Optimal Portfolio Allocation Under Higher Moments

Eric Jondeau and Michael Rockinger ()

Working papers from Banque de France

Abstract: We evaluate how departure from normality may affect the allocation of assets. A Taylor series expansion of the expected utility allows to focus on certain moments and to compute numerically the optimal portfolio allocation. A decisive advantage of this approach is that it remains operational even if a large number of assets is involved. We show that under moderate non-normality the mean-variance criterion provides a good approximation of the expected utility maximization. In contrast, under large departure from normality (as found in some stocks in mature markets or in some stock indices in emerging markets), the mean-variance criterion may fail to approximate the expected utility correctly. In such cases, the three-moment or four-moment optimization strategies may provide a good approximation of the expected utility.

Keywords: Asset allocation; Stock returns; Non-normality; Utility function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 C51 G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://publications.banque-france.fr/sites/defaul ... g-paper_108_2004.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Optimal Portfolio Allocation under Higher Moments (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bfr:banfra:108

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working papers from Banque de France Banque de France 31 Rue Croix des Petits Champs LABOLOG - 49-1404 75049 PARIS. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael brassart ().