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Investing in superheroes? Comic art as a new alternative investment

Author

Listed:
  • BOCART Fabian,

    (Jackson Heights, USA)

  • HAFNER Christian,

    (Université catholique de Louvain)

  • KASPERSHAYA YUlia,

    (Universitat de Barcelona)

  • SAGARRA Marti,

    (Universitat de Barcelona)

Abstract

Drawing on an exclusive dataset of more than 106,000 items of comic art sold at auction, we build quarterly and semi-annual indices for American and European comic art. We find that this new type of alternative investment outperformed US and European equities and bonds. Between 2002 and 2017, annualized returns of US comic artworks clearly outperformed most asset classes with a solid 11% annualized return, while EUropean comic art achieved 25% yearly returns on average in the period after 2009. We show that comic art delivers significant diversification benefits to an investment portfolio thanks to low correlations with other assets and to the geographical diversification between European and American markets. These outcomes contrast with fine art in general, which delivered few diversification benefits when compared to equities and bonds between 2002 and 2017, and whose geographical markets are closely tied to each other.

Suggested Citation

  • BOCART Fabian, & HAFNER Christian, & KASPERSHAYA YUlia, & SAGARRA Marti,, 2019. "Investing in superheroes? Comic art as a new alternative investment," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2019016, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2019016
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    File URL: https://sites.uclouvain.be/core/publications/coredp/coredp2019.html
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    Keywords

    comic art; alternative investment; auctions; hedonic regressions; price index; portfolio;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C2 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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