This work covers a substantial mosaic of related concepts in utility theory as applied to financial decision-making. It reviews some of the classical notions of Benthamite utility and the normative utility paradigm offered by the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility theory; exploring its major pitfalls before moving into what is postulated as an entropic notion of utility. Extrinsic utility is proposed as a cardinally measurable quantity; measurable in terms of the expected information content of a set of alternative choices. The entropic notion of utility is subsequently used to model the financial behavior of individual investors based on their governing risk-return preferences involving financial structured products manufactured out of complex, multi-asset options. Evolutionary superiority of the Black-Scholes function in dynamic hedging scenarios is computationally demonstrated using a haploid genetic algorithm model programmed in Borland C. The work explores, both theoretically and computationally, the psycho-cognitive factors governing the financial behavior of individual investors both in the presence as well as absence of downside risk and postulates the concepts of resolvable and irresolvable risk. A formal theorem of consistent preference is proposed and proved. The work also analyzes the utility of an endogenous capital guarantee built within a financial structured product. The aspect of investor empowerment is discussed in terms of how financial behavior of an investor may be transformed if he or she is allowed a choice of one or more assets that may gain entry into the financial structured product. Finally there is a concluding section wherein the different facets are placed in their proper perspective and a number of interesting future research directions are also proposed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/238562 |
| Creators | Bhattacharya, Sukanto |
| Publisher | ePublications@bond |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | Theses |
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