We investigate the effects of bull and bear markets on correlations between developed and emerging country equity returns, and on the benefits of combining international markets in a portfolio. Contrary to most other studies we find that correlations fall in both bull and bear markets, although...

We explore the link between international stock market comovement and the degree to which firms operate globally. Using stock returns and balance sheet data for companies in 20 countries, we estimate a factor model that decomposes stock returns into global, country-specific and industry-specific...

This paper examines the benefits of regionally and globally diversified portfolios from the perspective of investors holding domestic-only portfolios from different Asia-Pacific countries. Three groups of regional portfolio are constructed, with sorting based on relative strength ranking...

While the enlargement of the Euro area to new countries has reduced the average return correlation among member countries, the financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis have led to an increase in stock return correlation among old members. We find that EMU core countries portfolio...

The weak empirical evidence linking diversification and international equity flows calls into question the diversification paradigm at the international level and the analytical framework it implies. Using a novel measure of diversification that includes all the moments of the distribution of...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the behavior of international equity returns and correlations using the discrete-time Markov-switching model and the impact of this behavior on international portfolio choices. We take the perspective of a US-based global investor who considers investment...

Using a parametric portfolio optimization approach, I show how international momentum strategies can be significantly improved by decomposing global momentum returns. The parametrization models the optimal portfolio weights as a function of the decomposed components and overweights equity...

I explore the benefits of incorporating conditional higher moments in the international portfolio allocation. The quantile-based conditional higher moments are robust to the outliers and exhibit considerable time-variation and heterogeneity across countries. My empirical evidence shows that...

Diversification is one of the main pillars of finance theory. However, its benefits for a conservative investor have been put in check recently with the financial crisis whether it really adds value to the investment profile. The objective of this study is to evaluate if the inclusion of new...

This paper examines foreign investors' equity-level transactions in an emerging stock market, the Istanbul Stock Exchange, for the period 1997–2008 to derive insights into the debate on information asymmetries between domestic and foreign investors and the home bias puzzle. The analysis...