Prof. Dr. Leisen

Areas of Specialization

Mathematical Finance; Portfolio Management; Asset Pricing; Private Equity

 

Academic Appointments

Since 04/2004

University of Mainz
Full Professor of Banking

Mainz, Germany

12/2002-04/2004

Centre de Recherche Mathématique (CRM)
Associated Member of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory

Montréal, Québec

05/2002-04/2004

Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche en Economie Quantitative (CIREQ/CRDE)
Research Fellow

Montréal, Québec

09/2000- 04/2004

McGill University
Finance Area (Faculty of Management) and
Department of Mathematics (Faculty of Science)
Assistant Professor

Montréal, Québec

09/1998-08/2000

Stanford University, Hoover Institution,
Postdoctoral Fellow

Stanford, California

 

Education

10/1995-09/1998

University of Bonn
Doctoral student in economics;
Supervisor: Prof. Dieter Sondermann

Bonn, Germany

08/1996-09/1997

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), and Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique (CREST)
Doctoral student in economics;
Supervisors: Professors Roger Guesnerie and Christian Gouriéroux

Paris, France

10/1992-10/1995

University of Bonn
M.Sc. (“Diplom”) student in “Applied Mathematics”;
Supervisor: Prof. Hans Föllmer

Bonn, Germany

10/1989-09/1992

University of Mainz
B.Sc. (“Vordiplom”) student in Mathematics

Mainz, Germany

 

Degrees

09/1998

University of Bonn
Ph.D. (“Dr. rer. pol.”) in economics

Bonn, Germany

10/1995

University of Bonn
M.Sc. (“Diplom”) in Mathematics

Bonn, Germany

 

Courses Taught at the University of Mainz

Graduate

"Introduction to Banking"

Fall 2004

"Financial Markets Theory"

Winter 2004

"Investments"

Winter 2004 & 2006

"Risk Management in Banking"

Winter 2005 & 2006

"Venture Capital and Private Equity"

Winter 2005 & Summer 2007

Undergraduate

"Finance"

Summer 2004, 2006 & 2008

 

Courses Taught Elsewhere

Ph.D. (at McGill)

"Continuous-Time Finance"

Fall 2001 & 2003

MBA (at McGill)

"Venture Capital"

Fall 2002 & 2003

B.Comm. (at McGill)

"Entrepreneurial Finance"

Fall 2002 & 2003

"Advanced Options and Futures"

Winter 2001

M. Sc. (at McGill)

"Advanced Probability Theory I"

Fall 2001

"Brownian Motion, Stochastic Calculus and Financial Applications"

Winter 2001

B. Sc. (at McGill)

"Mathematical Finance"

Fall 2002 & Winter 2004

M. Finance (at U. Waterloo)

"Finance 2"

Fall 1999


Consulting Experience

Summer 1999

The Boston Consulting Group
Summer Associate, Consultant in Value Management

Frankfurt, Germany


Spring 1997


Soci
été Génerale
Scientific Consultant on “Efficient Option Pricing Methods”


Paris
,
France

 

Publications

Refereed Articles

“Stock Evolution Under Stochastic Volatility: A Discrete Approach,” Journal of Derivatives 8 (2), pp. 9-27, 2000.

“Pricing Barrier Options in a Black-Scholes Model With Jump Risk,” European Finance Review 3, 319-342, 1999.

“The Random-Time Binomial Model,” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 23, 1355-1386, 1999.

“Pricing the American Put Option: A Detailed Convergence Analysis for Binomial Models,” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 22, 1426-1444, 1998.

Binomial Models for Option Valuation - Examining and Improving Convergence,” with M. Reimer, Applied Mathematical Finance 3, 319-346, 1996.

 

Book Chapters

“Building a Consistent Pricing Model from Observed Option Prices,” with Jean-Paul Laurent, Quantitative Analysis in Financial Markets, Marco Avellaneda (ed.), World Scientific Publishing, pp. 216-238, 2001.

 

Working Papers

“Equilibrium Open Interest,” with Kenneth L. Judd (Stanford University).

“A Partial Equilibrium Model of Option Markets,” with Kenneth L. Judd (Stanford University).

“Implications of Asymmetry Risk for Portfolio Analysis and Asset Pricing,” with Eric Renault (University of North Carolina) and Fousseni Chabi-Yo (Bank of Canada)

“A Comment on the Rate of Convergence of Discrete-Time Contingent Claims,” with M. Reimer (DWS – Deutsche Bank).

“Stochastic Volatility Price Dynamics are Inconsistent with Equilibrium Option Trade.”

Call Option Open Interest in an Economy with Nontradeable Risks and Parameter Uncertainty.”

“Mixed Lognormal Distributions for Option Pricing and Risk-Management.”

“Stochastic Volatility and the Aggregation of Preferences.”

 

Academic Presentations

Conference presentations at many major conferences, including North American Econometric Society, European Finance Association, Gerzensee Summer Symposium on Financial Markets, German Finance Association, RISK.

Seminar presentations at many Universities and Research Institutes, including Stanford, Federal Reserve Board, Sydney, Goldman Sachs, St. Gallen, Pompeu Fabra, Karlsruhe, Humboldt, Bonn.

 

Honors and Awards

Outstanding Referee Award 2006 Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control

Graduate student prize in Computational Economics, awarded by the Society for Computational Economics for the paper “The Random-Time Binomial Model,” Stanford, CA, 1997.

Postdoctoral Scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 1998-2000.

Doctoral Scholarship within the European Doctoral Program for Quantitative Economics at the University of Bonn, German Science Foundation (DFG), 1995-1998.

ERASMUS Scholarship (European Commission), University of Rome (Italy), 1991-1992.

 

Referee Activity

American Economic Review; Management Science; Journal of Finance; Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control; Review of Finance; Journal of Futures Markets; Finance and Stochastics; Annals of Applied Probability; Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics; Advances in Futures and Options Research; Mathematical Finance; Review of Derivatives Research; Quantitative Finance; Journal of Financial Research; Addison-Wesley; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

 

Visiting Positions

Visiting Fellow, Stanford University, Hoover Institution, September 1998 – August 2000 (two years), in February 2001 (one week), May 2002 (one month) and February 2003 (one month).

Visiting Professor, University of Technology Sydney, February & March 2002 (two months) and September – December 2007 (four months)

Visiting Professor , University of Waterloo, Fall 1999

Humboldt University (Berlin), May 1998 (one week)

Visiting Scholar, CREST (Center for Research in Economics and Statistics), Paris, Finance Department, October 1997 to August 1998 (multiple visits of three months total)