Xiaowen Zhou

An Insurance Risk Model with Parisian Implementation Delays

We consider a similar variant of the event ruin for a Levy insurance risk process as in Czarna and Palmowski (J Appl Probab 48(4):984–1002, 2011) and Loeffen et al. (to appear, 2011) when the surplus process is allowed to spend time under a pre-specified default level before ruin is recognized. In these two articles, the ruin probability is examined when deterministic implementation delays are allowed. In this paper, we propose to capitalize on the idea of randomization and thus assume these delays are of a mixed Erlang nature. Together with the analytical interest of this problem, we will show through the development of new methodological tools that these stochastic delays lead to more explicit and computable results for various ruin-related quantities than their deterministic counterparts. Using the modern language of scale functions, we study the Laplace transform of this so-called Parisian time to ruin in an insurance risk model driven by a spectrally negative Levy process of bounded variation. In the process, a generalization of the two-sided exit problem for this class of processes is further obtained.

The joint Laplace transforms for diffusion occupation times

In this paper we adopt the perturbation approach of Landriault, Renaud and Zhou (2011) to find expressions for the joint Laplace transforms of occupation times for time-homogeneous diffusion processes. The expressions are in terms of solutions to the associated differential equations. These Laplace transforms are applied to study ruin-related problems for several classes of diffusion risk processes.

Pricing of Parisian Options for a Jump-Diffusion Model with Two-Sided Jumps

Abstract Using the solution of one-sided exit problem, a procedure to price Parisian barrier options in a jump-diffusion model with two-sided exponential jumps is developed. By extending the method developed in Chesney, Jeanblanc-Picqué and Yor (1997; Brownian excursions and Parisian barrier options, Advances in Applied Probability, 29(1), pp. 165–184) for the diffusion case to the more general set-up, we arrive at a numerical pricing algorithm that significantly outperforms Monte Carlo simulation for the prices of such products.

Liquidation risk in the presence of Chapters 7 and 11 of the US bankruptcy code

We aim at quantitatively measuring the liquidation risk of a firm subject to both Chapters 7 and 11 of the US bankruptcy code. The firm value is modeled by a general time-homogeneous diffusion process in which the drift and volatility are level dependent and can be easily adjusted to reflect the state changes of the firm. An explicit formula for the probability of liquidation is established, based on which we gain a quantitative understanding of how the capital structures before and during bankruptcy affect the probability of liquidation.