IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurjfi/v14y2008i5p381-395.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Time-varying factor models for equity portfolio construction

Author

Listed:
  • Markus Ebner
  • Thorsten Neumann

Abstract

Most equity risk models applied in practice assume stable return correlations over time. However, there is considerable evidence suggesting that correlations among stock returns and hence, variance-covariance matrices (VCMs) become unstable over time. In this paper, we account for correlation instabilities in US stock returns and derive VCMs from time-varying factor model estimates. To do so, we use three different estimation approaches: (1) moving window least squares, (2) flexible least squares and (3) the random walk model. Our empirical results suggest that a time-varying estimation of return correlations fits the data considerably better than time-invariant estimation and thus, increases the efficiency of risk estimation and portfolio selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Markus Ebner & Thorsten Neumann, 2008. "Time-varying factor models for equity portfolio construction," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 381-395.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:14:y:2008:i:5:p:381-395
    DOI: 10.1080/13518470801892194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13518470801892194
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13518470801892194?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. Robert D. Brooks & Robert W. Faff & Michael D. McKenzie, 1998. "Time†Varying Beta Risk of Australian Industry Portfolios: A Comparison of Modelling Techniques," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 23(1), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Tesfatsion, Leigh & Veitch, John M., 1990. "U.S. money demand instability A flexible least squares approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 151-173, February.
    3. Louis K.C. Chan & Jason Karceski & Josef Lakonishok, 1999. "On Portfolio Optimization: Forecasting Covariances and Choosing the Risk Model," NBER Working Papers 7039, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ravi Jagannathan & Tongshu Ma, 2003. "Risk Reduction in Large Portfolios: Why Imposing the Wrong Constraints Helps," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1651-1683, August.
    5. Schwert, G William & Seguin, Paul J, 1990. "Heteroskedasticity in Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1129-1155, September.
    6. Sunder, Shyam, 1980. "Stationarity of Market Risk: Random Coefficients Tests for Individual Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(4), pages 883-896, September.
    7. Garbade, Kenneth & Rentzler, Joel, 1981. "Testing the Hypothesis of Beta Stationarity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 22(3), pages 577-587, October.
    8. Alexander, Gordon J. & Benson, P. George & Eger, Carol E., 1982. "Timing Decisions and the Behavior of Mutual Fund Systematic Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 579-602, November.
    9. Kalaba, Robert & Rasakhoo, Nima & Tesfatsion, Leigh, 1989. "A FORTRAN program for time-varying linear regression via flexible least squares," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 291-309, February.
    10. Collins, Daniel W & Ledolter, Johannes & Rayburn, Judy Dawson, 1987. "Some Further Evidence on the Stochastic Properties of Systematic Risk," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(3), pages 425-448, July.
    11. Brooks, Robert D. & Faff, Robert W. & Lee, John H. H., 1995. "Beta stability and portfolio formation," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 145-146, May.
    12. Joseph Cheng, 1997. "A switching regression approach to the stationarity of systematic and non-systematic risks: the Hong Kong experience," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 45-57.
    13. Ravi Jagannathan & Tongshu Ma, 2003. "Risk Reduction in Large Portfolios: Why Imposing the Wrong Constraints Helps," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1651-1684, August.
    14. Bos, T & Newbold, P, 1984. "An Empirical Investigation of the Possibility of Stochastic Systematic Risk in the Market Model," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(1), pages 35-41, January.
    15. Chow, Gregory C., 1984. "Random and changing coefficient models," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 21, pages 1213-1245, Elsevier.
    16. Markus Ebner & Thorsten Neumann, 2005. "Time-Varying Betas of German Stock Returns," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 19(1), pages 29-46, June.
    17. Fabozzi, Frank J. & Francis, Jack Clark, 1978. "Beta as a Random Coefficient," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 101-116, March.
    18. Simonds, Richard R. & LaMotte, Lynn Roy & McWhorter, Archer, 1986. "Testing for Nonstationarity of Market Risk: An Exact Test and Power Considerations," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 209-220, June.
    19. Chauveau, T. & Maillet, B., 1998. "Flexible Least Squares Betas: The French Market Case," Papers 1998-03/fi, Caisse des Depots et Consignations - Cahiers de recherche.
    20. Fisher, Lawrence & Kamin, Jules H., 1985. "Forecasting Systematic Risk: Estimates of “Raw†Beta that Take Account of the Tendency of Beta to Change and the Heteroskedasticity of Residual Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 127-149, June.
    21. Kalaba, Robert E. & Tesfatsion, Leigh S., 1989. "Time-Varying Linear Regression Via Flexible Least Squares," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11196, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    22. Best, Michael J & Grauer, Robert R, 1991. "On the Sensitivity of Mean-Variance-Efficient Portfolios to Changes in Asset Means: Some Analytical and Computational Results," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 315-342.
    23. Lutkepohl, Helmut & Herwartz, Helmut, 1996. "Specification of varying coefficient time series models via generalized flexible least squares," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 261-290, January.
    24. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    25. Chan, Louis K C & Karceski, Jason & Lakonishok, Josef, 1999. "On Portfolio Optimization: Forecasting Covariances and Choosing the Risk Model," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(5), pages 937-974.
    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. Gillen, Benjamin J., 2014. "An empirical Bayesian approach to stein-optimal covariance matrix estimation," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 402-420.

