Exponential functionals of Lévy processes and variable annuity guaranteed benefits

Exponential functionals of Brownian motion have been extensively studied in financial and insurance mathematics due to their broad applications, for example, in the pricing of Asian options. The Black–Scholes model is appealing because of mathematical tractability, yet empirical evidence shows that geometric Brownian motion does not adequately capture features of market equity returns. One popular alternative for modeling equity returns consists in replacing the geometric Brownian motion by an exponential of a Lévy process. In this paper we use this latter model to study variable annuity guaranteed benefits and to compute explicitly the distribution of certain exponential functionals.     

On the Wiener–Hopf factorization for Lévy processes with bounded positive jumps

We study the Wiener–Hopf factorization for Lévy processes with bounded positive jumps and arbitrary negative jumps. We prove that the positive Wiener–Hopf factor can be expressed as an infinite product involving solutions to the equation ψ(z)=q$\psi \left(z\right)=q$, where ψ$\psi$ is the Laplace exponent. Under additional regularity assumptions on the Lévy measure we obtain an asymptotic expression for these solutions. When the process is spectrally negative with bounded jumps, we derive a series representation for the scale function. In order to illustrate possible applications, we discuss the implementation of numerical algorithms and present the results of several numerical experiments.     

Canonical Wiener–Hopf and spectral factorization of large-degree matrix polynomials

We present a novel Newton method for canonical Wiener–Hopf and spectral factorization of matrix polynomials. The initial vector results from solving a block Toeplitz-like system, and the Jacobi matrix governing the Newton iteration has nice structural and numerical properties. The local quadratic convergence of the method is proved and was tested numerically. For scalar polynomials of degree 20000, a superfast version of the method implemented on a laptop typically reqired about half a minute to produce an initial vector and then performed the Newton iteration within one second. In the matrix case, the method worked reproachless on a laptop with 8 Gigabyte RAM if the degree of the polynomial times the squared matrix dimension did not exceed 20000. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Exponential convergence in probability for empirical means of Lévy processes

Let （Xt）t≥0 be a Lévy process taking values in R^d with absolutely continuous marginal distributions. Given a real measurable function f on R^d in Kato＇s class, we show that the empirical mean 1/t ∫ f（Xs）ds converges to a constant z in probability with an exponential rate if and only if f has a uniform mean z. This result improves a classical result of Kahane et al. and generalizes a similar result of L. Wu from the Brownian Motion to general Lévy processes.     

A Wiener–Hopf based approach to numerical computations in fluctuation theory for Lévy processes

This paper focuses on numerical evaluation techniques related to fluctuation theory for Lévy processes; they can be applied in various domains, e.g., in finance in the pricing of so-called barrier options. More specifically, with $\bar{X}_t:= \sup _{0\le s\le t} X_s$ denoting the running maximum of the Lévy process $X_t$ , the aim is to evaluate $\mathbb{P }(\bar{X}_t \in \mathrm{d}x)$ for $t,x>0$ . The starting point is the Wiener–Hopf factorization, which yields an expression for the transform $\mathbb E e^{-\alpha \bar{X}_{e(\vartheta )}}$ of the running maximum at an exponential epoch (with $\vartheta ^{-1}$ the mean of this exponential random variable). This expression is first rewritten in a more convenient form, and then it is pointed out how to use Laplace inversion techniques to numerically evaluate $\mathbb{P }(\bar{X}_t\in \mathrm{d}x).$ In our experiments we rely on the efficient and accurate algorithm developed in den Iseger (Probab Eng Inf Sci 20:1–44, 2006). We illustrate the performance of the algorithm with various examples: Brownian motion (with drift), a compound Poisson process, and a jump diffusion process. In models with jumps, we are also able to compute the density of the first time a specific threshold is exceeded, jointly with the corresponding overshoot. The paper is concluded by pointing out how our algorithm can be used in order to analyze the Lévy process’ concave majorant.     

Local Wiener–Hopf factorization and indices over arbitrary fields

In this paper, a generalization to arbitrary fields of the usual Wiener–Hopf equivalence of complex valued rational matrix functions is given and the left local Wiener–Hopf factorization indices defined in our previous work [A. Amparan, S. Marcaida, I. Zaballa, Local realizations and local polynomial matrix representations of systems, Linear Algebra Appl. 425 (2007) 757–775] are proved to form a complete system of invariants for this equivalence relation. For the case when the field is algebraically closed a reduced form of a controllable matrix pair under the feedback equivalence is presented for which the controllability indices can be written as sums of the local controllability indices [A. Amparan, S. Marcaida, I. Zaballa, On the existence of linear systems with prescribed invariants for system similarity, Linear Algebra Appl. 413 (2006) 510–533].     

Lévy processes and quasi-shuffle algebras

We investigate the algebra of repeated integrals of semimartingales. We prove that a minimal family of semimartingales generates a quasi-shuffle algebra. In essence, to fulfil the minimality criterion, first, the family must be a minimal generator of the algebra of repeated integrals generated by its elements and by quadratic covariation processes recursively constructed from the elements of the family. Second, recursively constructed quadratic covariation processes may lie in the linear span of previously constructed quadratic covariation processes and of the family, but may not lie in the linear span of repeated integrals of these. We prove that a finite family of independent Lévy processes that have finite moments generates a minimal family. Key to the proof are the Teugels martingales and a strong orthogonalization of them. We conclude that a finite family of independent Lévy processes forms a quasi-shuffle algebra. We discuss important potential applications to constructing efficient numerical methods for the strong approximation of stochastic differential equations driven by Lévy processes.     

