This policy note summarises the main findings of our recent research on the effects of labour and corporate taxation on international trade, and discusses their policy implications. The first major finding is that labour taxes do not seem to affect imports, while their effect on exports is...

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...

This paper explores the source(s) of commodity futures momentum and an associated anomaly. We decompose the 12-month conventional momentum strategy into single-month momentum components. Historical information in the cross-section of returns at 10 to 11 months prior to portfolio formation...

This paper studies the level, determinants, and implications of the factor timing ability of hedge fund managers. We find that approximately 30% of hedge funds display factor timing ability on at least one factor, concentrated especially at the market, size, and bond factors. Better factor...

Investors who have the flexibility to invest both long and short can benefit from both “winners” and “losers.” This will be especially advantageous if the latter — the short-sale candidates — are less efficiently priced than the winners — the purchase candidates. This is likely to...

Black-Litterman model provides a reasonable platform to portfolio optimization and asset allocation by presenting an equilibrium state of the markets and only deviating from that equilibrium state with forward-looking strategic views. Index of Economic Freedom (IEF) can be used as a handy tool...

Credit risk has recently been identified as a cause of declining international diversification capacity; in this paper we offer an alternative methodology to create an equity portfolio with exposure to global credit risk and controlled market risk. Following the factor decomposition methodology,...