    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. Markus Ebner & Thorsten Neumann, 2005. "Time-Varying Betas of German Stock Returns," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 19(1), pages 29-46, June.
    2. Zhou, Jian, 2013. "Conditional market beta for REITs: A comparison of modeling techniques," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 196-204.
    3. Ortas, E. & Salvador, M. & Moneva, J.M., 2015. "Improved beta modeling and forecasting: An unobserved component approach with conditional heteroscedastic disturbances," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 27-51.
    4. Keith Lam, 1999. "Some evidence on the distribution of beta in Hong Kong," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 251-262.
    5. Robert D. Brooks & Robert W. Faff & Michael D. McKenzie, 1998. "Time†Varying Beta Risk of Australian Industry Portfolios: A Comparison of Modelling Techniques," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 23(1), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Ortas, Eduardo & Moneva, José M. & Salvador, Manuel, 2012. "Does socially responsible investment equity indexes in emerging markets pay off? Evidence from Brazil," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 581-597.
    7. Brooks, Robert D. & Faff, Robert W. & Yew, Kee Ho, 1997. "A new test of the relationship between regulatory change in financial markets and the stability of beta risk of depository institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 197-219, February.
    8. Асатуров К.Г., 2015. "Динамические Модели Систематического Риска: Сравнение На Примере Индийского Фондового Рынка," Журнал Экономика и математические методы (ЭММ), Центральный Экономико-Математический Институт (ЦЭМИ), vol. 51(4), pages 59-75, октябрь.
    9. Esteban González, María Victoria & Tusell Palmer, Fernando Jorge, 2009. "Predicting Betas: Two new methods," BILTOKI 1134-8984, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Economía Aplicada III (Econometría y Estadística).
    10. R. D. Brooks & R. W. Faff & M. McKenzie, 2002. "Time varying country risk: an assessment of alternative modelling techniques," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 249-274.
    11. Mishra, Anil V., 2016. "Foreign bias in Australian-domiciled mutual fund holdings," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 101-123.
    12. Wang, Christina Dan & Chen, Zhao & Lian, Yimin & Chen, Min, 2022. "Asset selection based on high frequency Sharpe ratio," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 168-188.
    13. Mishra, Anil V., 2015. "Measures of equity home bias puzzle," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 293-312.
    14. Sascha Mergner & Jan Bulla, 2008. "Time-varying beta risk of Pan-European industry portfolios: A comparison of alternative modeling techniques," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(8), pages 771-802.
    15. Penaranda, Francisco, 2007. "Portfolio choice beyond the traditional approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24481, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. M. V. Esteban & E. Ferreira & S. Orbe-Mandaluniz, 2015. "Nonparametric methods for estimating and testing for constant betas in asset pricing models," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(25), pages 2577-2607, May.
    17. Stefano D'Addona & Mattia Ciprian, 2007. "Time Varying Sensitivities On A Grid Architecture," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(02), pages 307-329.
    18. Antypas, Antonios & Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Kourogenis, Nikolaos & Pittis, Nikitas, 2020. "Estimation of conditional asset pricing models with integrated variables in the beta specification," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    19. Thomas Conlon & John Cotter & Iason Kynigakis, 2021. "Machine Learning and Factor-Based Portfolio Optimization," Papers 2107.13866, arXiv.org.

    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:taf:eurjfi:v:14:y:2008:i:5:p:381-395. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJF20 .

    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.