Girsanov theorem

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Visualisation of the Girsanov theorem — The left side shows a Wiener process with negative drift under a canonical measure P; on the right side each path of the process is colored according to its likelihood under the martingale measure Q. The density transformation from P to Q is given by the Girsanov theorem.
Visualisation of the Girsanov theorem — The left side shows a Wiener process with negative drift under a canonical measure P; on the right side each path of the process is colored according to its likelihood under the martingale measure Q. The density transformation from P to Q is given by the Girsanov theorem.

In probability theory, the Girsanov theorem tells how stochastic processes change under changes in measure. The theorem is especially important in the theory of financial mathematics as it tells how to convert from the physical measure which describes the probability that an underlying instrument (such as a share price or interest rate) will take a particular value or values to the risk-neutral measure which is a very useful tool for evaluating the value of derivatives on the underlying.

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[edit] History

Results of this type were first proved by Cameron-Martin in the 1940s and by Girsanov in 1960. They have been subsequently extended to more general classes of process culminating in the general form of Lenglart (1977).

[edit] Significance

Girsanov's theorem is important in the general theory of stochastic processes since it enables the key result that if Q is a measure absolutely continuous with respect to P then every P-semimartingale is a Q-semimartingale.

[edit] Statement of theorem

We state the theorem first for the special case when the underlying stochastic process is a Wiener process. This special case is sufficient for risk-neutral pricing in the Black-Scholes model and in many other models (eg all continuous models).

Let {Wt} be a Wiener process on the Wiener probability space \{\Omega,\mathcal{F},P\}. Let Xt be a measurable process adapted to the natural filtration of the Wiener process \{\mathcal{F}^W_t\}.

Given an adapted process Xt define

Z_t=\mathcal{E} (X)_t,\,

where \mathcal{E}(X) is the stochastic exponential (or Doléans exponential) of X with respect to W, i.e.

\mathcal{E}(X)_t=\exp \left ( X_t - \frac{1}{2} [X]_t \right ).

If Zt is a martingale then a probability measure Q can be defined on {σ,F} such that Radon-Nikodym derivative

\left .\frac{d Q}{d P} \right|_{\mathcal{F}_t} = Z_t = \mathcal{E} (X )_t

Then for each t the measure Q restricted to the unaugmented sigma fields \mathcal{F}^W_t is equivalent to P restricted to \mathcal{F}^W_t.\,

Furthermore if Y is a local martingale under P then the process

\tilde Y_t = Y_t - \left[ W,X \right]_t

is a Q local martingale on the filtered probability space \{\Omega,F,Q,\{F^W_t\}\}.

[edit] Corollary

If X is a continuous process and W is Brownian Motion under measure P then

\tilde W_t =W_t - \left [ W, X \right]_t

is Brownian motion under Q.

The fact that \tilde W_t is continuous is trivial; by Girsanov's theorem it is a Q local martingale, and by computing

\left[\tilde W \right]_t= \left [ W \right]_t = t

it follows by Levy's characterization of Brownian Motion that this is a Q Brownian Motion.

[edit] Comments

In many common applications, the process X is defined by

X_t = \int_0^t Y_s\, d W_s.

For X of this form then a necessary and sufficient condition for X to be a martingale is Novikov's condition which requires that

E_P\left [\exp\left (\frac{1}{2}\int_0^T Y_s^2\, ds\right )\right ] < \infty.

The stochastic exponential \mathcal{E}(X) is the process Z which solves the stochastic differential equation

Z_t = 1 + \int_0^t Z_s\, d Y_s.\,

The measure Q constructed above is not equivalent to P on \mathcal{F}_\infty as this would only be the case if the Radon-Nikodym derivative were a uniformly integrable martingale, which the exponential martingale described above is not (for \lambda\ne0).

[edit] Application to finance

This theorem can be used to show in the Black-Scholes model the unique risk neutral measure, i.e. the measure in which the fair value of a derivative is the discounted expected value, Q, is specified by

\frac{d Q}{d P} = \mathcal{E}\left ( \int_0^\cdot \frac{r_s - \mu_s }{\sigma_s}\, d W_s \right ).

[edit] see also

Cameron-Martin theorem

[edit] References

  • C. Dellacherie and P.-A. Meyer, "Probabilités et potentiel -- Théorie de Martingales" Chapitre VII, Hermann 1980
  • E. Lenglart "Transformation de martingales locales par changement absolue continu de probabilités", Zeitschrift für Wahrscheinlichkeit 39 (1977) pp 65-70.

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