Publications

SSRN

January – February 2011
Article

Benchmarks as Limits to Arbitrage: Understanding the Low-Volatility Anomaly

By: Malcolm Baker, Brendan Bradley and Jeffrey Wurgler

Contrary to basic finance principles, high-beta and high-volatility stocks have long underperformed low-beta and low-volatility stocks. This anomaly may be partly explained by the fact that the typical institutional investor's mandate to beat a fixed benchmark... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Stocks; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management; Performance Expectations

Find at Harvard

August 2022 (Revised November 2022)
Supplement

Altos Ventures (B)

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

In December 2021, Han Kim, Anthony Lee, and Ho Nam reflected on how far they had come since 2012. This B case provides an update on Altos Ventures’ decision-making and performance since the events presented in the A case. View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Partners and Partnerships

2008
Working Paper

Long-Run Stockholder Consumption Risk and Asset Returns

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Tobias J. Moskowitz and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

We provide new evidence on the success of long-run risks in asset pricing by focusing on the risks borne by stockholders. Exploiting micro-level household consumption data, we show that long-run stockholder consumption risk better captures cross-sectional... View Details

Keywords: Asset Pricing; Stocks; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

29 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

'Green Bonds' May Be Our Best Bet for Environmental Damage Control

Municipalities have been selling bonds to pay for public works projects—fire stations, parking garages,sewage treatment systems—for 200 years. It’s only in the past decade or so, however, that they’ve been selling them with an extra perk: helping the environment. In... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy; Utilities; Construction; Green Technology; Public Administration

December 2009
Article

Long-Run Stockholder Consumption Risk and Asset Returns

By: Christopher J. Malloy, Tobias J. Moskowitz and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

We provide new evidence on the success of long-run risks in asset pricing by focusing on the risks borne by stockholders. Exploiting micro-level household consumption data, we show that long-run stockholder consumption risk better captures cross-sectional variation in... View Details

Keywords: Asset Pricing; Stocks; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

Find at Harvard

29 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Decoding Insider Information and Other Secrets of Old School Chums

disappeared. In the United Kingdom, however, where no such rule exists, the effect of school ties on buy recommendations stayed markedly positive. "This provides more evidence that the alumni channel is really about information," Malloy says. The Small World Of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

23 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Putting the Project Puzzle Together

McFarlan: Fifty percent of all capital investment today is being done in IT projects. The way this money is spent deeply impacts the organization's future. It is because of the size of investment as a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

New Challenges for Long-Term Investors

guaranteed. These investors might want to hold bonds in their portfolios for their ability to hedge their spending needs. Similarly, empirical research by academics and practitioners alike suggest that the annualized volatility of stock... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

The ABCs of Addressing Climate Change (From a Business Perspective)

annually and continues to grow, according to the Wall Street Journal. These bonds are purchased by portfolio investors. Even the real estate industry's leading trade group, the Urban Land Institute, sees resilience-modeling and adaptation... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Energy; Utilities

September 2004
Teaching Note

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Valuation and Distribution in Private Equity (TN)

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Teaching Note to (9-803-161). View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Distribution; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Stocks

25 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 25, 2006

Authors:Jakub Wojciech Jurek and Luis M. Viceira Revised Working Paper Author's Abstract We develop an analytical solution to the dynamic portfolio choice problem of an investor with power utility defined over wealth at a finite horizon... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2011
Chapter

Asset Allocation by Institutional Investors after the Recent Financial Crisis

By: Robert C. Pozen, Betsy Palmer and Natalie Shapiro

Keywords: History; Assets; Resource Allocation; Investment Portfolio; Financial Crisis

2020
Working Paper

Internal Models, Make Believe Prices, and Bond Market Cornering

By: Ishita Sen and Varun Sharma

Exploiting position-level heterogeneity in regulatory incentives to misreport and novel data on regulators, we document that U.S. life insurers inflate the values of corporate bonds using internal models. We estimate an additional $9-$18 billion decline in regulatory... View Details

Keywords: Life Insurers; Capital Regulation; Internal Models; Corporate Bonds; Regulatory Supervision; Concentrated Ownership; Bonds; Capital; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance; Investment Portfolio

SSRN

January 2021
Case

The FIRE Savings Calculator

By: Michael Parzen and Paul Hamilton

This case follows Carol Muñoz, a member of the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) lifestyle movement. At the age of 45, Carol is considering retiring and living off the $1 million she has accumulated. Using Monte Carlo simulation, Carol forecasts the... View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Personal Finance; Saving; Risk and Uncertainty; Diversification; Theory; Personal Development and Career; Financial Services Industry

Educators

October 2012
Article

Securitization without Adverse Selection: The Case of CLOs

By: Effi Benmelech, Jennifer Dlugosz and Victoria Ivashina

In this paper, we investigate whether securitization was associated with risky lending in the corporate loan market by examining the performance of individual loans held by CLOs. We employ two different datasets that identify loan holdings for a large set of CLOs and... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Performance; Markets; Banks and Banking; Debt Securities; Investment Portfolio; Financing and Loans

March 2004 (Revised July 2004)
Case

UCB: Managing Information for Globalization and Innovation (A) (Abridged)

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Brian DeLacey

A medium-size European manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and chemicals faces a number of information strategy issues. The case focuses on the issues of coordinating international IT activities and day-to-day operations as well as balancing the company's IT applications... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Information Technology; Operations; System; Corporate Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Globalization; Pharmaceutical Industry; Information Technology Industry; Brussels

Educators

July 2010 (Revised March 2016)
Case

MacroMarkets LLC

By: Robin Greenwood and Luis M. Viceira

MacroMarkets co-founder and CEO Samuel Masucci III is meeting with a strategic partner for his firm. Co-founded with Yale University Professor Robert Shiller, MacroMarkets' main innovation is the "MacroShare," which allows investors to take long or short, levered or... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Financial Instruments; Financial Markets; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Innovation and Invention; Risk Management; Product Positioning; Demand and Consumers; Financial Services Industry

Educators