Download or read book Strategic Asset Allocation written by John Y. Campbell and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-01-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic finance has had a remarkable impact on many financial services. Yet long-term investors have received curiously little guidance from academic financial economists. Mean-variance analysis, developed almost fifty years ago, has provided a basic paradigm for portfolio choice. This approach usefully emphasizes the ability of diversification to reduce risk, but it ignores several critically important factors. Most notably, the analysis is static; it assumes that investors care only about risks to wealth one period ahead. However, many investors—-both individuals and institutions such as charitable foundations or universities—-seek to finance a stream of consumption over a long lifetime. In addition, mean-variance analysis treats financial wealth in isolation from income. Long-term investors typically receive a stream of income and use it, along with financial wealth, to support their consumption. At the theoretical level, it is well understood that the solution to a long-term portfolio choice problem can be very different from the solution to a short-term problem. Long-term investors care about intertemporal shocks to investment opportunities and labor income as well as shocks to wealth itself, and they may use financial assets to hedge their intertemporal risks. This should be important in practice because there is a great deal of empirical evidence that investment opportunities—-both interest rates and risk premia on bonds and stocks—-vary through time. Yet this insight has had little influence on investment practice because it is hard to solve for optimal portfolios in intertemporal models. This book seeks to develop the intertemporal approach into an empirical paradigm that can compete with the standard mean-variance analysis. The book shows that long-term inflation-indexed bonds are the riskless asset for long-term investors, it explains the conditions under which stocks are safer assets for long-term than for short-term investors, and it shows how labor income influences portfolio choice. These results shed new light on the rules of thumb used by financial planners. The book explains recent advances in both analytical and numerical methods, and shows how they can be used to understand the portfolio choice problems of long-term investors.

Download or read book Risk Taking and Optimal Taxation with Nontradable Human Capital written by Zuliu Hu and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1992-12-01 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the effects of taxation on individual/entrepreneurs’ risk-taking behavior? This paper re-examines this old question in a continuous time life-cycle model. We demonstrate that the stream of uncertain income from human capital has systematic effects on demand for the risky physical capital asset. If labor supply is inelastic and real wages are known with certainty, then a labor income tax will reduce holdings of the risky physical asset. However, if there are random fluctuations in labor income, then the effect depends on the nature of interaction between wage risk and investment income risk. A labor income tax may actually raise demand for the risky capital asset if human capital risk and physical capital risk are positively correlated. The idiosyncratic risk and nontradability of human capital also have implications for optimal taxation. When the insurance and disincentive effects are jointly taken into account, a Pareto efficient tax structure implies a strictly positive tax rate.

Download or read book Proximity Bias in Investors Portfolio Choice written by Ted Lindblom and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book helps readers understand the widely documented distortion in the portfolio choice of individual investors toward proximate firms – the proximity bias phenomenon. First, it recapitulates the fundamentals of modern portfolio theory. It then goes on to describe and demonstrate different approaches on how to measure proximity bias and identifies and examines potential motives and reasons for such a bias. In addition, the book presents new analysis on the financial effects of individual investors’ proximity bias, explaining and contributing with possible policy implications on their portfolio distortion. This book will be of interest to students and researchers, as well as decision-makers in business firms and households.

Download or read book IMF Staff papers written by International Monetary Fund. Research Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper assesses alternative auction techniques for pricing and allocating various financial instruments, such as government securities, central bank refinance credit, and foreign exchange. Before recommending appropriate formats for auctioning these items, the paper discusses basic auction formats, assessing the advantages and disadvantages of each, based on the existing, mostly theoretical, literature. It is noted that auction techniques can be usefully employed for a broad range of items and that their application is of particular relevance to the impetus in many parts of the world toward establishing market-oriented economies.

Download or read book Handbook of the Economics of Finance SET Volumes 2A 2B written by George M. Constantinides and published by Newnes. This book was released on 2013-01-21 with total page 1732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume set of 23 articles authoritatively describes recent scholarship in corporate finance and asset pricing. Volume 1 concentrates on corporate finance, encompassing topics such as financial innovation and securitization, dynamic security design, and family firms. Volume 2 focuses on asset pricing with articles on market liquidity, credit derivatives, and asset pricing theory, among others. Both volumes present scholarship about the 2008 financial crisis in contexts that highlight both continuity and divergence in research. For those who seek insightful perspectives and important details, they demonstrate how corporate finance studies have interpreted recent events and incorporated their lessons. - Covers core and newly-developing fields - Explains how the 2008 financial crises affected theoretical and empirical research - Exposes readers to a wide range of subjects described and analyzed by the best scholars

