IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v36y2012i7p1987-1996.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Non-Gaussian diversification: When size matters

Author

Listed:
  • Desmoulins-Lebeault, François
  • Kharoubi-Rakotomalala, Cécile

Abstract

Classical portfolio theory informs investors that they should have a large number of assets in their portfolios in order to diversify risk. We show that the non-Gaussian features of stock return distribution may not allow for this risk protection in times of crisis. Moreover, we demonstrate empirically that, if investors are risk-averse and consider higher order moments, they have numerous incentives not to diversify their portfolios fully. This is caused by the evolution of both large losses and asymmetry of returns when the numbers of assets in a portfolio change.

Suggested Citation

  • Desmoulins-Lebeault, François & Kharoubi-Rakotomalala, Cécile, 2012. "Non-Gaussian diversification: When size matters," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1987-1996.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:7:p:1987-1996
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.03.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426612000672
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.03.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William F. Sharpe, 1963. "A Simplified Model for Portfolio Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 277-293, January.
    2. Fishburn, Peter C, 1977. "Mean-Risk Analysis with Risk Associated with Below-Target Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 116-126, March.
    3. John L. Evans & Stephen H. Archer, 1968. "Diversification And The Reduction Of Dispersion: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(5), pages 761-767, December.
    4. Victor DeMiguel & Lorenzo Garlappi & Raman Uppal, 2009. "Optimal Versus Naive Diversification: How Inefficient is the 1-N Portfolio Strategy?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(5), pages 1915-1953, May.
    5. You, Leyuan & Daigler, Robert T., 2010. "Is international diversification really beneficial?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 163-173, January.
    6. Carol C. Bertaut, 1998. "Stockholding Behavior Of U.S. Households: Evidence From The 1983-1989 Survey Of Consumer Finances," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(2), pages 263-275, May.
    7. Richardson, Matthew & Smith, Tom, 1993. "A Test for Multivariate Normality in Stock Returns," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(2), pages 295-321, April.
    8. William N. Goetzmann & Alok Kumar, 2008. "Equity Portfolio Diversification," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(3), pages 433-463.
    9. Leyuan You & Robert T. Daigler, 2010. "Using Four‐Moment Tail Risk to Examine Financial and Commodity Instrument Diversification," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1101-1123, November.
    10. French, Kenneth R & Poterba, James M, 1991. "Investor Diversification and International Equity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 222-226, May.
    11. Statman, Meir, 1987. "How Many Stocks Make a Diversified Portfolio?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 353-363, September.
    12. Thierry Ane & Cecile Kharoubi, 2003. "Dependence Structure and Risk Measure," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(3), pages 411-438, July.
    13. Kelly, Morgan, 1995. "All their eggs in one basket: Portfolio diversification of US households," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 87-96, June.
    14. Geman, Hélyette & Kharoubi, Cécile, 2008. "WTI crude oil Futures in portfolio diversification: The time-to-maturity effect," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2553-2559, December.
    15. Carol C. Bertaut & Martha Starr-McCluer, 2000. "Household portfolios in the United States," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-26, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Valery Polkovnichenko, 2005. "Household Portfolio Diversification: A Case for Rank-Dependent Preferences," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1467-1502.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ignatieva, Katja & Landsman, Zinoviy, 2019. "Conditional tail risk measures for the skewed generalised hyperbolic family," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 98-114.
    2. Peralta, Gustavo & Zareei, Abalfazl, 2016. "A network approach to portfolio selection," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 157-180.
    3. Lassance, Nathan & Vrins, Frédéric, 2023. "Portfolio selection: A target-distribution approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(1), pages 302-314.
    4. Delatte, Anne-Laure & Lopez, Claude, 2013. "Commodity and equity markets: Some stylized facts from a copula approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5346-5356.
    5. Argimiro Arratia & Henryk Gzyl & Silvia Mayoral, 2022. "Tracking a Well Diversified Portfolio with Maximum Entropy in the Mean," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Ignatieva, Katja & Landsman, Zinoviy, 2021. "A class of generalised hyper-elliptical distributions and their applications in computing conditional tail risk measures," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(PB), pages 437-465.