Abrupt Lévy processes

Among Lévy processes with unbounded variation, we distinguish the abrupt ones, which are characterised by infinitely sharp extrema. Stable processes with parameter α>1 and creeping Lévy processes are abrupt. We give a characterisation of abrupt processes and study their Dini derivatives at all points of their trajectories.     

Simulation of Student–Lévy processes using series representations

Lévy processes have become very popular in many applications in finance, physics and beyond. The Student–Lévy process is one interesting special case where increments are heavy-tailed and, for 1-increments, Student t distributed. Although theoretically available, there is a lack of path simulation techniques in the literature due to its complicated form. In this paper we address this issue using series representations with the inverse Lévy measure method and the rejection method and prove upper bounds for the mean squared approximation error. In the numerical section we discuss a numerical inversion scheme to find the inverse Lévy measure efficiently. We extend the existing numerical inverse Lévy measure method to incorporate explosive Lévy tail measures. Monte Carlo studies verify the error bounds and the effectiveness of the simulation routine. As a side result we obtain series representations of the so called inverse gamma subordinator which are used to generate paths in this model.     

Representation theory of finite groups in Wiener–Hopf factorization problem

We consider the Wiener–Hopf factorization problem for a matrix function that is completely defined by its first column: the succeeding columns are obtained from the first one by means of a finite group of permutations. The symmetry of this matrix function allows us to reduce the dimension of the problem. In particular, we find some relations between its partial indices and can compute some of the indices. In special cases, we can explicitly obtain the Wiener–Hopf factorization of the matrix function.     

Fluctuations of Stable Processes and Exponential Functionals of Hypergeometric Lévy Processes

We study the distribution and various properties of exponential functionals of hypergeometric Lévy processes. We derive an explicit formula for the Mellin transform of the exponential functional and give both convergent and asymptotic series expansions of its probability density function. As applications we present a new proof of some of the results on the density of the supremum of a stable process, which were recently obtained in Hubalek and Kuznetsov (Electron. Commun. Probab. 16:84–95, 2011) and Kuznetsov (Ann. Probab. 39(3):1027–1060, 2011). We also derive several new results related to (i) the entrance law of a stable process conditioned to stay positive, (ii) the entrance law of the excursion measure of a stable process reflected at its past infimum, (iii) the distribution of the lifetime of a stable process conditioned to hit zero continuously and (iv) the entrance law and the last passage time of the radial part of a multidimensional symmetric stable process.     

Structural properties of reflected Lévy processes

This paper considers a number of structural properties of reflected Lévy processes, where both one-sided reflection (at 0) and two-sided reflection (at both 0 and K>0) are examined. With V _t being the position of the reflected process at time t, we focus on the analysis of $\zeta(t):=\mathbb{E}V_{t}$ and $\xi(t):=\mathbb{V}\mathrm{ar}V_{t}$ . We prove that for the one- and two-sided reflection, ζ(t) is increasing and concave, whereas for the one-sided reflection, ξ(t) is increasing. In most proofs we first establish the claim for the discrete-time counterpart (that is, a reflected random walk), and then use a limiting argument. A key step in our proofs for the two-sided reflection is a new representation of the position of the reflected process in terms of the driving Lévy process.     

Harmonic analysis of additive Lévy processes

Let X ₁, . . . ,X _N denote N independent d-dimensional Lévy processes, and consider the N-parameter random field $$\mathfrak{X}(t) := X_1(t_1)+\cdots+ X_N(t_N).$$ First we demonstrate that for all nonrandom Borel sets ${F\subseteq{{\bf R}^d}}$ , the Minkowski sum ${\mathfrak{X}({{\bf R}^{N}_{+}})\oplus F}$ , of the range ${\mathfrak{X}({{\bf R}^{N}_{+}})}$ of ${\mathfrak{X}}$ with F, can have positive d-dimensional Lebesgue measure if and only if a certain capacity of F is positive. This improves our earlier joint effort with Yuquan Zhong by removing a certain condition of symmetry in Khoshnevisan et al. (Ann Probab 31(2):1097–1141, 2003). Moreover, we show that under mild regularity conditions, our necessary and sufficient condition can be recast in terms of one-potential densities. This rests on developing results in classical (non-probabilistic) harmonic analysis that might be of independent interest. As was shown in Khoshnevisan et al. (Ann Probab 31(2):1097–1141, 2003), the potential theory of the type studied here has a large number of consequences in the theory of Lévy processes. Presently, we highlight a few new consequences.     

The multifractal nature of Lévy processes

We show that the sample paths of most Lévy processes are multifractal functions and we determine their spectrum of singularities. Received: 21 February 1997 / Revised version: 27 July 1998     

Optimal stopping of Markov switching Lévy processes

We consider a finite time horizon optimal stopping of a regime-switching Lévy process. We prove that the value function of the optimal stopping problem can be characterized as the unique viscosity solution of the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman variational inequalities.