We examine the rate of return earned by global funds on equity investment in emerging markets (EMs) particularly the role played by sovereign credit risk. Changes in sovereign credit ratings (upgrades/downgrades) influence excess (over risk free rate) returns earned by foreign investors: lower...

In this article, LEGO sets are studied as a potential alternative asset class. An exhaustive sample of 10,588 sets is utilised to generate inferences regarding long-term LEGO performance, its diversification benefits, and return determinants. Over 1966-2018, LEGO value-weighted index accounted...

We examine the role of emerging markets in providing currency diversification benefits. We use global sectoral portfolios for developed and emerging markets. Our empirical tests based on a conditional international asset pricing model show that on average the prices of currency risks are very...

Economic assets can be classified into two broad categories: those earning an inherent return and those earning a fiat money return. This article shows that both are valued according to the same general principle based on GDP (a constant equal to expected long term real per capita GDP growth)...

In distilling a vast literature spanning the rational — irrational divide, this paper offers reflections on why asset bubbles continue to threaten economic stability despite financial markets becoming more informationally-efficient, more complete, and more heavily influenced by sophisticated...

The evidence for international diversification as a means to curtail portfolio risk relies predominantly on short-run data. In this paper, we examine the extent to which the risk reduction benefits of international investment hold in the long-run. Employing a multi-horizon non-parametric filter,...

This paper examines cross-country heterogeneity and time-variability in the effects of unconventional monetary policies (UMPs) in advanced economies (AEs) on portfolio inflows to emerging economies (EMEs), with a panel smooth transition regression model. The drivers of the two dimensional...

At the end of fiscal year 2013, the level of investment held by U.S.- based businesses and individuals in assets abroad was US$ 21.9 trillion, and the position held by foreign-based counterparties in the U.S. $ 26.5 trillion (B.E.A., 2014). With volumes that exceed 30% of the world GDP (World...

We show that international equity mutual funds underweight equity markets with risky currencies and overweight equity markets with less risky ones. This risk-management practice is an important determinant for allocations among foreign equities and can also help explain levels of home bias for...

We show that internationally diversified portfolios carry sizeable political risk premia. We use a tail-risk portfolio selection model to obtain political efficient frontiers from skewed return distributions and manage political risk, and design an inference test to draw conclusions. We find...