Department of Finance Phone: 215.898.3477 The Wharton School Fax: 215.898.6200 University of Pennsylvania Email: pille@wharton.upenn.edu 3620 Locust Walk, 2426 SH-DH Web: www.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty/illeditsch.html Philadelphia, PA 19104 6367 Citizenship: Austria (Green Card) Personal Information Research Interests Asset Pricing, Portfolio Choice, Pricing and Hedging of Derivative Instruments, Decisions under Ambiguity (Knightian Uncertainty) Teaching Interests Languages Asset Pricing, Investments, and Derivative Securities German (native), English (fluent) Employment 2008 - present The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor of Finance Education Ph.D. Finance Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX August 2007 M.S. Diploma DI Finance Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO August 2004 Quantitative Finance Institute of Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna, Austria October 2002 Diplomingenieur (equivalent to a Masters) Technical Mathematics with a concentration in Actuarial Mathematics University of Technology in Vienna, Austria March 2000 Doctoral Thesis Title: Essays in Asset Pricing and Portfolio Choice Dissertation committee chairman: Kerry Back Committee members: Michael Gallmeyer, Dmitry Livdan, Dante DeBlassie
Teaching Experience Instructor FNCE 206 Financial Derivatives for Undergraduate Students, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Spring and Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014. FNCE 717 Financial Derivatives for MBA Students, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Spring and Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014. FNCE 899008 Independent Study with Coralie Hemptine, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2010. FNCE 399004 Independent Study with Hye-yoon Jung, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2011. FIN 443 International Finance for Undergraduate Students, Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, Spring 2004. Teaching Assistant Finance Department, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, 2004 2007. Assisted with three Ph.D. courses in theoretical asset pricing and one Ph.D. course in theoretical market microstructure. Assisted with three MBA courses in Investments. Academic Service Referee American Economic Review, Econometrica, Economics Letters, Economic Theory, European Journal of Finance, Finance and Stochastics, Financial Research Letters, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Management Science, Mathematical Finance, Mathematics and Financial Economics, Operations Research, Review of Economic Dynamics, Review of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Studies in Economics and Finance. Program Committee Western Finance Association 2010 2015, Midwest Finance Association 2008, European Finance Association 2009, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Discussant AFA 2009, Cambridge Finance Wharton Seminar Day (June 2009), EFA 2009, NBER Market Microstructure Meeting (Cambridge 2012), Finance Down Under Conference (Melbourne 2013), Fixed Income Conference (Charleston 2013), WFA 2013, EFA 2013, World Finance Conference (Cyprus 2013), Behavioral Finance Conference (Miami 2014), EUROFIDAI Finance Meeting (Paris 2013), AFA 2014, LBS Private Equity Findings Symposium (London 2015)
Academic Service Students advised Hongseok Choi (PhD student Economics Department UPenn), Qi Liu and Efstathios Avdis (PhD students Wharton Finance), HyeYoon Jung and Vayu Kishore (Wharton Research Scholars Program) Fellowships, Awards, and Grants 2008 2014 Rodney White Research Grant, Cynthia and Bennett Golub Endowed Faculty Scholar Award, Best Paper Award World Finance Conference 2013, 2014 Outstanding Paper prize from the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for Quantitative Financial Research. Seminar and Conference Presentations 2015 Seminar at the University of Virginia, Seminar at Carnegie Mellon 2014 Brown Bag Seminar Norwegian School of Management, Seminar at Goethe University in Frankfurt 2013 Workshop on Ambiguity and Robustness in Macroeconomics and Finance in Chicago, World Finance Conference in Cyprus, Wharton Tripartite Seminar in Philadelphia, UBC Summer Conference in Vancouver, EUROFIDAI Finance Meeting in Paris 2012 4th Risk Management Conference Mont Tremblant Québec, NBER Summer Institute Asset Pricing Workshop in Cambridge, 7th Finance Theory Group Meeting at Duke 2011 Econometric Society Meetings in Denver, Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota, University of Mannheim, London Business School 2010 Seminar at Columbia University, Workshop on Risk, Ambiguity, and Decisions in honor of Daniel Ellsberg in Vienna, 20th Anniversary Seminar Inquire Europe in Berlin 2009 Society of Economic Dynamics Meeting in Istanbul, European Finance Association Meeting in Bergen, Seminar at Vienna Graduate School of Finance 2008 Rotman School of Management, Stern School of Business, Wharton School, Carnegie Mellon, University of Amsterdam, Tilburg University, Warwick Business School, NHH-Bergen, BI-Oslo, New Stars in Finance Conference in Madrid