    7. Delatte, Anne-Laure & Lopez, Claude, 2013. "Commodity and equity markets: Some stylized facts from a copula approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5346-5356.
    8. Mainik, Georg & Mitov, Georgi & Rüschendorf, Ludger, 2015. "Portfolio optimization for heavy-tailed assets: Extreme Risk Index vs. Markowitz," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 115-134.
    9. Georg Mainik & Georgi Mitov & Ludger Ruschendorf, 2015. "Portfolio optimization for heavy-tailed assets: Extreme Risk Index vs. Markowitz," Papers 1505.04045, arXiv.org.
    10. Guillén, Montserrat & Sarabia, José María & Prieto, Faustino, 2013. "Simple risk measure calculations for sums of positive random variables," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 273-280.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oehler, Andreas & Wanger, Hans Philipp, 2020. "Household portfolio optimization with XTFs? An empirical study using the SHS-base," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    3. Barasinska, Nataliya & Schäfer, Dorothea & Stephan, Andreas, 2012. "Individual Risk Attitudes and the Composition of Financial Portfolios: Evidence from German Household Portfolios," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 52(1), pages 1-14.
    4. Haensly, Paul J., 2022. "Lessons from naïve diversification about the risk-reward trade-off," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    5. Yongjae Lee & Woo Chang Kim & Jang Ho Kim, 2020. "Achieving Portfolio Diversification for Individuals with Low Financial Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Kristjan Liivamägi, 2015. "Investor Education and Portfolio Diversification on the Stock Market," Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, vol. 7(1).
    7. Jacobs, Heiko & Müller, Sebastian & Weber, Martin, 2014. "How should individual investors diversify? An empirical evaluation of alternative asset allocation policies," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 62-85.
    8. Marie Brière & Bastien Drut & Valérie Mignon & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2013. "Is the Market Portfolio Efficient? A New Test of Mean-Variance Efficiency when all Assets are Risky," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 34(1), pages 7-41.
    9. Marie Brière & Bastien Drut & Valérie Mignon & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2011. "Is the Market Portfolio Efficient? A New Test to Revisit the Roll (1977) versus Levy and Roll (2010) Controversy," Working Papers hal-04140988, HAL.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9297 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Raslan Alzuabi & Sarah Brown & Mark N. Harris & Karl Taylor, 2024. "Modelling the composition of household portfolios: A latent class approach," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 243-275, February.
    12. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    13. Bastien Lextrait, 2022. "Optimizing portfolios in the illiquid, unlisted market of SME crowdlending," EconomiX Working Papers 2022-23, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    14. Xiaomeng Lu & Yali Lai & Yong Zhang, 2023. "Digital financial inclusion and investment diversification: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S2), pages 2781-2799, June.
    15. Lu, Xiaomeng & Zhang, Yong & Zhang, Yixing & Wang, Lin, 2020. "Can investment advisors promote rational investment? Evidence from micro-data in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 251-263.
    16. D'Hondt, Catherine & Elhichou Elmaya, Younes & Petitjean, Mikael, 2020. "Retail Investing in Passive Exchange Traded Funds," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2020013, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    17. Eom, Cheoljun & Kaizoji, Taisei & Livan, Giacomo & Scalas, Enrico, 2021. "Limitations of portfolio diversification through fat tails of the return Distributions: Some empirical evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    18. Haensly, Paul J., 2020. "Risk decomposition, estimation error, and naïve diversification," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    19. McDowell, Shaun, 2018. "An empirical evaluation of estimation error reduction strategies applied to international diversification," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-13.
    20. Tasca, Paolo & Mavrodiev, Pavlin & Schweitzer, Frank, 2014. "Quantifying the impact of leveraging and diversification on systemic risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 43-52.
    21. Lu, Xiaomeng & Guo, Jiaojiao & Gan, Li, 2020. "International comparison of household asset allocation: Micro-evidence from cross-country comparisons," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Diversification benefits; Asymmetric diversification; Non-Gaussian distributions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:7:p:1987-1996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.