and the claims process of a single insurance company holding a fraction of the total number of contracts that captures both ordinary losses and losses due to catastrophes. In this model we price a catastrophe derivative by the method of utility indifference pricing. The associated stochastic optimization problem is treated by techniques for piecewise deterministic Markov processes. A numerical study illustrates our results.

Incomplete markets provide many challenges for both investment decisions and valuation problems. While both problems have received extensive attention in complete markets, there remain many open areas in the theory of incomplete markets. We present the results in three parts. In the first essay we consider the Merton investment problem of optimal portfolio choice when the traded instruments are the set of zero-coupon bonds. Working within a Markovian Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework of the interest rate term structure driven by an infinite dimensional Wiener process, we give sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of an optimal investment strategy. When there is uniqueness, we provide a characterization of the optimal portfolio. Furthermore, we show that a specific Gauss-Markov random field model can be treated within this framework, and explicitly calculate the optimal portfolio. We show that the optimal portfolio in this case can be identified with the discontinuities of a certain function of the market parameters. In the second essay we price a claim, using the indifference valuation methodology, in the model presented in the first section. We appeal to the indifference pricing framework instead of the classic Black-Scholes method due to the natural incompleteness in such a market model. Because we price time-sensitive interest rate claims, the units in which we price are very important. This will require us to take care in formulating the investor’s utility function in terms of the units in which we express the wealth function. This leads to new results, namely a general change-of-numeraire theorem in incomplete markets via indifference pricing. Lastly, in the third essay, we propose a method to price credit derivatives, namely collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) using indifference. We develop a numerical algorithm for pricing such CDOs. The high illiquidity of the CDO market coupled with the allowance of default in the underlying traded assets creates a very incomplete market. We explain the market-observed prices of such credit derivatives via the risk aversion of investors. In addition to a general algorithm, several approximation schemes are proposed. / text

在不完全市場下，衍生性金融商品可利用上套利和下套利價格來訂出價格區間。我們運用效用無差異定價於此篇論文中，此定價方式為尋找一個初始交易價，會使在起始時交易商品和無交易商品於商品到期日之最大期望效用相等。利用主要的對偶結果，我們證明在指數效用函數下，效用無差異定價區間會比上套利和下套利定價區間小。 / In incomplete markets, prices of a contingent claim can be obtained between the upper and lower hedging prices. In this thesis, we will use utility indifference pricing to nd an initial payment for which the maximal expected utility of trading the claim is indierent to the maximal expected utility of no trading. From the central duality result, we show that the gap between the seller's and the buyer's utility indierence prices is always smaller than the gap between the upper and lower hedging prices under the exponential utility function.

Cette thèse porte sur la valorisation et les stratégies financières de couverture des risques dans les marchés de l'énergie. Ces marchés présentent des particularités qui les distinguent des marchés financiers standards, notamment l'illiquidité et l'incomplétude. L'illiquidité se reflète par des coûts de transactions importants et des contraintes sur les volumes échangés. L'incomplétude est l'incapacité de pouvoir répliquer parfaitement des produits dérivés. Nous nous intéressons à différents aspects de l'incomplétude de marché. La première partie porte sur la valorisation dans les modèles de Lévy. Nous obtenons une formule approximative du prix d'indifférence et nous mesurons la prime minimale à apporter par rapport au modèle de Black-Scholes. La deuxième partie concerne la valorisation d'options spread en présence de corrélation stochastique. Les options spread portent sur la différence de prix entre deux sous-jacents -- par exemple gaz et électricité -- et sont très utilisées sur les marchés de l'énergie. Nous proposons une procédure numérique efficace pour calculer le prix de ces options. Enfin, la troisième partie traite de la valorisation d'un produit comportant un risque exogène dont il existe des prévisions. Nous proposons une stratégie dynamique optimale en présence de risque de volume, et l'appliquons à la valorisation des fermes éoliennes. De plus, une partie est consacrée aux stratégies optimales asymptotiques en présence de coûts de transactions. / This thesis tackles three issues on pricing and hedging in energy markets. Energy markets differ from financial markets mainly in two ways: illiquidity and incompletness. Illiquidity (or lack of liquidity) translates into transaction costs and volume constraints. Incompletness means incapacity to perfectly hedge derivatives. We study different aspects of incomplete markets. First, we focus on indifference pricing in exponential Lévy models. We obtained an approximate formula by considering a Lévy process as a perturbed Brownian motion. That way we obtain the minimal correction from Black-Scholes price. Second, we present a numerical procedure to price spread options when underlyings are stochastically correlated. These options are very popular in energy markets, underlyings being for instance gas and electricity. Third, we derive optimal strategies using exogeneous factors forecasts. We exhibit an explicit pricing formula and an optimal strategy handling volume risk and apply it to wind farms valuation. Finally, a short review of optimal strategies taking into account transaction costs is made

Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à des sujets différents en mathématiques financières, tous liés aux imperfections de marché et à la technique fondamentale de la maximisation d'utilité. Elle comporte trois parties. Dans la première, qui se base sur deux papiers, nous considérons le problème d'investissement optimal sur un marché financier avec coûts de transaction proportionnels. On commence par étudier le problème d'investissement dans le cas où la fonction d'utilité est multivariée (ce qui s'adapte particulièrement bien aux marchés des devises) et l'agent a une dotation initiale aléatoire, qui peut s'interpréter comme une option ou un autre contrat dérivé. Après avoir analysé les propriétés du problème et de son dual, nous utilisons ces résultats pour examiner, dans ce contexte, certains aspects d'une technique de pricing devenue populaire dans le cadre des marchés incomplets, l'évaluation par indifférence d'utilité. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous étudions le problème d'existence d'un ensemble de prix (appelés "prix fictifs" ou "shadow prices") qui offrirait la même utilité maximale à l'agent si le marché n'avait pas de frictions. Ces résultats sont utiles pour clarifier le lien entre la théorie classique des marchés sans frictions et la littérature en croissance rapide sur les coûts de transaction. Dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse, nous considérons le problème d'évaluation de produits dérivés par indifférence d'utilité dans des marchés incomplets, où la source d'incomplétude provient du fait que certains actifs ne peuvent pas être échangés sur le marché, ce qui est le cas par exemple dans le cadre des modèles structurels pour le prix de l'électricité. Sous certaines hypothèses, nous dérivons une caractérisation en terme d'équations différentielles stochastiques rétrogrades (EDSR) pour le prix, et nous nous concentrons ensuite sur les options européennes en établissant en particulier l'existence d'une stratégie de couverture optimale, même lorsque le payoff présente des discontinuités et est éventuellement non borné. Dans la dernière partie, nous analysons un simple problème de principal-agent à horizon fini, où le principal est essentiellement interprété comme un régulateur et l'agent comme une entreprise qui produit certaines émissions polluantes. Nous traitons séparément les problèmes du principal et de l'agent et nous utilisons la théorie des EDSR pour fournir des conditions nécessaires et suffisantes d'optimalité. Nous effectuons également des analyses de sensibilité et nous montrons des résultats numériques dans le but de fournir une meilleure compréhension du comportement des agents. / In this thesis we deal with different topics in financial mathematics, that are all related to market imperfections and to the fundamental technique of utility maximization. The work consists of three parts. In the first one, which is based on two papers, we consider the problem of optimal investment on a financial market with proportional transaction costs. We initially study the investment problem in the case where the utility function is multivariate (which is particularly suitable on currency markets) and the agent is endowed with a random claim, which can be interpreted as an option or another derivative contract. After analyzing the properties of the primal and dual problems, we apply those results to investigate, in this context, some aspects of a popular pricing technique in incomplete markets, i.e. utility indifference evaluation. In the second contribution to the transaction costs literature, we investigate the existence problem for a set of prices (called shadow prices) that would provide the same maximal utility to the agent if the market did not have frictions. These results shed some light on the link between the classical theory of frictionless markets and the quickly growing literature on transaction costs. In the second part of this thesis we consider the utility indifference pricing problem in incomplete markets, where the source of incompleteness comes from the fact that some assets in the market cannot be actively traded, which is the case for example in the framework of structural models for electricity prices. We provide a BSDE characterization for the price under mild assumptions, and then focus on the case of European claims by establishing in particular the existence of an optimal hedging strategy even when the claim presents discontinuities and is possibly unbounded. In the last contribution we analyze a simple principal-agent problem in finite time horizon, where the principal is mainly interpreted as a regulator and the agent as a firm producing some kind of polluting emissions. We separately treat both the agent's and the principal's problems and use the BSDE theory for providing necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality. We also perform some sensitivity analyses and give numerical results in order to provide a better understanding of the agents' behavior.