We provide evidence on the role of commodity futures in portfolios comprised of stocks, bonds, T‐bills, and real estate. Over the period investigated (1973–1997), Markowitz optimization over a range of risk levels gives substantial weight to commodity futures, thereby enhancing the...

Recent studies identify stock return patterns associated with changes in Federal Reserve monetary policy. We find that these return patterns prevail across sixteen industry stock indices. However, significant cross-industry variation exists as the apparel industry exhibits mean annual returns...

A lack of detailed data on state tax incentive programs has limited the assessment of their economic impacts. However, in 1987, the Nebraska legislature, as part of its new business tax incentive initiative, required that the state Department of Revenue collect data on all business tax incentive...