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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 30 No. 3 2006

Downside risk and asset pricing

Thierry Post1; Pim van Vliet

1 Erasmus University Rotterdam

open access

Abstract

We analyze if the value-weighted stock market portfolio is stochastic dominance (SD) efficient relative to benchmark portfolios formed on size, value, and momentum. In the process, we also develop several methodological improvements to the existing tests for SD efficiency. Interestingly, the market portfolio seems third-order SD (TSD) efficient relative to all benchmark sets. By contrast, the market portfolio is inefficient if we replace the TSD criterion with the traditional mean–variance criterion. Combined these results suggest that the mean–variance inefficiency of the market portfolio is caused by the omission of return moments other than variance. Especially downside risk seems to be important for explaining the high average returns of small/value/winner stocks.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2005.06.005
Volume
30
Issue
3
Pages
823-849
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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