IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ysm/wpaper/ysm371.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Economic Measure of Diversification Benefits

Author

Listed:
  • Lingfeng Li

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a utility based economic measure for diversification benefits, calculated as the maximum premium that an investor is willing to pay for holding a more diversified portfolio. The utility based economic measure allows one to evaluate the expansion of the investment opportunity set by combining the information in both risk and return properties. It also offers a flexible framework to examine how investors with different tolerances for risk may respond to the expansion of the investment opportunity set by combining the information in both risk and return properties. It also offers a flexible framework to examine how investors with different tolerances for risk may respond to the expansion of the investment opportunity set. This measure is contrasted with the results of mean-variance spanning tests. Empirical analysis shows that investors enjoy substantial diversification benefits by adding emerging stock markets and major bond markets to the existing portfolio of G7 stock markets. Investors' risk tolerance affects their evaluation of new assets. Short-sale constraints reduce, but do not eliminate, diversificaton benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Lingfeng Li, 2003. "An Economic Measure of Diversification Benefits," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm371, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jul 2003.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:wpaper:ysm371
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.som.yale.edu/icfpub/publications/2459.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harvey, Campbell R, 1995. "Predictable Risk and Returns in Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 773-816.
    2. Huberman, Gur & Kandel, Shmuel, 1987. "Mean-Variance Spanning," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 873-888, September.
    3. Kandel, Shmuel & McCulloch, Robert & Stambaugh, Robert F, 1995. "Bayesian Inference and Portfolio Efficiency," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-53.
    4. Hansen, Lars Peter & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1991. "Implications of Security Market Data for Models of Dynamic Economies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 225-262, April.
    5. Bekaert, Geert & Harvey, Campbell R, 1995. "Time-Varying World Market Integration," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 403-444, June.
    6. Grauer, Robert R & Hakansson, Nils H, 1987. "Gains from International Diversification: 1968-85 Returns on Portfolios of Stocks and Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 721-739, July.
    7. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2000. "Comparing asset pricing models: an investment perspective," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 335-381, June.
    8. Ferson, Wayne E & Foerster, Stephen R & Keim, Donald B, 1993. "General Tests of Latent Variable Models and Mean-Variance Spanning," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 131-156, March.
    9. Jobson, J. D. & Korkie, Bob, 1989. "A Performance Interpretation of Multivariate Tests of Asset Set Intersection, Spanning, and Mean-Variance Efficiency," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 185-204, June.
    10. Nijman, T.E. & de Roon, F.A. & Werker, B.J.M., 2001. "Testing for Mean-Variance spanning with short sales constraints and transaction costs : The case of emerging markets," Other publications TiSEM f4a3551a-d7ae-4c22-8813-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Wang, Zhenyu, 1998. "Efficiency loss and constraints on portfolio holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 359-375, June.
    12. Baxter, Marianne & Jermann, Urban J, 1997. "The International Diversification Puzzle Is Worse Than You Think," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(1), pages 170-180, March.
    13. Sharpe, William F, 1991. "Capital Asset Prices with and without Negative Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 489-509, June.
    14. Campbell, John Y. & Viceira, Luis M., 2002. "Strategic Asset Allocation: Portfolio Choice for Long-Term Investors," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296942.
    15. Frans A. De Roon & Theo E. Nijman & Bas J. M. Werker, 2001. "Testing for Mean‐Variance Spanning with Short Sales Constraints and Transaction Costs: The Case of Emerging Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 721-742, April.
    16. Robert R. Grauer and Nils H. Hakansson., 1987. "Gains from International Diversification: l968-85 Returns on Portfolios of Stocks and Bonds," Research Program in Finance Working Papers 168, University of California at Berkeley.
    17. Bekaert, Geert & Urias, Michael S, 1996. "Diversification, Integration and Emerging Market Closed-End Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(3), pages 835-869, July.
    18. Snow, Karl N, 1991. "Diagnosing Asset Pricing Models Using the Distribution of Asset Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 955-983, July.
    19. Cooper, Ian & Kaplanis, Evi, 1994. "Home Bias in Equity Portfolios, Inflation Hedging, and International Capital Market Equilibrium," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 45-60.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lingfeng Li, 2003. "An Economic Measure of Diversification Benefits," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm371, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jul 2003.
    2. Li, Kai & Sarkar, Asani & Wang, Zhenyu, 2003. "Diversification benefits of emerging markets subject to portfolio constraints," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 57-80, February.
    3. Glabadanidis, Paskalis, 2009. "Measuring the economic significance of mean-variance spanning," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 596-616, May.
    4. Nijman, T.E. & de Roon, F.A., 2001. "Testing for mean-variance spanning : A survey," Other publications TiSEM 0159f80a-c61b-4519-b004-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Raymond Kan & Guofu Zhou, 2012. "Tests of Mean-Variance Spanning," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 13(1), pages 139-187, May.
    6. Paul Chiou & Cheng-Few Lee, 2013. "Do investors still benefit from culturally home-biased diversification? An empirical study of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 341-381, February.
    7. Kroencke, Tim A. & Schindler, Felix, 2012. "International diversification with securitized real estate and the veiling glare from currency risk," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1851-1866.
    8. Tim A. Kroencke & Felix Schindler & Andreas Schrimpf, 2014. "International Diversification Benefits with Foreign Exchange Investment Styles," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(5), pages 1847-1883.
    9. Chiou, Wan-Jiun Paul, 2008. "Who benefits more from international diversification?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 466-482, December.
    10. Chiou, Wan-Jiun Paul, 2009. "Benefits of international diversification with investment constraints: An over-time perspective," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 93-110, April.
    11. Nicolas Coeurdacier & Hélène Rey, 2013. "Home Bias in Open Economy Financial Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 63-115, March.
    12. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g81p7j6b6 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Jing-zhi Huang & Zhaodong Zhong, 2013. "Time Variation in Diversification Benefits of Commodity, REITs, and TIPS," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 152-192, January.
    14. Wan-Jiun Paul Chiou & Vigdis W Boasson, 2015. "International Variations in the Benefits of Feasible Diversification Strategies," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(04), pages 1-38, December.
    15. Cheol S. Eun & Sandy Lai & Frans A. de Roon & Zhe Zhang, 2010. "International Diversification with Factor Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(9), pages 1500-1518, September.
    16. Chiou, Wan-Jiun Paul & Lee, Alice C. & Chang, Chiu-Chi A., 2009. "Do investors still benefit from international diversification with investment constraints?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 448-483, May.
    17. Galvani, Valentina & Plourde, André, 2010. "Portfolio diversification in energy markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 257-268, March.
    18. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2018. "An empirical examination of the diversification benefits of U.K. international equity closed-end funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 23-34.
    19. Driessen, Joost & Laeven, Luc, 2007. "International portfolio diversification benefits: Cross-country evidence from a local perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1693-1712, June.
    20. Jonathan Fletcher, 2018. "An Examination of the Benefits of Factor Investing in U.K. Stock Returns," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(4), pages 154-170, April.
    21. Mensah, Jones Odei & Premaratne, Gamini, 2014. "Exploring Diversification Benefits in Asia-Pacific Equity Markets," MPRA Paper 60180, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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:ysm:wpaper:ysm371. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/smyalus.html .

    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.