Financial/Actuarial Mathematics Seminar

Academic Year 2005-2006: Thursdays 3:10-4:00, 3088 East Hall



Financial valuation of mortality risk using the instantaneous sharpe ratio

Virginia (Jenny) Young

Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan

October 6, 2005



Abstract

I develop a theory for pricing in an incomplete market by assuming that the writer of a contingent claim requires compensation for the risk in the form of a pre-specified instantaneous Sharpe ratio. I focus on applying this idea to pricing a pure endowment in the presence of a stochastic hazard rate. In this talk, I intuitively derive the equation for the price and use a comparison principle to demonstrate many qualitative features of the price. In the Differential Equations seminar on 19 Oct, I will prove properties of the price for a collection of policyholders and determine the limit of the price per policyholder.

This is joint work with Moshe Milevsky and David Promislow.


Back to the schedule