Download or read book Portfolio Risk Analysis written by Gregory Connor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Portfolio risk forecasting has been and continues to be an active research field for both academics and practitioners. Almost all institutional investment management firms use quantitative models for their portfolio forecasting, and researchers have explored models' econometric foundations, relative performance, and implications for capital market behavior and asset pricing equilibrium. Portfolio Risk Analysis provides an insightful and thorough overview of financial risk modeling, with an emphasis on practical applications, empirical reality, and historical perspective. Beginning with mean-variance analysis and the capital asset pricing model, the authors give a comprehensive and detailed account of factor models, which are the key to successful risk analysis in every economic climate. Topics range from the relative merits of fundamental, statistical, and macroeconomic models, to GARCH and other time series models, to the properties of the VIX volatility index. The book covers both mainstream and alternative asset classes, and includes in-depth treatments of model integration and evaluation. Credit and liquidity risk and the uncertainty of extreme events are examined in an intuitive and rigorous way. An extensive literature review accompanies each topic. The authors complement basic modeling techniques with references to applications, empirical studies, and advanced mathematical texts. This book is essential for financial practitioners, researchers, scholars, and students who want to understand the nature of financial markets or work toward improving them.

Download or read book Are You a Stock Or a Bond written by Moshe Arye Milevsky and published by Financial Times/Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You must be aware of the value, potential return and risk of your own human capital (your job, career and what you do for a living as opposed to stocks and bonds or other investment choices) as well as financial capital and investments to plan a secure future. Human capital is the most valuable asset that you will own over your lifecycle. You need to balance all financial decisions with the characteristics of your human capital. The key trends identified in the first edition of the book namely, the decline of Defined Benefit (DB) pension provision, the continued increase in human longevity and the risk of personal inflation, are as relevant today as they were five years ago. The financial crisis has taught us that all types of capital - human, financial and even social - are key to a secure financial future. If your career has "stock-like" growth and risk characteristics, Milevsky helps you balance your "portfolio" by tilting investments towards safer "bonds." If your job is more secure but offers lower financial upside, you'll learn to tilt your investments towards stocks that compensate for your lower earning potential. Either way, Milevsky shows you how to integrate investments, insurance, annuities, and retirement plans to generate the safe and reliable income you'll need. This Edition's updates include: New 2012 data, charts, figures, and references More coverage of incorporating "human capital" into financial planning Advice reflecting the aftermath of the financial crisis Easier, more usable techniques, and less math!

Download or read book Handbook of the Equity Risk Premium written by Rajnish Mehra and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edited by Rajnish Mehra, this volume focuses on the equity risk premium puzzle, a term coined by Mehra and Prescott in 1985 which encompasses a number of empirical regularities in the prices of capital assets that are at odds with the predictions of standard economic theory.

Download or read book Working Paper Series written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Handbook of the Economics of Risk and Uncertainty written by Mark Machina and published by Newnes. This book was released on 2013-11-14 with total page 897 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The need to understand the theories and applications of economic and finance risk has been clear to everyone since the financial crisis, and this collection of original essays proffers broad, high-level explanations of risk and uncertainty. The economics of risk and uncertainty is unlike most branches of economics in spanning from the individual decision-maker to the market (and indeed, social decisions), and ranging from purely theoretical analysis through individual experimentation, empirical analysis, and applied and policy decisions. It also has close and sometimes conflicting relationships with theoretical and applied statistics, and psychology. The aim of this volume is to provide an overview of diverse aspects of this field, ranging from classical and foundational work through current developments. - Presents coherent summaries of risk and uncertainty that inform major areas in economics and finance - Divides coverage between theoretical, empirical, and experimental findings - Makes the economics of risk and uncertainty accessible to scholars in fields outside economics

Download or read book Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds written by Richard Hinz and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countries around the world are increasingly relying on individual pension savings accounts to provide income in old age for their citizens. Although these funds have now been in place for several decades, their performance is usually measured using methods that are not meaningful in relation to this long-term objective. The recent global financial crisis has highlighted the need to develop better performance evaluation methods that are consistent with the retirement income objective of pension funds. Compiling research derived from a partnership among the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and three private partners, 'Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds' discusses the theoretical basis and key implementation issues related to the design of performance benchmarks based on life-cycle savings and investment principles. The book begins with an evaluation of the financial performance of funded pension systems using the standard mean variance framework. It then provides a discussion of the limitations inherent to applying these methods to pension funds and outlines the many other issues that should be addressed in developing more useful and meaningful performance measures through the formulation of pension-specific benchmark portfolios. Practical implementation issues are addressed through empirical examples of how such benchmarks could be developed. The book concludes with commentary and observations from several noted pension experts about the need for a new approach to performance measurement and the impact of the recent global financial crisis on pension funds.

Download or read book Pension Fund Risk Management written by Marco Micocci and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2010-01-25 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As pension fund systems decrease and dependency ratios increase, risk management is becoming more complex in public and private pension plans. Pension Fund Risk Management: Financial and Actuarial Modeling sheds new light on the current state of pension fund risk management and provides new technical tools for addressing pension risk from an integr

Download or read book who are the unbanked written by Simeon Djankov and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: This paper uses nationally representative survey data from Mexico to compare households with savings accounts in formal financial institutions to their neighbors who do not have such accounts. The survey, which was conducted in 2005, contains information on nearly 5,000 households. The findings show that although neighboring banked and unbanked households have similar demographic and occupational profiles, the former are more educated and have markedly greater wealth. The median banked household spends 32 percent more per capita than the median unbanked household, and the median per capita wealth in banked households is 88 percent higher than that in unbanked households. The findings suggest that education levels, wealth, and unobserved household attributes that might be correlated with wealth and education play a major role in explaining who is banked.

