Theory and application of a variety of mathematical techniques in economics are presented in this volume. Topics discussed include: martingale methods, stochastic processes, optimal stopping, the modeling of uncertainty using a Wiener process, Ito's Lemma as a tool of stochastic calculus, and basic facts about stochastic differential equations. The notion of stochastic ability and the methods of stochastic control are discussed, and their use in economic theory and finance is illustrated with numerous applications.
The applications covered include: futures, pricing, job search, stochastic capital theory, stochastic economic growth, the rational expectations hypothesis, a stochastic macroeconomic model, competitive firm under price uncertainty, the Black-Scholes option pricing theory, optimum consumption and portfolio rules, demand for index bonds, term structure of interest rates, the market risk adjustment in project valuation, demand for cash balances and an asset pricing model.

A typical market for a commodity, a service or a financial instrument can be divided into the cash market and the futures market. Futures markets are currencies by the standardization of the futures contracts and their trading in highly organized exchanges. Futures Markets contains in three volumes the most influential articles in this field covering a broad range of topics including market characteristics, speculation, pricing, efficiency, interest rates and insurance and foreign characteristics. Important contributors to the volume include among others: Ronald J. Anderson, Eugene F. Fama, Stephen Figlewski, Paul A. Samuelson, Hans R. Stoll and Holbrook Working. As well as providing an authoritative introduction to accompany the piece, the editor has also written three extensive review articles which survey the field of futures markets. This significant collection presents a compact guide to the subject of Futures Markets and will be an essential companion for students, researchers and practitioners.

Options Markets presents an authoritative collection of the most important articles and papers on derivatives published during the last 35 years. These three volumes offer a unique and convenient resource for the reader to review the most important research at the frontier of this rapidly expanding area of financial economics. Topics include the theory, pricing and empirical evidence on equity derivatives, fixed-income derivatives, exotics, real options, numerical methods and risk management.As a comprehensive and integrated collection of articles, Options Markets is an invaluable companion to intermediate and advanced textbooks on derivatives. The historical perspective provided in this collection and the distinctiveness of its articles will appeal to both the applied and the theoretical researcher seeking fresh insights into derivatives.

Futures markets undergo perpetual change, influenced by and in turn influencing the flux of the world economy, trade balances and the nature of trading itself. A.G. Malliaris has been a pioneer in the analysis of futures markets, and this definitive selection of his work in the area provides a comprehensive analysis of the field.The book is unique in the literature of futures markets because of three distinct features: a comprehensive survey of the field, an exposition of several methodologies, and a detailed presentation of important research topics. These topics include the behaviour of futures prices, relationships between agricultural prices, random walks versus chaotic dynamics, an analysis of hedge ratios for financial futures and the determinants of price volatility. The final section offers important research questions for both agricultural and financial futures. Jerome Stein provides a forward to the volume. This significant collection presents a detailed guide to the subject of futures markets and will be an essential companion for students, researchers and practitioners.

This volume critically re-examines the profession's understanding of asset bubbles in light of the global financial crisis of 2007-09. It is well known that bubbles have occurred in the past, with the October 1929 crash as the most demonstrative example. However, the remarkably well-behaved performance of the US economy from 1945 to 2006, and, in particular during the Great Moderation period of 1984 to 2006, assured the economics profession and monetary policymakers that asset bubbles could be effectively managed with little or no real economic impact. The recent financial crisis has now triggered a debate about the emergence of a sequence of repeated bubbles in the Nasdaq market, housing market, credit market and commodity markets. The Greenspan-Bernanke Federal Reserve has followed an asymmetric approach to bubble management. This method advocates no monetary policy action during the bubble formation and growth, but a speedy response with a reduction in market rates when a bubble bursts to reduce the potential loss of output and employment. It was supported by academic research and seemed to work well until September 2008 when the financial system came close to a complete collapse. The realities of the recent financial crisis have intensified theoretical modeling, empirical methodologies, and debate on policy issues surrounding asset price bubbles and their potentially considerable adverse economic impact if poorly managed. Choosing to take a novel approach, the editors of this book have selected five classic papers that represent accepted thinking about asset bubbles prior to the financial crisis. They also include original papers challenging orthodox thinking and presenting new insights. A summary essay by the editors highlights the lessons learned and experiences gained since the crisis.

In The Global Financial Crisis, contributors argue that the complexity of the Global Financial Crisis challenges researchers to offer more comprehensive explanations by extending the scope and range of their traditional investigations. To achieve this, the volume views the financial crisis simultaneously through three different lenses--economic, psychological, and social values. Contributors offer a constructive methodology suitable for exploring financial crises. They recognize how current economic analysis did not prepare academic economists, business economists, traders, and regulators to anticipate economic and financial crises. So, they search more extensively within the broader discipline of economics for ideas related to crises but neglected perhaps because they were not mathematically rigorous. They affirm that the complexity of financial crises necessitates complementary research. Thus, to put the focal purpose of this book differently, they explore the Global Financial Crisis from three interconnected frameworks: the standards of orthodox economic analysis, Minskyan economics, and the role of ideas and values in economics. Values are the subject of both philosophy and psychology and can contribute to a better understanding of the Global Financial Crisis. Values, in general, have been relatively neglected by economists. This is not because there is doubt about their significance, but rather because welfare economics and collective choice still operate within the neoclassical paradigm. This volume argues that analyzing the value implications requires moving from the neoclassical framework to something that is broader and multidisciplinary.

This volume critically re-examines the profession's understanding of asset bubbles in light of the global financial crisis of 2007-09. It is well known that bubbles have occurred in the past, with the October 1929 crash as the most demonstrative example. However, the remarkably well-behaved performance of the US economy from 1945 to 2006, and, in particular during the Great Moderation period of 1984 to 2006, assured the economics profession and monetary policymakers that asset bubbles could be effectively managed with little or no real economic impact. The recent financial crisis has now triggered a debate about the emergence of a sequence of repeated bubbles in the Nasdaq market, housing market, credit market, and commodity markets. The realities of the crisis have intensified theoretical modeling, empirical methodologies, and debate on policy issues surrounding asset price bubbles and their potentially adverse economic impact if poorly managed. Taking a novel approach, the editors of this book present five classic papers that represent accepted thinking about asset bubbles prior to the financial crisis. They also include original papers challenging orthodox thinking and presenting new insights. A summary essay highlights the lessons learned and experiences gained since the crisis.

Theory and application of a variety of mathematical techniques in economics are presented in this volume. Topics discussed include: martingale methods, stochastic processes, optimal stopping, the modeling of uncertainty using a Wiener process, Ito's Lemma as a tool of stochastic calculus, and basic facts about stochastic differential equations. The notion of stochastic ability and the methods of stochastic control are discussed, and their use in economic theory and finance is illustrated with numerous applications. The applications covered include: futures, pricing, job search, stochastic capital theory, stochastic economic growth, the rational expectations hypothesis, a stochastic macroeconomic model, competitive firm under price uncertainty, the Black-Scholes option pricing theory, optimum consumption and portfolio rules, demand for index bonds, term structure of interest rates, the market risk adjustment in project valuation, demand for cash balances and an asset pricing model.