We identify decompositions of multi-period optimal portfolios, in which each subportfolio is dedicated to achieving a single investment target, in dynamic models with Von Neumann-Morgenstern preferences and diffusion asset returns (“Merton's problem”). These decompositions rest on...

Capital mobility may equalize investment opportunities across industries, and further, may cause the return-risk trade-offs of industry portfolios to converge. We show that over an extended period from 1926 to 2014, value-weighted industry portfolios based on Fama-French 5, 10, 12, 17, 30, and...

Volatility models of the market portfolio's return are central to financial risk management. Within an equilibrium framework, we introduce an implementation method and study two families of such models. One is deterministic volatility, represented by current popular models. Another is in the...

This study finds that equity returns in the banking sector in the wake of the Great Recession and the European sovereign debt crisis have been driven mainly by weak growth prospects and heightened sovereign risk and to a lesser extent, by deteriorating funding conditions and investor sentiment....

This paper argues that asset price cycles have significant effects on fiscal outcomes. In particular, there is evidence of debt bias—the tendency of debt to increase over the cycle— that is significantly larger for house price cycles than stand-alone business cycles. Automatic stabilizers...

This paper argues that asset price cycles have significant effects on fiscal outcomes. In particular, there is evidence of debt bias-the tendency of debt to increase over the cycle- that is significantly larger for house price cycles than stand-alone business cycles. Automatic stabilizers and...