Our objective is to develop a methodology to price the cross section of asset returns. Despite the hundreds of systematic risk factors considered in the literature (``factor zoo''), there is still a sizable pricing error. We show that what is missing in asset-pricing factor models is not...

A fundamental insight in finance is that there is a strong risk-return tradeoff. Moreira and Muir (2017) challenge this by showing that investors can increase Sharpe ratios by reducing exposure to risk factors when their volatility is high. However, Cederburg, O'Doherty, Wang, and Yan (2020)...

We develop a normative theory for constructing mean-variance portfolios robust to model misspecification. We identify two inefficient portfolios---an "alpha'' portfolio, representing latent asset demand, that depends only on pricing errors and a "beta'' portfolio that depends on factor risk...

Alternative assets, such as private equity, hedge funds, and real assets, are illiquid and opaque, and thus pose a challenge to traditional models of asset allocation. In this paper, we study asset allocation and asset pricing in a general-equilibrium model with liquid assets and an alternative...

The growing number of institutions exploiting factor-investing strategies raises concerns that crowding may increase price-impact costs and erode profits. We identify a mechanism that alleviates crowding--trading diversification: institutions exploiting different characteristics can reduce each...