Empirical Evidence of Jump-to-Default in Option Pricing

(joint with Chen Ying)

We find that a significant component of default intensity related to volatility that is much larger than that implied by associated credit default swap spreads. The implied volatility under the Bessel process is also mostly higher than that implied by lognormal diffusion.

There are also systematic biases in the option prices when they are in-the-money or out-of-the-money. We provide some insights into how the extended CEV jump-to-default model may improve on the CEV model and how some issues remain to be addressed.

The inconsistent default intensity implications from the CDS market and the stock options market are also discussed.