Prospect theory and loss aversion play a dominant role in behavioral finance. In this paper we derive closed-form solutions for optimal portfolio choice under loss aversion. When confronted with gains a loss averse investor behaves similar to a portfolio insurer. When confronted with losses, the investor aims at maximizing the probability that terminal wealth exceeds his aspiration level. Our analysis indicates that a representative agent model with loss aversion cannot resolve the equity premium puzzle. We also extend the martingale methodology to allow for more general utility functions and provide a simple approach to incorporate skewed and fat-tailed return distributions.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Erasmus University Rotterdam, Econometric Institute in its series Econometric Institute Report with number
EI 2000-08/A Revision_Date: 2009-07-29.
Cited by: (explanations, 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.)
Andrew Ang & Geert Bekaert & Jun Liu, 2000.
"Why Stocks May Disappoint,"
NBER Working Papers
7783, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions: