Implied risk aversion and volatility risk premiums

Since investor risk aversion determines the premium required for bearing risk, a comparison thereof provides evidence of the different structure of risk premium across markets. This article estimates and compares the degree of risk aversion of three actively traded options markets: the S&P 500, Nikkei 225 and KOSPI 200 options markets. The estimated risk aversions is found to follow S&P 500, Nikkei 225 and KOSPI 200 options in descending order, implying that S&P 500 investors require more compensation than other investors for bearing the same risk. To prove this empirically, we examine the effect of risk aversion on volatility risk premium, using delta-hedged gains. Since more risk-averse investors are willing to pay higher premiums for bearing volatility risk, greater risk averseness can result in a severe negative volatility risk premium, which is usually understood as hedging demands against the underlying asset's downward movement. Our findings support the argument that S&P 500 investors with higher risk aversion pay more premiums for hedging volatility risk.