For ranking incomparable prospects, a ‘Utopia Index' measuring the proximity to a lower envelope of integrated distribution functions is proposed. The analysis generalizes the existing Almost Stochastic Dominance concept from pairwise comparison to a joint analysis of an arbitrary number of...

FIRST-ORDER STOCHASTIC DOMINANCE (FSD) is one of the fundamental concepts of decision making under uncertainty, relying only on the assumption of nonsatiation, or decision makers preferring more to less. There exist well-known, simple algorithms for establishing FSD relationships between a pair...

We propose a new test of the stochastic dominance efficiency of a given portfolio over a classof portfolios. We establish its null and alternative asymptotic properties, and define a methodfor consistently estimating critical values. We present some numerical evidence that our testswork well in...

We analyze if the value-weighted stock market portfolio is second-order stochastic dominance (SSD) efficient relative to benchmark portfolios formed on market capitalization, book-to-market equity ratio and industry classification. During the period from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, the...

We derive empirical tests for stochastic dominance that allow for diversification between choice alternatives. The tests can be computed using straightforward linear programming. Bootstrapping techniques and asymptotic distribution theory can approximate the sampling properties of the test...

We develop an empirical test for Second-order Stochastic Dominance (SSD) efficiency of a given investment portfolio relative to all possible portfolios formed from a set of assets. Contrary to the Linear Programming test of Post, Thierry, 2003, Empirical tests for stochastic dominance...

Downside risk, when properly defined and estimated, helps to explain the cross-section of US stock returns. Sorting stocks by a proper estimate of downside market beta leads to a substantially larger cross-sectional spread in average returns than sorting on regular market beta. This result...

Empirically, co-skewness of asset returns seems to explain a substantial part of the cross-sectional variation of mean return not explained by beta. Thisfinding is typically interpreted in terms of a risk averse representativeinvestor with a cubic utility function. This comment questions...

This study proposes a test for mean-variance efficiency of a given portfolio under general linear investment restrictions. We introduce a new definition of pricing error or ldquo;alphardquo; and as an efficiency measure we propose to use the largest positive alpha for any vertex of the portfolio...

We derive an empirical test for third-order stochastic dominance that allows fordiversification between choice alternatives. The test can be computed usingstraightforward linear programming. Bootstrapping techniques and asymptoticdistribution theory can approximate the sampling properties of the...