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The Significance of the Market Portfolio

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Author Info
Stefano G. Athanasoulis (Dept. of Economics, Yale University)
Robert J. Shiller () (Cowles Foundation, Yale University)

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Abstract

The market portfolio (world portfolio) is in one sense a least important portfolio to provide to investors; there is always a better portfolio for social planners to make available to them. In a J-agent one-period stochastic endowment economy, where preferences are quadratic, the market portfolio is never spanned by the optimal markets a social planner would create. With identical preferences, the market portfolio is orthogonal to all J - 1 portfolios which achieve a first best solution. These conclusions rely on the assumption that the social planner has perfect information about agents' utilities. We also show that as the contract designer's information about agents' utilities becomes more imperfect, the optimal contracts approach contracts that weight individual endowments in proportion to elements of eigenvectors of the variance matrix of endowments. If there is a substantial market component to endowments than a social planner, for reasons of robustness and simplicity, may conclude that creating a contract to allow trading the market portfolio would be a significant innovation.

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File URL: http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/P/cd/d11b/d1154.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Cowles Foundation, Yale University in its series Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers with number 1154.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: Jun 1997
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Publication status: Published in The Review of Financial Studies (Summer 2000), 13(2): 301-329
Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1154

Note: CFP 997.
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Postal: Cowles Foundation, Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Demange, G. & Laroque, G., 1995. "Efficiency and Options on the Market Index," DELTA Working Papers 95-17, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure).
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  2. Geanakoplos, John, 1990. "An introduction to general equilibrium with incomplete asset markets," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 1-38. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Duffie Darrell & Rahi Rohit, 1995. "Financial Market Innovation and Security Design: An Introduction," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 1-42, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Demange Gabrielle & Laroque Guy, 1995. "Optimality of Incomplete Markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 218-232, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Cass, David & Chichilnisky, Graciela & Wu, Ho-Mou, 1996. "Individual Risk and Mutual Insurance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(2), pages 333-41, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Magill, Michael & Shafer, Wayne, 1991. "Incomplete markets," Handbook of Mathematical Economics, in: W. Hildenbrand & H. Sonnenschein (ed.), Handbook of Mathematical Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 30, pages 1523-1614 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Mark J. Kamstra & Robert J. Shiller, 2009. "The Case for Trills: Giving the People and Their Pension Funds a Stake in the Wealth of the Nation," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1717, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  2. Acharya, Viral V & Bisin, Alberto, 2003. "Optimal Financial Market Integration and Security Design," CEPR Discussion Papers 3852, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Laurent Calvet & Martin Gonzalez-Eiras & Paolo Sodini, 2001. "Financial Innovation, Market Participation and Asset Prices," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1928, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Robert J. Shiller, 1998. "Social Security and Institutions for Intergenerational, Intragenerational and International Risk Sharing," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1185, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Robert J. Shiller, 1997. "Expanding the Scope of Individual Risk Management: Moral Hazard and Other Behavioral Considerations," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1145, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  6. Miklós Koren, 2003. "Financial Globalization, Portfolio Diversification, and the Pattern of International Trade," IMF Working Papers 03/233, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  7. Acharya, Viral V & Bisin, Alberto, 2002. "Entrepreneurial Incentives in Stock Market Economies," CEPR Discussion Papers 3474, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Maria Giduskova & Borja Larrain, 2006. "International risk-taking, volatility, and consumption growth," Communities and Banking, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. [Downloadable!]
  9. Stefano G. Athanasoulis & Robert J. Shiller, 2001. "World Income Components: Measuring and Exploiting Risk-Sharing Opportunities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1031-1054, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Robert J. Shiller & Stefano G. Athanasoulis, 1997. "World Income Components: Measuring and Exploiting International Risk Sharing Opportunities," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1097, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
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