Using return decomposition and a new approach to differentiate between traded and non-traded background risk, our paper proposes a risk-based interpretation for the hedge portfolios in the five-factor model of Fama and French (2015). Specifically, our results suggest that non-traded background...

Betting against beta (BAB) can be seen as the combination of three investable component portfolios: Two cross-sectional components exploiting the beta anomaly attributable to stock selection and rank weighting scheme, and one time-series component with a dynamic net-long position due to...

We analyze the joint effect of borrowing and short-sale constraints in a dynamic economy populated by two constrained investors with heterogeneous risk aversions and beliefs. We find that equilibrium prices adjust in such a way that the constraints never simultaneously bind. When the constraints...

We consider portfolio selection under nonparametric alpha-maxmin ambiguity in the neighbourhood of a reference distribution. We show strict concavity of the portfolio problem under ambiguity aversion.Implied demand functions are nondifferentiable, resemble observed bid-ask spreads, and are...

We study the equilibrium implications of a multi-asset economy in which asset managers are subject to different benchmarks, and demonstrate how heterogeneous benchmarking generates a mechanism through which fundamental shocks propagate across assets. Fluctuations in asset managers' capital...

I present a model where competition in the asset management industry has positive and negative effects on fund performance. When funds have increasing (decreasing) returns to scale at the industry level, the flow-performance relation is concave (convex). Active funds outperform their benchmark...