Published and Forthcoming Papers 1) Ambiguous Information, Portfolio Inertia, and Excess Volatility Journal of Finance Vol. LXVI, No 6 December 2011. Abstract: I study the effects of risk and ambiguity (Knightian uncertainty) on optimal portfolios and equilibrium asset prices when investors receive information that is difficult to link to fundamentals. I show that the desire of investors to hedge ambiguity leads to portfolio inertia and excess volatility. Specifically, when news is surprising, investors may not react to price changes even if there are no transaction costs or other market frictions. Moreover, I show that small shocks to cash flow news, asset betas, or market risk premia may lead to drastic changes in the stock price and hence to excess volatility. Working Papers 2) Information Inertia (with Scott Condie and Jayant Ganguli). Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Finance. Abstract: We study how information about an asset affects optimal portfolios and equilibrium asset prices when investors are not sure about the model that predicts future asset values and thus treat the information as ambiguous. We show that this ambiguity leads to optimal portfolios that are insensitive to news even though there are no information processing costs or other market frictions. In equilibrium, we show that stock prices may not react to public information that is worse than expected and this mispricing of bad news leads to profitable trading strategies based on public information. 3) Disagreement about Inflation and the Yield Curve (with Paul Ehling, Michael Gallmeyer, and Christian Heyerdahl-Larsen). Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Finance. Abstract: We show theoretically that inflation disagreement drives a wedge between real and nominal yields and raises their levels and volatilities. We demonstrate empirically that an inflation disagreement increase of one standard deviation raises real and nominal yields and their volatilities, break-even inflation, and the inflation risk premium by at least 30% of their respective standard deviations. Inflation disagreement is positively related to consumers crosssectional consumption growth volatility and trading in bonds, interest rate futures, and inflation swaps. Calibrating the model to disagreement, inflation, and yield data reproduces the economically significant impact of inflation disagreement on real and nominal yield curves.
Working Papers 4) Inflation Risk and Inflation-Protected and Nominal Bonds January 2015. Revise and Resubmit at Management Science. Abstract: I decompose inflation risk into (i) a component that is correlated with real returns on positive-net-supply securities (stocks, real estate, etc.) and factors that determine investors preferences and investment opportunities and (ii) a residual component. In equilibrium, only the first component earns a risk premium. Therefore investors should avoid exposure to the residual component. All nominal bonds, including the nominal money-market account, are equally exposed to the residual component except inflation- protected bonds, which provide a means to hedge it. Every investor should put 100% of his wealth in positive-net-supply securities and inflation-protected bonds and should finance every long/short position in nominal bonds with an equal amount of other nominal bonds or by borrowing/lending in the nominal money market account; i.e. investors should hold a zero-investment portfolio of nominal bonds and the nominal money market account. 5) Risk Premia and Volatilities in a Nonlinear Term Structure Model (with Peter Feldhütter and Christian Heyerdahl-Larsen, March 2015). Abstract: We introduce a reduced form term structure model with closed form solutions for yields where the short rate and market prices of risk are nonlinear functions of Gaussian state variables. The nonlinear model with three Gaussian factors matches both the time-variation in expected excess returns and yield volatilities of U.S. Treasury bonds from 1961 to 2014. Yields depend on all three factors, yet the model exhibits features consistent with unspanned risk premia (URP) and unspanned stochastic volatility (USV). The probability of a high volatility scenario increases with the monetary experiment and remains high during the Greenspan area, even though volatilities came back down to normal levels.