This course has two main objectives: First, to bring students closer to the frontier of research in asset pricing. Topics include complete and incomplete markets equilibrium models, heterogeneous agents’ models, learning and uncertainty, differences of opinion and asymmetric information, inequality, politics and asset pricing, and so on.
The second objective of the course is to teach students how to write coherent research papers: The main assignments will be three research ideas, that students (in small groups) have to develop into research papers. Each of these papers will have to include an introduction with motivation, a model and its solution (tips will be provided), the discussion of the model’s predictions, and their empirical tests. In addition, students will have to turn in a final paper on a topic of their choice. By the end of the course, students will learn what it takes to write a paper, the type of assumptions sometimes we must make to solve models, when we need to resort on numerical methodologies to obtain results and model predictions, and, finally, how we confront the models’ predictions with empirical data.
The course is intended for Ph.D. students and requires familiarity with the basics of asset pricing theory, at the level of Bus35901 and Bus 35904, and derivative pricing, at the level of Bus 35100 (or, even better, Bus 35130 and Bus 35132).
Important Note: This course can be
taken to satisfy the curriculum requirement in the finance concentration.
To know more about the course, you can download a PDF file with the Course Syllabus
Many have asked me to post my teaching notes a site that is not password protected (to access the link below you must be associated with booth). The following are selected chapters of my teaching notes. Be aware that these are teaching notes, and, as such, they are not clean. Sometimes, I only have tables and figures, with no comments in the text. Also, I cover much additional stuff on the board
Lecture
Notes 1 Complete Markets Models
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies: The Martingale Method
Lecture
Notes 2 Equilibrium with Complete Markets
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 2 Habits and Leverage
Lecture
Notes 3 Uncertainty, Learning, and Asset Pricing
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 3 What Ties Return Volatilities to Price Valuations and Fundamentals?
Addendum 2 to Lecture
Notes 3 Incomplete Information and Learning: Portfolio Allocation (Martingale Method)
Addendum 3 to Lecture
Notes 3 Stock Valuation with Uncertainty about Long-term Growth
Lecture
Notes 4 Governments and Asset Prices
Lecture
Notes 5 Participation Constraints, Asymmetric Information, and Differences of Opinion
Lecture
Notes 6 Market Incompleteness and Portfolio Constraints
2016 Version of the course (1/2 course)
Lecture
Notes 1 Complete Markets Models
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies: The Martingale Method
Lecture
Notes 2 Equilibrium with Complete Markets
Lecture
Notes 3 Uncertainty, Learning, and Asset Pricing
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 3 What Ties Return Volatilities to Price Valuations and Fundamentals?
Addendum 2 to Lecture
Notes 3 Incomplete Information and Learning: Portfolio Allocation (Martingale Method)
Lecture
Notes 4 Governments and Asset Prices
2015 Version of the course
To know more about the course, you can download a PDF file with the Course Syllabus
Lecture
Notes 1 Complete Markets Models
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies: The Martingale Method
Lecture
Notes 2 Equilibrium with Complete Markets
Lecture
Notes 3 Uncertainty, Learning, and Asset Pricing
Addendum to Lecture
Notes 3 What Ties Return Volatilities to Price Valuations and Fundamentals?
Addendum 2 to Lecture
Notes 3 Incomplete Information and Learning: Portfolio Allocation (Martingale Method)
Lecture
Notes 4 Governments and Asset Prices
Lecture
Notes 5 Heterogeneity
Lecture
Notes 6 Market Incompleteness and Portfolio Constraints
Lecture
Notes 7 Term Structure Models
2009 Version of the course
Lecture
Notes 1 Dynamic Portfolio Allocation Strategies
Lecture
Notes 2 Uncertainty, Learning and Asset Pricing
Lecture
Notes 3 The Cross-Section of Stock Returns
Lecture
Notes 4 Fixed Income Securities
Lecture
Notes 5 No Arbitrage Term Structure Models and the Macro Economy
Lecture
Notes 6 Structural Credit Risk Models
2005 Version of the course
Teaching
Notes 0 Elements of Probability Theory
Teaching
Notes 1 Review of Dynamic Equilibrium Models with Complete Markets
Addendum
to TN1 Portfolio Selection with Time Varying
Teaching
Notes 2 Equilibrium with Complete Markets
Teaching
Notes 3 Incomplete Information and Learning: Equilibrium Returns
Addendum
to TN3 Incomplete Information and Learning: Portfolio Allocation
Teaching
Notes 4 Alternative Preferences: Habit Formation and Recursive Utility
Addendum
to TN4: Portfolio Selection with Recursive Utility and Time Varying
Expected Returns
Teaching
Notes 5 Ambiguity Aversion and Robust Decision Making
Addendum
to TN5: Robust Control, Time Varying
You can contact me by sending your mail at pietro.veronesi@ChicagoBooth.edu