First developed by Markowitz (1952), the mean-variance framework is the most widespread theoretical approximation to the portfolio problem. Nevertheless, successful application in the investment community has been limited. Assumptions such as normality of returns and a static correlation matrix...

El presente artículo estudia la persistencia de los resultados de los fondos de inversión españoles para el período 1992 a 1999. Los resultados obtenidos informan de la existencia de una relación positiva y significativa entre medidas de resultado de distintas referencias temporales....

This paper presents evidence of favorable management of qualified pension plans with large proportion of highly compensated employees. Defined-benefit pension plans that are dominated by highly compensated employees tend to contribute beyond the minimum amount required under Internal Revenue...

In dit artikel wordt ingegaan op een aantal recente ontwikkelingen in de hedgefundsector.

Pension benefit guarantee policies have been introduced in several countries to protect private pension plan members from the loss of income that would occur if a plan was underfunded when the sponsoring firm terminates a plan. Most of these public insurance schemes face financial difficulty and...

We review the theoretical literature on defined benefit (DB) pension plans, particularly focusing on the issue of plan underfunding and benefit guarantee insurance schemes. The literature shows that underfunding can, under reasonable assumptions, be an equilibrium outcome even in the absence of...

In the field of optimisation models for passive investments, we propose a general portfolio construction model based on principal component analysis. The portfolio is designed to replicate the first principal component of a group of stocks, instead of a traditional benchmark, thus capturing only...

This paper deals with two issues. On the one hand, it shows that structural changes in financial markets and in the hedge funds industry make the ?light-touch? arguments for regulating hedge funds no longer relevant. On the other hand, pleas for stronger regulation of hedge funds are getting...

Investors hold a substantially larger proportion of their wealth portfolios in domestic assets than standard portfolio theory would suggest, a phenomenon called "equity home bias." In the absence of this bias, investors would optimally diversify domestic output risk using foreign equities....

This paper will try to explain the “annuities puzzle” in greater depth by introducing the bequest motive, both strategic and altruistic. It will try to determine whether this motive really is a relevant feature influencing the demand for lifetime annuities by married couples. With this aim...