EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The epistemology of modern finance

Xavier De Scheemaekere ()

No 06-017.RS, Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: This paper investigates modern finance’s epistemological status with a special emphasis on its most quantitative part: Black-Scholes option pricing model and its extensions. It zeroes on the analysis of mathematical methods in financial economics and their connection to risk and uncertainty. Risk-neutral valuation, a direct consequence of Black-Scholes model, restricts the range of individual and subjective uncertainty by putting a price on replicable risk, thereby conferring to modern finance a unique kind of objectivity in pricing assets, as opposed to any speculative assessment. Yet, in another sense, this objectivity is only relative for it has no direct connection to the real world, nor any causal or predictive power, for modern finance ultimately deals with uncertainty itself. The paper sheds light on the articulation of these contrasting aspects.

Keywords: Asset pricing; Black-Scholes option pricing model; Modern finance; Risk; Uncertainty. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B16 G12 G13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 p.
Date: 2006-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fin and nep-fmk
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published by: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Business School, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB)

Downloads: (external link)
https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/14567/1/rou-0192.pdf rou-0192 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sol:wpaper:06-017

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://hdl.handle.ne ... ulb.ac.be:2013/14567

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benoit Pauwels ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:06-017