After taking into account biases induced by infrequent trading and selection, it is unlikely that illiquid asset classes have higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional liquid stock and bond markets. On the other hand, there are significant illiquidity premiums within asset classes. Portfolio...

In recent years both equity and bond markets have been afflicted by high volatility. In order to build up a portfolio on a quantitative basis, several models may be used, such as minimum variance portfolio or equally weighted portfolio. In 2008/09 another way to deal with diversification came...

We present comprehensive evidence in support of giving liquidity equal standing to size, value/growth, and momentum as investment styles, as defined by Sharpe (1992). First, we show that financial market liquidity, as identified by stock turnover, is an economically significant indicator of...

Hedge fund managers are subject to several non-linear incentives: (a) performance fee options (call); (b) equity investor's redemption options (put); (c) prime broker contracts allowing for forced deleverage (put). The interaction of these option-like incentives affects optimal leverage ex-ante,...

We investigate why investors may be willing to participate in active management, notwithstanding that the average manager is likely to generate negative alpha after fees. We model the alpha an investor expects from a dynamic strategy of investing in a portfolio of active investment managers, and...

I find that the risk correction in the Daniel et al. (1997) (DGTW) benchmarks is less than perfect. In light of the small 79bps selection skill DGTW find, a more precise risk measure is required. I use the utility based performance measure suggested by Goetzmann et al. (2007) (MPPM) and compare...

This paper examines the determinants of cross-sectional variation in post-merger mutual fund performance. Mergers between funds with similar management objectives, as reflected by average portfolio book-to-market ratio, price-earnings ratio, beta and market capitalization values, outperform...

The exceptional rise in government deficits following the subprime crisis, the recent commodity price spikes and the increase in inflation volatility have revived the debate on medium to long-term resurgence of inflation. Using a vector-autoregressive model, this paper investigates the...

Most of the performance measures proposed in the financial and academic literature are subject to be gamed in an active management framework (Goetzmann et al., 2007). One of the main reasons of this drawback is due to an incomplete characterization by these measures of studied return...