Keynes, King's and Endowment Asset Management

David Chambers (), Elroy Dimson and Justin Foo

No 20421, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Founded in 1441, King's College was one of Cambridge University's wealthiest Colleges, endowed with a vast agricultural portfolio. John Maynard Keynes was appointed bursar just after WWI and initiated a major reallocation to equities, an innovation at least as radical as the late 20th century commitment to illiquid assets by Harvard and Yale. Keynes initially pursued a market-timing approach to investment with mixed success and failed to anticipate the 1929 market crash. Thereafter, his switch to a patient buy-and-hold strategy allowed him to maintain his commitment to equities in the subsequent market slump, reflecting the natural advantages that accrue to long horizon investors. Keynes' innovations in endowment asset management, implemented over a dynamic period of capital market development and economic turbulence remain of great relevance to modern investors emerging from the Great Recession.

JEL-codes: B26 G11 G14 G23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-pke
Note: AP ED
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Published as Keynes, King's, and Endowment Asset Management , David Chambers, Elroy Dimson, Justin Foo. in How the Financial Crisis and Great Recession Affected Higher Education , Brown and Hoxby. 2015

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Chapter: Keynes, King's, and Endowment Asset Management (2013)
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