We develop a dynamic incomplete-markets model of entrepreneurial firms, and demonstrate the implications of nondiversifiable risks for entrepreneurs’ interdependent consumption, portfolio allocation, financing, investment, and business exit decisions. We characterize the optimal capital structure via a generalized tradeoff model where risky debt provides significant diversification benefits. No...

The increasing risk of poverty in retirement has been well-documented; it is projected that current and future retirees’ living expenses will significantly exceed their savings and income. In this paper, we consider a retiree who does not have sufficient wealth and income to fund her future expenses and we seek the asset allocation that minimizes the probability of financial ruin during her lif...

This paper establishes a strong link between the dispersion in beliefs among active mutual funds, as revealed through their active holdings (i.e., deviations from benchmarks), and future stock returns. We find that after standard risk adjustments, stocks in the top decile portfolio with large increases in dispersion outperform those in the bottom decile by more than 1% per month. This effect of...

We examine the impact of adding a value-at-risk (VaR) constraint to the problem of an active manager who seeks to outperform a benchmark while minimizing tracking error variance (TEV) by using the model of Roll [1992. A mean/variance analysis of tracking error. Journal of Portfolio Management 18, 13–22]. We obtain three main results. First, portfolios on the constrained mean-TEV boundary still ...

We develop a pair of risk measures for the universe of health and longevity products that includes life insurance, annuities, and supplementary health insurance. Health delta measures the differential payoff that a policy delivers in poor health, while mortality delta measures the differential payoff that a policy delivers at death. Optimal portfolio choice simplifies to the problem of choosing...

Stochastic dominance is theoretically superior to mean-variance (MV) analysis because it considers the entire return distribution and is based on minimally restrictive assumptions regarding investor motives. This study uses stochastic dominance to examine whether adding internationally based assets to a wholly domestic portfolio generates diversification benefits for an investor. In contrast to...

This paper shows how a mean variance criterion can be applied to a multi period setting in order to obtain efficient portfolios in an asset and liability context. The optimization model allows for rebalancing activities, transaction costs, stochastic volatilities for both assets and liabilities. Furthermore, a general framework for the projection of pension fund liabilities as well as for the g...

We exploit the restrictions of intertemporal portfolio choice in the presence of nonfinancial income risk to design and implement tests of hedging that use the information contained in the actual portfolio of the investor. We use a unique dataset of Swedish investors with information broken down at the investor level and into various components of wealth, investor income, tax positions and inve...

In this paper we examine whether past returns of the market portfolio (MKT), the size portfolio (SMB), the book-to-market portfolio (HML) and the idiosyncratic volatility portfolio (HIMLI) can predict growth rates of ten major Australian economic indicators from 1993 to 2010. We find that all four factors can be used to predict growth rates in Australian economic indicators. We also find high r...

I simulate a life-cycle model with preferences described by a utility function à la Gul and Pesendorfer (2001). I show that temptation to consume contributes to explain the saving, retirement consumption, and asset allocation puzzles. I perform two analyses, excluding or including Social Security protection, separately for the US and Italy. The pension replacement rate is endogenous in the mode...