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Time-Variation of Higher Moments in a Financial
Market with Heterogeneous Agents: An Analytical Approach
S.
Alfarano
T. Lux
F. Wagner
Abstract
A growing body of recent literature allows for heterogeneous
trading strategies and limited rationality of agents in behavioral models of
financial markets. More and more, this literature has been concerned with the
explanation of some of the stylised facts of financial markets. It now seems
that some previously mysterious time-series characteristics like fat tails of
returns and temporal dependence of volatility can be observed in many of these
models as macroscopic patterns resulting from the interaction among different
groups of speculative traders. However, most of the available evidence stems
from simulation studies of relatively complicated models which do not allow for
analytical solutions. In this paper, this line of research is supplemented by
analytical solutions of a simple variant of the seminal herding model
introduced by Kirman [1993]. Embedding the herding framework into a simple
equilibrium asset pricing model, we are able to derive closed-form solutions
for the time-variation of higher moments as well as related quantities of
interest enabling us to spell out under what circumstances the model gives rise
to realistic behavior of the resulting time series.
A growing
body of recent literature allows for heterogenous trading strategiesand
limited rationality of agents in behavioral models of financial markets. More and
more, this literature has been concerned with the explanation of someof the
stylised facts of financial markets. It now seems that some previously mysterious
time-series characteristics like fat tails of returns and temporal dependence of
volatility can be observed in many of these models as macroscopic patterns
resulting from the interaction among different groups of speculative traders.
However, most of the available evidence stems from simulation studies of
relatively complicated models which do not allow for analytical solutions. In this
paper, this line of research is supplemented by analytical solutions of a simple
variant of the seminal herding model introduced by Kirman [1993]. Embedding the
herding framework into a simple equilibrium asset pricing model, we are
able to derive closed-form solutions for the time-variation of higher moments as well
as related quantities of interest enabling us to spell out under what
circumstances the model gives rise to realistic behavior of the resulting time-series.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/wfri/wpaperseries/wf06-262.pdf
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