This paper surveys the recent literature on investing in illiquid assets. The paper takes a practical perspective and contains recommendations for the investment policy of a large sovereign wealth fund. We first summarize the theoretical literature on liquidity level and liquidity risk premiums....

This study investigates the influence of fund management firm characteristics on mutual fund performance. Using a sample of European domiciled open-end equity funds for the period 1998-2008, this study finds that the funds of private companies have performed better than the funds of public...

Hedging and speculative motives of market makers often require strategies involving positions in both the futures and spot-market. These are basis strategies. The risk involved in the payoff of these strategies depends on the basis risk and cannot be diversified away. Hence, any security which...

In this paper we empirically analyze and compare the Libor and Swap Market Models, developed by Brace, Gatarek and Musiela (1997) and Jamshidian (1997), using paneldata on prices of US caplets and swaptions. A Libor Market Model can directly be calibrated to observed prices of caplets, whereas a...

In this paper, we examine liquidity pricing in emerging market corporate bonds. We find average market-wide effective bid-ask spreads of 0.72%, which rise to 1.4% during the financial crisis. Turnover is closely linked to several liquidity characteristics such as issue size and age. Using...

This paper explores the role of liquidity risk in the pricing of corporate bonds. We show that corporate bond returns have signifcant exposures to fluctuations in treasury bond liquidity and equity market liquidity. Further, this liquidity risk is a priced factor for the expected returns on...

This paper discusses the valuation of financial instruments whose payoff is linked to an index. Examples are TIPS, wage-indexed pension fund liabilities, and GDP bonds. Valuation of these primary assets by replication is typically not possible as the index cannot be hedged perfectly with...

We assess the economic benefits of having access to housing futures for homeowning investors, using a model for the portfolio choice between stocks, bonds of various maturity, different mortgage types, and housing futures. We compare the utility gains of housing futures with the economic...

In this paper we provide an empirical analysis of the term structure of interest rates using the affine class of term structure models introduced by Duffie and Kan. We estimate these models by combining time-series and cross-section information in a theoretically consistent way. In the...

We analyze a dynamic Asset Liability Management problem with model uncertainty in a complete market. The fund manager acts in the best interest of the pension holders by maximizing the expected utility derived from the terminal funding ratio. We solve the robust multi-period Asset Liability...