Joost Driessen

International Portfolio Diversification Benefits: Cross-Country Evidence from a Local Perspective

We investigate how the benefits of international portfolio diversification differ across countries from the perspective of a local investor. We find that the benefits of investing abroad are largest for investors in developing countries, including when controlling for currency effects. Most of the benefits are obtained from investing outside the region of the home country. These global diversification benefits remain large when controlling for short-sales constraints in developing stock markets. The gains from international portfolio diversification appear to be largest for countries with high country risk. In addition to this cross-sectional evidence, we also provide evidence that diversification benefits vary over time as country risk changes. We find that diversification benefits have decreased for most countries in our sample over the past two decades.

A New Method to Estimate Risk and Return of Non-traded Assets from Cash Flows: The Case of Private Equity Funds

We develop a new methodology to estimate abnormal performance and risk exposure of nontraded assets from cash flows. Our methodology extends the standard internal rate of return approach to a dynamic setting. The small-sample properties are validated using a simulation study. We apply the method to a sample of 958 private equity funds. For venture capital funds, we find a high market beta and underperformance before and after fees. For buyout funds, we find a relatively low market beta and no evidence for outperformance. We find that self-reported net asset values significantly overstate fund values for mature and inactive funds.

Option-Implied Correlations and the Price of Correlation Risk

Motivated by extensive evidence that stock-return correlations are stochastic, we analyze whether the risk of correlation changes (affecting diversification benefits) is priced. We propose a direct and intuitive test by comparing option-implied correlations between stock returns (obtained by combining index option prices with prices of options on all index components) with realized correlations. Our parsimonious model shows that the substantial gap between average implied (39.5% for S&P500 and 46.0% for DJ30) and realized correlations (32.5% and 35.5%, respectively) is direct evidence of a large negative correlation risk premium. Empirical implementation of our model also indicates that the index variance risk premium can be attributed to the high price of correlation risk. Finally, we provide evidence that option-implied correlations have remarkable predictive power for future market returns, which also stays significant after controlling for a number of fundamental market return predictors.

An Asset Pricing Approach to Liquidity Effects in Corporate Bond Markets

We use an asset pricing approach to compare the effects of expected liquidity and liquidity risk on expected U.S. corporate bond returns. Liquidity measures are constructed for bond portfolios using a Bayesian approach to estimate Roll’s measure. The results show that expected bond liquidity and exposure to equity market liquidity risk affect expected bond returns, and that these liquidity effects explain a substantial part of the credit spread puzzle. In contrast, we find robust evidence that exposure to corporate bond liquidity shocks carries an economically negligible risk premium. We develop a simple theoretical model that can explain this finding.

On the Information in the Interest Rate Term Structure and Option Prices

Cap and swaption prices contain information on interest rate volatilities and correlations. In this paper, we examine whether this information in cap and swaption prices is consistent with realized movements of the interest rate term structure. To extract an option-implied interest rate covariance matrix from cap and swaption prices, we use Libor market models and discrete-tenor string models as a modelling framework. We propose a flexible parameterization of the interest rate covariance matrix, which cannot be generated by standard low-factor term structure models. The empirical analysis is based on weekly US data from 1995 to 1999. Our empirical results show that the option prices imply a covariance matrix of interest rates that is significantly different from the covariance matrix implied by realized interest rate changes. In particular, if one uses the latter covariance matrix to price caps and swaptions, one significantly underprices these options. We discuss and analyze several explanations for our findings. JEL Codes: G12, G13, E43.

Pricing Liquidity Risk with Heterogeneous Investment Horizons

We develop an asset pricing model with stochastic transaction costs and investors with heterogeneous horizons. Depending on their horizon, investors hold different sets of assets in equilibrium. This generates segmentation and spillover effects for expected returns, where the liquidity (risk) premium of illiquid assets is determined by investor horizons and the correlation between liquid and illiquid asset returns. We estimate our model for the cross-section of U.S. stock returns and find that it generates a good fit, mainly due to a combination of a substantial expected liquidity premium and segmentation effects, while the liquidity risk premium is small.

Why Do Options Prices Predict Stock Returns

We use a new approach to assess the information transmission between options and stock markets. We study whether the predictive power of option-implied volatilities (IVs) on stock returns lies in analyst-related and/or earnings-related news. We find that two proxies for options trading (IV skew and IV spread) predict analyst recommendation changes, analyst forecast revisions, and earnings surprises. Next, we show that the IV skew and IV spread predict stock returns, and that the degree of predictability more than doubles around analyst-related and earnings-related events. Additionally, we find that informed traders choose to use the options market particularly because of short-sale constraints on the underlying stock. We also find that the informed options trading increases with the options market liquidity.

Cumulative Prospect Theory and the Variance Premium

Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) can explain the variance premium puzzle. We solve a simple equilibrium model with CPT investors and �?nd that probability weighting plays a key role in generating a substantial variance premium, while loss aversion captures the equity premium. Using GMM on a sample of U.S. equity and index-option returns between 1996 and 2010, our estimate of the probability distortion parameter implies that real-world investors in option markets distort probabilities signi�?cantly, but less so than subjects in lab experiments. We also show that the CPT model prices the cross-section of out-of-the-money index options well. In a dynamic setting, probability weighting and time-varying equity return volatility combine to match the observed time-series pattern of the variance premium.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund's Potential for Capturing Illiquidity Premiums

This paper surveys the recent literature on investing in illiquid assets. The paper takes a practical perspective and contains recommendations for the investment policy of a large sovereign wealth fund. We first summarize the theoretical literature on liquidity level and liquidity risk premiums. We then summarize the empirical evidence for the presence of liquidity effects in a broad range of asset classes: listed equities, corporate bonds, treasury and agency bonds, and alternative asset classes such as real estate and private equity.

Confidence Building on Euro Convergence: Theory and Evidence from Currency Options

Using a unique dataset of currency option prices, we study the evolution of investor confidence in 1992-1998 over the chance of individual currencies to converge to the Euro. Convergence risk, which may reflect uncertainty over policy commitment as well as exogenous fundamentals, induces a level of implied volatility in excess of actual volatility (volatility wedge). We show formally that confidence grows over time as convergence policy is maintained, and the risk of a reversal is progressively resolved. Empirically, we indeed find a positive volatility wedge only for those currencies involved in convergence, which declines over time. The wedge is correlated with both exogenous fundamentals and proxies for policy commitment uncertainty. We also find that the wedge responds to policy shocks in an asymmetric fashion, suggesting that policy risk is resolved at different rates after negative and positive shocks, as the confidence building model suggests. Finally, we estimate a regime-switching model of convergence uncertainty, using data on interest rates, currency rates, and currency option prices. The results confirm the time-varying and asymmetric nature of convergence risk, and indicate that investors demand a risk premium for convergence risk.