The behaviour of the distribution of stock returns is of fundamental importance in financial economics, in view of its direct bearing on the descriptive validity of any theoretical model. We analysed the behaviour of Japanese stock return distributions using the Pearson system of frequency...

In an article that recently appeared in this journal, Marshall (2015) argued that the systematic component of the SD of a stock or of a portfolio of stocks is its beta scaled by the SD of the market returns. She also contended that the beta mispredicts the actual systematic risk of a stock or of...

This article proposes a straightforward measure of the residual unsystematic risk that a selective portfolio investment strategy, such as socially responsible investment, eventually bears. The model is empirically employed in order to analyse whether the MSCI socially responsible indices bear...

The existence of country-specific risk factors that could be mitigated by international investments is investigated. An innovative methodology for quantifying the benefits of international diversification is also proposed and tested. In order to overcome many of the problems that arise in the...

This paper aims to empirically verify whether an individual European investor can enhance the diversification of his/her portfolio of financial assets by implementing an equity market neutral strategy. The analysis takes into consideration a typical European investor who has roughly diversified...

The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nation and interest by investors in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment strategies have caused a rapid shift to the green or renewable energy sector, from traditional or gray (oil, gas, and coal) energy companies. In this study,...