We study the multi-period asset allocation problem for emerging-market investors whose asset menu consists of stocks, bonds and bills. We consider two types of investors: domestic investors who invest in emerging-market assets only (with returns in local currency) and international investors who...

We estimate the myopic (single-period) and intertemporal hedging (long-run) demand for stocks in 20 growth-leading emerging market economies and the US during the 1999-2012 period. We consider two types of emerging market investors: a domestic investor (whose returns are denominated in the local...

We analyze the inflation-hedging properties of US stocks, bonds, and T-bills at the subindex level during the 1983 – 2012 period, for investment horizons between 1 month and 10 years. Bonds other than T-bills turn out poor inflation hedges during the entire sample period, regardless of the...

This study assesses the hedging properties of commodity futures across three dimensions: market, investment horizon and time. Measured over the full sample period (1970-2011), commodity futures show significant ability to hedge US inflation, especially for investment horizons of at least one...

We study the multi-period asset allocation problem for emerging market investors whose asset menu consists of stocks, bonds and bills. We consider two types of emerging market investors: domestic investors (with returns in local currency) and international investors who can invest in US and...

We show empirically that there is no relation between funding of pensions and economic growth in a sample of OECD- as well as non-OECD countries over the period 2001-2008. This finding contradicts findings of earlier studies, which do not control for capital market returns of pension funds. Our...

This paper focuses on the exposure of common stocks to inflation risk and assesses the impact of this exposure on portfolio choice. We show that the relation between real stock returns and inflation rates, as well as the parameter uncertainty involved with this relation, has substantial...

This paper analyzes mean reversion in international stock markets during the years 1900 – 2009, using annual data. Our panel of stock indices in 18 OECD countries allows us to analyze in detail the dynamics of the mean-reversion process. In the period 1900 – 2009 it takes stock prices about...

International commercial banks, institutional investors, and private investors have become increasingly interested in financing microfinance institutions (MFIs). This paper investigates whether adding microfinance funds to a portfolio of risky international assets yields diversification gains....

This paper quantifies the diversification potential of timberland investments in a mean-variance framework. The starting point is a broad set of benchmark assets represented by various indexes. Including publicly traded timberland investments from the US and Canada in the portfolio does not...