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In actuarial science, the Esscher transform (Gerber & Shiu 1994) is a transform that takes a probability density f(x) and transforms it to a new probability density f(x; h) with a parameter h. It was introduced by F. Esscher in 1932 (Esscher 1932).

Definition

Let f(x) be a probability density. Its Esscher transform is defined as

f(x;h)={\frac {e^{hx}f(x)}{\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }e^{hx}f(x)\,dx}}.\,

More generally, if μ is a probability measure, the Esscher transform of μ is a new probability measure E_h(μ) which has density

{\frac {e^{hx}}{\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }e^{hx}\,d\mu (x)}}

with respect to μ.

Basic properties

Combination

The Esscher transform of an Esscher transform is again an Esscher transform: E_h_₁ E_h_₂ = E_h_₁ + h₂.

Inverse

The inverse of the Esscher transform is the Esscher transform with negative parameter: E⁻¹
_h = E_−h

Mean move

The effect of the Esscher transform on the normal distribution is moving the mean:

E_{h}({\mathcal {N}}(\mu ,\,\sigma ^{2}))={\mathcal {N}}(\mu +h\sigma ^{2},\,\sigma ^{2}).\,

Examples

Distribution	Esscher transform
Bernoulli Bernoulli(p)	$k\mapsto {\frac {e^{hk}p^{k}(1-p)^{1-k}}{1-p+pe^{h}}}{\text{ for }}k=0,1.$
Binomial B(n, p)	$k\mapsto {\frac {{n \choose k}e^{hk}p^{k}(1-p)^{n-k}}{(1-p+pe^{h})^{n}}}{\text{ for }}k=0,1,\ldots ,n.$
Normal N(μ, σ²)	$x\mapsto {\frac {1}{\sqrt {2\pi \sigma ^{2}}}}e^{-{\frac {(x-\mu -\sigma ^{2}h)^{2}}{2\sigma ^{2}}}}{\text{ for }}x{\text{ real.}}$
Poisson Pois(λ)	$k\mapsto {\frac {e^{hk-\lambda e^{h}}\lambda ^{k}}{k!}}{\text{ for }}k=0,1,2,\ldots \,.$

Esscher principle

The Esscher principle is an insurance premium principle used in actuarial sciences that derives from the Esscher transform. It is given by $\pi [X,h]=E[Xe^{hX}]/E[e^{hX}]$ , where $h$ is a strictly positive parameter. This premium is the net premium for a risk $Y=Xe^{hX}/m_{X}(h)$ , where $m_{X}(h)$ denotes the moment generating function. This risk measure does not respect the positive homogeneity property of coherent risk measure for $h>0$ .

References

Gerber, Hans U.; Shiu, Elias S. W. (1994). “Option Pricing by Esscher Transforms” (PDF). Transactions of the Society of Actuaries. 46: 99–191.

Esscher, F. (1932). “On the Probability Function in the Collective Theory of Risk”. Skandinavisk Aktuarietidskrift. 15 (3): 175–195. doi:10.1080/03461238.1932.10405883.

Sample Page

Definition

Basic properties

Examples

Esscher principle

See also

References