This volume includes the five lecture courses given at the CIME-EMS School on "Stochastic Methods in Finance" held in Bressanone/Brixen, Italy 2003. It deals with innovative methods, mainly from stochastic analysis, that play a fundamental role in the mathematical modelling of finance and insurance: the theory of stochastic processes, optimal and stochastic control, stochastic differential equations, convex analysis and duality theory. Five topics are treated in detail: Utility maximization in incomplete markets; the theory of nonlinear expectations and its relationship with the theory of risk measures in a dynamic setting; credit risk modelling; the interplay between finance and insurance; incomplete information in the context of economic equilibrium and insider trading.

This book is focused on the recent developments on problems of probability model uncertainty by using the notion of nonlinear expectations and, in particular, sublinear expectations. It provides a gentle coverage of the theory of nonlinear expectations and related stochastic analysis. Many notions and results, for example, G-normal distribution, G-Brownian motion, G-Martingale representation theorem, and related stochastic calculus are first introduced or obtained by the author. This book is based on Shige Peng's lecture notes for a series of lectures given at summer schools and universities worldwide. It starts with basic definitions of nonlinear expectations and their relation to coherent measures of risk, law of large numbers and central limit theorems under nonlinear expectations, and develops into stochastic integral and stochastic calculus under G-expectations. It ends with recent research topic on G-Martingale representation theorem and G-stochastic integral for locally integrable processes. With exercises to practice at the end of each chapter, this book can be used as a graduate textbook for students in probability theory and mathematical finance. Each chapter also concludes with a section Notes and Comments, which gives history and further references on the material covered in that chapter. Researchers and graduate students interested in probability theory and mathematical finance will find this book very useful.

This book is focused on the recent developments on problems of probability model uncertainty by using the notion of nonlinear expectations and, in particular, sublinear expectations. It provides a gentle coverage of the theory of nonlinear expectations and related stochastic analysis. Many notions and results, for example, G-normal distribution, G-Brownian motion, G-Martingale representation theorem, and related stochastic calculus are first introduced or obtained by the author. This book is based on Shige Peng's lecture notes for a series of lectures given at summer schools and universities worldwide. It starts with basic definitions of nonlinear expectations and their relation to coherent measures of risk, law of large numbers and central limit theorems under nonlinear expectations, and develops into stochastic integral and stochastic calculus under G-expectations. It ends with recent research topic on G-Martingale representation theorem and G-stochastic integral for locally integrable processes. With exercises to practice at the end of each chapter, this book can be used as a graduate textbook for students in probability theory and mathematical finance. Each chapter also concludes with a section Notes and Comments, which gives history and further references on the material covered in that chapter. Researchers and graduate students interested in probability theory and mathematical finance will find this book very useful.