Download or read book Risk Analysis in Theory and Practice written by Jean-Paul Chavas and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2004-07-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objective of Risk Analysis in Theory and Practice is to present this analytical framework and to illustrate how it can be used in the investigation of economic decisions under risk. In a sense, the economics of risk is a difficult subject: it involves understanding human decisions in the absence of perfect information. How do we make decisions when we do not know some of events affecting us? The complexities of our uncertain world and of how humans obtain and process information make this difficult. In spite of these difficulties, much progress has been made. First, probability theory is the corner stone of risk assessment. This allows us to measure risk in a fashion that can be communicated among decision makers or researchers. Second, risk preferences are now better understood. This provides useful insights into the economic rationality of decision making under uncertainty. Third, over the last decades, good insights have been developed about the value of information. This helps better understand the role of information in human decision making and this book provides a systematic treatment of these issues in the context of both private and public decisions under uncertainty. - Balanced treatment of conceptual models and applied analysis - Considers both private and public decisions under uncertainty - Website presents application exercises in Excel

Download or read book Private Wealth written by Stephen M. Horan and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-01-09 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth examination of today's most important wealth management issues Managing the assets of high-net-worth individuals has become a core business specialty for investment and financial advisors worldwide. Keeping abreast of the latest research in this field is paramount. That's why Private Wealth, the inaugural offering in the CFA Institute Investment Perspectives series has been created. As a sister series to the globally successful CFA Institute Investment Series, CFA Institute and John Wiley are proud to offer this new collection. Private Wealth presents the latest information on lifecycle modeling, asset allocation, investment management for taxable private investors, and much more. Researched and written by leading academics and practitioners, including Roger Ibbotson of Yale University and Zvi Bodie of Boston University, this volume covers human capital and mortality risk in life cycle stages and proposes a life-cycle model for life transitions. It also addresses complex tax matters and provides details on customizing investment theory applications to the taxable investor. Finally, this reliable resource analyzes the use of tax-deferred investment accounts as a means for wealth accumulation and presents a useful framework for various tax environments.

Download or read book Hedge Funds written by Vikas Agarwal and published by Now Publishers Inc. This book was released on 2005 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hedge Funds summarizes the academic research on hedge funds and commodity trading advisors. The hedge fund industry has grown tremendously over the recent years. According to some industry estimates, hedge funds have increased from $39 million in 1990 to about $972 million in 2004 and the total number of hedge funds has gone up from 610 to 7,436 over the same period. At the same time, hedge fund strategies have changed significantly. In 1990 the macro strategy dominated the industry while in 2004 the equity hedge strategy had the largest share of the market. There has also been a shift in the type of investor in hedge funds. In the early 1990's the typical investor was a high net-worth individual investor, today the typical investor is an institutional investor. Thus, the hedge fund market has not only grown tremendously, but the nature of the market has changed. Despite the enormous growth of this industry, there is limited information available on hedge funds. As a result, there is a need for rigorous research from both the investors' and regulators' point of view. Investors need research to better understand their investment and their risk exposure. This research also helps investors recognize the extent of diversification benefits hedge funds offer in combination with investments in traditional asset classes, such as stocks and bonds. Regulators can use this research to identify situations where regulation may be needed to protect investors' interests and to understand the impact hedge funds trading strategies have on the stability of the financial markets. The first part of Hedge Funds summarizes hedge fund performance, including comparisons of risk-return characteristics of hedge funds with those of mutual funds, factors driving hedge fund returns, and persistence in hedge fund performance. The second part reviews research regarding the unique contractual features and characteristics of hedge funds and their influence on the risk-return tradeoffs. The third part reviews the role of hedge funds in a portfolio including the extent of diversification benefits and limitations of standard mean-variance framework for asset allocation. Finally, the authors summarize the research on the biases in hedge fund databases.

Download or read book Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System written by Zvi Bodie and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides valuable information and analysis to managers, policymakers, and investment counselors in the rapidly expanding field of pension funding. American workers, too, need answers and insights on how to invest their money and plan for their retirement. fifteen of America's leading financial analysts address such pressing questions as -What is the current financial status of the elderly, and how vulnerable are they to inflation? -What is the impact of inflation on the private pension system, and what are the effects of alternative indexing schemes? -What roles can the social security system play in the provision of retirement income? -What is the effect of the tax code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) on corporate pension policy? -How well funded are corporate pension plans, and is a firm's unfunded pension liability fully reflected in the market value of its common stock? Many of the conclusions these experts reach contradict and challenge popular views, thus providing fertile ground for innovation in pension planning.