← Search

Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 45 No. 3 1997

Analyzing investments whose histories differ in length

Robert F. Stambaugh1,2

1 National Bureau of Economic Research · 2 University of Pennsylvania

open access

Abstract

This study explores multivariate methods for investment analysis based on return histories that differ in length across assets. The longer histories provide greater information about moments of return, not only for the longer-history assets, but for the shorter-history assets as well. To account for the remaining parameter uncertainty, or ‘estimation risk’, portfolio opportunities are characterized by a Bayesian predictive distribution. Examples involving emerging markets demonstrate the value of using the combined sample of histories and accounting for estimation risk, as compared to truncating the sample to produce equal-length histories or ignoring estimation risk by using maximum-likelihood estimates.

DOI
10.1016/s0304-405x(97)00020-2
Volume
45
Issue
3
Pages
285-331
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite