Winner of the prestigious Paul A. Samuelson Award for
scholarly writing on lifelong financial security, John
Cochrane's Asset Pricing now appears in a revised
edition that unifies and brings the science of asset
pricing up to date for advanced students and
professionals. Cochrane traces the pricing of all assets
back to a single idea - price equals expected discounted
payoff - that captures the macro-economic risks
underlying each security's value. By using a single,
stochastic discount factor rather than a separate set of
tricks for each asset class, Cochrane builds a unified
account of modern asset pricing. He presents
applications to stocks, bonds, and options. Each model -
consumption based, CAPM, multifactor, term structure,
and option pricing - is derived as a different
specification of the discounted factor. The discount
factor framework also leads to a state-space geometry
for mean-variance frontiers and asset pricing models. It
puts payoffs in different states of nature on the axes
rather than mean and variance of return, leading to a
new and conveniently linear geometrical representation
of asset pricing ideas.Cochrane approaches empirical
work with the Generalized Method of Moments, which
studies sample average prices and discounted payoffs to
determine whether price does equal expected discounted
payoff. He translates between the discount factor, GMM,
and state-space language and the beta, mean-variance,
and regression language common in empirical work and
earlier theory. The book also includes a review of
recent empirical work on return predictability, value
and other puzzles in the cross section, and equity
premium puzzles and their resolution. Written to be a
summary for academics and professionals as well as a
textbook, this book condenses and advances recent
scholarship in financial economics. |
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