In this paper, we build estimation error in mean returns into the mean-variance (MV) portfolio theory under the assumption that returns on individual assets follow a joint normal distribution. We derive the conditional sampling distribution of the MV portfolio along with its mean and risk return...

The estimation of the holding periods of financial products has to be done in a dynamic process in which the size of the observation time interval influences the result. Small intervals will produce smaller average holding periods than bigger ones. The approach developed in this paper offers the...

The combination of two or more portfolio rules is theoretically convex in return-risk space, which provides for a new class of portfolio rules that gives purpose to the Mean-Variance framework out-of-sample. The author investigates the performance loss from estimation risk between the...

We develop and implement methods for determining whether relaxing sparsity constraints on portfolios improves the investment opportunity set for risk-averse investors. We formulate a new estimation procedure for sparse second-order stochastic spanning based on a greedy algorithm and Linear...

Many of the concepts in theoretical and empirical finance developed over the past decades - including the classical portfolio theory, the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing model or the RiskMetrics variance-covariance approach to VaR - rest upon the assumption that asset returns follow a normal...

Simar and Wilson (J. Econometrics, 2007) provided a statistical model that can rationalize two-stage estimation of technical efficiency in nonparametric settings. Two-stage estimation has been widely used, but requires a strong assumption: the second-stage environmental variables cannot affect...

When benchmarking production units by non-parametric methods like data envelopment analysis (DEA), an assumption has to be made about the returns to scale of the underlying technology. Moreover, it is often also relevant to compare the frontiers across samples of producers. Until now, no exact...

This paper employs methodologies that were developed for heavy right-tailed distributions to construct the point and interval estimates of the expected operational losses in the US. These are consistent and unbiased estimates of the mean of the heavy right-tailed loss distribution, whereas those...

This paper deals with estimating peaked densities over the interval [0,1] using the Uneven Two-Sided Power Distribution (UTP). This distribution is the most complex of all the bounded power distributions introduced by Kotz and van Dorp (2004). The UTP maximum likelihood estimator, a result not...

This paper deals with estimating peaked densities over the interval [0,1] using two-sided power distribution (Kotz, van Dorp, 2004). Such data were encountered in experiments determining certainty equivalents of lotteries (Kontek, 2010). This paper summarizes the basic properties of the...