This paper defines a “crisis-robust portfolio” that satisfies the minimal crisis-to-quiet time volatility ratio. This type of portfolio is less demanding for the investor than a regime-wise asset allocation. Although general, the concept of a crisis-robust portfolio is especially pertinent...

The recent turmoil in the financial markets has highlighted that no asset is really free of risk. Indeed, even the supposedly safest assets, namely sovereign bonds issued by developed countries, are exposed to default risk. Despite this observation most mean-variance efficiency tests are...

This paper is the first to draw a global picture of worldwide microfinance equity by taking full advantage of daily quoted prices. We revisit previous findings showing that investors should consider microfinance as a self-standing sector. Our results are threefold: 1) Microfinance has become...

Factor investing emerged as the byproduct of factor models of asset pricing. It consists in holding assets with positive exposure to selected risk factors and, if possible, shorting those with negative exposure. This paper assesses the merits of factor investing on the U.S. stock market by using...

Bitcoin is a major virtual currency. Using weekly data over the 2010-2013 period, we analyze a Bitcoin investment from the standpoint of a U.S. investor with a diversified portfolio including both traditional assets (worldwide stocks, bonds, hard currencies) and alternative investments...

This paper employs administrative data from one of the largest plan providers in France to investigate the role of plan and default characteristics in affecting whether employees participate in the plan and whether they accept its default investment option. The dataset includes information on...