Robust portfolio rules and detection-error probabilities for a mean-reverting risk premium

I analyze the optimal intertemporal portfolio problem of an investor who worries about model misspecification and insists on robust decision rules when facing a mean-reverting risk premium. The desire for robustness lowers the total equity share, but increases the proportion of the intertemporal hedging demand. I present a methodology for calculation of detection-error probabilities, which is based on Fourier inversion of the conditional characteristic functions of the Radon–Nikodym derivatives. The quantitative effect of robustness is more modest than in i.i.d. settings, because model discrimination between the benchmark and the worst-case alternative model is easier, as indicated by the detection-error probabilities. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. JEL classification: G11; G12