IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/kondp2/253.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who buys and who sells options: The role and pricing of options in an economy with background risk

Author

Listed:
  • Franke, Günter
  • Stapleton, Richard C.
  • Subrahmanyam, Marti G.

Abstract

In this paper, we derive an equilibrium in which some investors buy call/put options on the market portfolio while others sell them. Also, some investors supply and others demand forward contracts. Since investors are assumed to have similar risk-averse preferences, the demand for these contracts is not explained by differences in the shape of the utility functions. Rather, it is the degree to which agents face other, non-hedgeable, background risks that determines their risk-taking behavior in the model. We show that investors with low or no background risk sell portfolio insurance, i.e., they sell options on the market portfolio, whereas investors with high background risk buy those options. A general increase in background risk in the economy reduces the forward price of the market portfolio. Furthermore, the prices of put options rise and the prices of call options' fall. However, in an economy with given background risk, holding the forward price and hence the overall risk aversion constant, all options will be underpriced by the option pricing model if it ignores the presence of background risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Franke, Günter & Stapleton, Richard C. & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 1995. "Who buys and who sells options: The role and pricing of options in an economy with background risk," Discussion Papers, Series II 253, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:kondp2:253
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/101657/1/746528574.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brennan, M.J. & Solanki, R., 1981. "Optimal Portfolio Insurance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 279-300, September.
    2. Brennan, Michael J & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1989. "Portfolio Insurance and Financial Market Equilibrium," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(4), pages 455-472, October.
    3. Weil, Philippe, 1992. "Equilibrium asset prices with undiversifiable labor income risk," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 769-790.
    4. Beckers, Stan, 1980. "The Constant Elasticity of Variance Model and Its Implications for Option Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(3), pages 661-673, June.
    5. Gennotte, Gerard & Leland, Hayne, 1990. "Market Liquidity, Hedging, and Crashes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 999-1021, December.
    6. Pratt, John W & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 1987. "Proper Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 143-154, January.
    7. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
    8. Doherty, Neil A & Schlesinger, Harris, 1983. "The Optimal Deductible for an Insurance Policy When Initial Wealth Is Random," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 555-565, October.
    9. Ross, Stephen A, 1981. "Some Stronger Measures of Risk Aversion in the Small and the Large with Applications," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 621-638, May.
    10. Kimball, Miles S, 1993. "Standard Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 589-611, May.
    11. Canina, Linda & Figlewski, Stephen, 1993. "The Informational Content of Implied Volatility," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(3), pages 659-681.
    12. Brennan, M J, 1979. "The Pricing of Contingent Claims in Discrete Time Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 34(1), pages 53-68, March.
    13. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Romer, David & Williams, Steve, 1981. "Risk Aversion with Random Initial Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 911-920, June.
    14. Leland, Hayne E, 1980. "Who Should Buy Portfolio Insurance?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(2), pages 581-594, May.
    15. Emanuel, David C. & MacBeth, James D., 1982. "Further Results on the Constant Elasticity of Variance Call Option Pricing Model," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 533-554, November.
    16. Rubinstein, Mark, 1985. "Nonparametric Tests of Alternative Option Pricing Models Using All Reported Trades and Quotes on the 30 Most Active CBOE Option Classes from August 23, 1976 through August 31, 1978," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(2), pages 455-480, June.
    17. Nachman, David C., 1982. "Preservation of "more risk averse" under expectations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 361-368, December.
    18. Cox, John C. & Ross, Stephen A., 1976. "The valuation of options for alternative stochastic processes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 145-166.
    19. Mark Rubinstein, 1976. "The Valuation of Uncertain Income Streams and the Pricing of Options," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(2), pages 407-425, Autumn.
    20. Briys, Eric & Crouhy, Michel & Schlesinger, Harris, 1993. "Optimal hedging in a futures market with background noise and basis risk," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 949-960, June.
    21. Sheikh, Aamir M., 1991. "Transaction Data Tests of S&P 100 Call Option Pricing," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 459-475, December.
    22. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    23. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "Increasing risk: I. A definition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 225-243, September.
    24. Rubinstein, Mark, 1974. "An aggregation theorem for securities markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 225-244, September.
    25. Cass, David & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "The structure of investor preferences and asset returns, and separability in portfolio allocation: A contribution to the pure theory of mutual funds," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 122-160, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Franke, Günter & Weber, Martin, 1997. "Risk-value efficient portfolios and asset pricing," Discussion Papers, Series II 354, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Franke, Gunter & Stapleton, Richard C. & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 1998. "Who Buys and Who Sells Options: The Role of Options in an Economy with Background Risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 89-109, September.
    2. David S. Bates, 1995. "Testing Option Pricing Models," NBER Working Papers 5129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Franke, Günter & Stapleton, Richard C. & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 1992. "Idiosyncratic risk, sharing rules, and the theory of risk bearing," Discussion Papers, Series II 181, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    4. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    5. Günter Franke & Harris Schlesinger & Richard C. Stapleton, 2006. "Multiplicative Background Risk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 146-153, January.
    6. repec:dau:papers:123456789/698 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Kimball, Miles S, 1993. "Standard Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 589-611, May.
    8. Hetschko, Clemens & Preuss, Malte, 2020. "Income in jeopardy: How losing employment affects the willingness to take risks," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Franke, Günter & Weber, Martin, 1997. "Risk-value efficient portfolios and asset pricing," Discussion Papers, Series II 354, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    10. Caballe, Jordi & Pomansky, Alexey, 1997. "Complete monotonicity, background risk, and risk aversion," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 205-222, October.
    11. Joel M. Vanden, 2006. "Portfolio Insurance And Volatility Regime Switching," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 387-417, April.
    12. Ilia Tsetlin & Robert L. Winkler, 2005. "Risky Choices and Correlated Background Risk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(9), pages 1336-1345, September.
    13. Christian Gollier & James Hammitt & Nicolas Treich, 2013. "Risk and choice: A research saga," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 129-145, October.
    14. Louis Eeckhoudt & Harris Schlesinger, 2006. "Putting Risk in Its Proper Place," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 280-289, March.
    15. Gollier Christian & Schlee Edward E, 2006. "Increased Risk-Bearing with Background Risk," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-31, March.
    16. Gollier, Christian & Schlesinger, Harris, 2002. "Changes in risk and asset prices," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 747-760, May.
    17. Péter Esö & Lucy White, 2004. "Precautionary Bidding in Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 77-92, January.
    18. Hara, Chiaki & Huang, James & Kuzmics, Christoph, 2011. "Effects of background risks on cautiousness with an application to a portfolio choice problem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 346-358, January.
    19. Dana, Rose-Anne & Scarsini, Marco, 2007. "Optimal risk sharing with background risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 152-176, March.
    20. Frank Niehaus, 2001. "The Influence of Heterogeneous Preferences on Asset Prices in an Incomplete Market Model," CeNDEF Workshop Papers, January 2001 2A.2, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Center for Nonlinear Dynamics in Economics and Finance.
    21. Keenan, Donald C. & Snow, Arthur, 2012. "Ross risk vulnerability for introductions and changes in background risk," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 197-206.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:kondp2:253. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwkonde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.