Coherent-Price Systems and Uncertainty-Neutral Valuation

Abstract

This paper considers fundamental questions of arbitrage pricing that arises when the uncertainty model incorporates ambiguity about risk. This additional ambiguity motivates a new principle of risk- and ambiguity-neutral valuation as an extension of the paper by Ross (1976) (Ross, Stephen A. 1976. The arbitrage theory of capital asset pricing. Journal of Economic Theory 13: 341–60). In the spirit of Harrison and Kreps (1979) (Harrison, J. Michael, and David M. Kreps. 1979. Martingales and arbitrage in multiperiod securities markets. Journal of Economic Theory 20: 381–408), the paper establishes a micro-economic foundation of viability in which ambiguity-neutrality imposes a fair-pricing principle via symmetric multiple prior martingales. The resulting equivalent symmetric martingale measure set exists if the uncertain volatility in asset prices is driven by an ambiguous Brownian motion.