These Proceedings offer a selection of peer-reviewed research and survey papers by some of the foremost international researchers in the fields of finance, energy, stochastics and risk, who present their latest findings on topical problems. The papers cover the areas of stochastic modeling in energy and financial markets; risk management with environmental factors from a stochastic control perspective; and valuation and hedging of derivatives in markets dominated by renewables, all of which further develop the theory of stochastic analysis and mathematical finance. The papers were presented at the first conference on “Stochastics of Environmental and Financial Economics (SEFE)”, being part of the activity in the SEFE research group of the Centre of Advanced Study (CAS) at the Academy of Sciences in Oslo, Norway during the 2014/2015 academic year.

This monograph presents a theory for random field models in time and space, viewed as stochastic processes with values in a Hilbert space, to model the stochastic dynamics of forward and futures prices in energy, power, and commodity markets. In this book, the well-known Heath–Jarrow–Morton approach from interest rate theory is adopted and extended into an infinite-dimensional framework, allowing for flexible modeling of price stochasticity across time and along the term structure curve. Various models are introduced based on stochastic partial differential equations with infinite-dimensional Lévy processes as noise drivers, emphasizing random fields described by low-dimensional parametric covariance functions instead of classical high-dimensional factor models. The Filipović space, a separable Hilbert space of Sobolev type, is found to be a convenient state space for the dynamics of forward and futures term structures. The monograph provides a classification of important operators in this space, covering covariance operators and the stochastic modeling of volatility term structures, including the Samuelson effect. Fourier methods are employed to price many derivatives of interest in energy, power, and commodity markets, and sensitivity 'delta' expressions can be derived. Additionally, the monograph covers forward curve smoothing, the connection between forwards with fixed delivery and delivery period, as well as the classical theory of forward and futures pricing. This monograph will appeal to researchers and graduate students interested in mathematical finance and stochastic analysis applied in the challenging markets of energy, power, and commodities. Practitioners seeking sophisticated yet flexible and analytically tractable risk models will also find it valuable.

In Part I, the fundamentals of financial thinking and elementary mathematical methods of finance are presented. The method of presentation is simple enough to bridge the elements of financial arithmetic and complex models of financial math developed in the later parts. It covers characteristics of cash flows, yield curves, and valuation of securities. Part II is devoted to the allocation of funds and risk management: classics (Markowitz theory of portfolio), capital asset pricing model, arbitrage pricing theory, asset & liability management, value at risk. The method explanation takes into account the computational aspects. Part III explains modeling aspects of multistage stochastic programming on a relatively accessible level. It includes a survey of existing software, links to parametric, multiobjective and dynamic programming, and to probability and statistics. It focuses on scenario-based problems with the problems of scenario generation and output analysis discussed in detail and illustrated within a case study.

Drawing on advanced probability theory, Ambit Stochastics is used to model stochastic processes which depend on both time and space. This monograph, the first on the subject, provides a reference for this burgeoning field, complete with the applications that have driven its development. Unique to Ambit Stochastics are ambit sets, which allow the delimitation of space-time to a zone of interest, and ambit fields, which are particularly well-adapted to modelling stochastic volatility or intermittency. These attributes lend themselves notably to applications in the statistical theory of turbulence and financial econometrics. In addition to the theory and applications of Ambit Stochastics, the book also contains new theory on the simulation of ambit fields and a comprehensive stochastic integration theory for Volterra processes in a non-semimartingale context. Written by pioneers in the subject, this book will appeal to researchers and graduate students interested in empirical stochastic modelling.

This book brings together academic work on contemporary issues in financial institutions and markets. The general theme is designed to allow for a wide range of topics, covering the diverse nature of academic enquiry in banking and finance. The contributions thus address a broad spectrum of contemporary issues including bank diversification and securitization activities; bank regulatory reforms and competition; the performance of mutual funds and alternative asset classes; role of liquidity in price discovery for credit derivatives; and the existence of the compass rose pattern within option contracts market. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of Finance.

This book is a collection of Amitrajeet A Batabyal's most important papers on the environment and economic development. This book's uniqueness stems from the fact that it uses novel modeling tools that are largely unfamiliar to economists to shed valuable light on contemporary problems at the interface of the environment and economic development.

Collecting together twenty-three self-contained articles, this volume presents the current research of a number of renowned scientists in both probability theory and statistics as well as their various applications in economics, finance, the physics of wind-blown sand, queueing systems, risk assessment, turbulence and other areas. The contributions are dedicated to and inspired by the research of Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen who, since the early 1960s, has been and continues to be a very active and influential researcher working on a wide range of important problems. The topics covered include, but are not limited to, econometrics, exponential families, Lévy processes and infinitely divisible distributions, limit theory, mathematical finance, random matrices, risk assessment, statistical inference for stochastic processes, stochastic analysis and optimal control, time series, and turbulence. The book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in probability, statistics and their applications.

This book offers a comprehensive view on bancassurance from its origin to future challenges and opportunities, considering the relevant changes currently interesting the financial services industry. It also provides a detailed review of theoretical and empirical literature dealing with financial conglomeration.

Risk models are models of uncertainty, engineered for some purposes. They are “educated guesses and hypotheses” assessed and valued in terms of well-defined future states and their consequences. They are engineered to predict, to manage countable and accountable futures and to provide a frame of reference within which we may believe that “uncertainty is tamed”. Quantitative-statistical tools are used to reconcile our information, experience and other knowledge with hypotheses that both serve as the foundation of risk models and also value and price risk. Risk models are therefore common to most professions, each with its own methods and techniques based on their needs, experience and a wisdom accrued over long periods of time. This book provides a broad and interdisciplinary foundation to engineering risks and to their financial valuation and pricing. Risk models applied in industry and business, heath care, safety, the environment and regulation are used to highlight their variety while financial valuation techniques are used to assess their financial consequences. This book is technically accessible to all readers and students with a basic background in probability and statistics (with 3 chapters devoted to introduce their elements). Principles of risk measurement, valuation and financial pricing as well as the economics of uncertainty are outlined in 5 chapters with numerous examples and applications. New results, extending classical models such as the CCAPM are presented providing insights to assess the risks and their price in an interconnected, dependent and strategic economic environment. In an environment departing from the fundamental assumptions we make regarding financial markets, the book provides a strategic/game-like approach to assess the risk and the opportunities that such an environment implies. To control these risks, a strategic-control approach is developed that recognizes that many risks resulting by “what we do” as well as “what others do”. In particular we address the strategic and statistical control of compliance in large financial institutions confronted increasingly with a complex and far more extensive regulation.

The Abel Symposia volume at hand contains a collection of high-quality articles written by the world’s leading experts, and addressing all mathematicians interested in advances in deterministic and stochastic dynamical systems, numerical analysis, and control theory. In recent years we have witnessed a remarkable convergence between individual mathematical disciplines that approach deterministic and stochastic dynamical systems from mathematical analysis, computational mathematics and control theoretical perspectives. Breakthrough developments in these fields now provide a common mathematical framework for attacking many different problems related to differential geometry, analysis and algorithms for stochastic and deterministic dynamics. In the Abel Symposium 2016, which took place from August 16-19 in Rosendal near Bergen, leading researchers in the fields of deterministic and stochastic differential equations, control theory, numerical analysis, algebra and random processes presented and discussed the current state of the art in these diverse fields. The current Abel Symposia volume may serve as a point of departure for exploring these related but diverse fields of research, as well as an indicator of important current and future developments in modern mathematics.