TY - JOUR
T1 - A statistical analysis of investor preferences for portfolio selection
AU - Nisani, Doron
AU - Shelef, Amit
N1 - Funding Information: The authors share equal contribution in this article. The authors thank Prof. Haim Shalit from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for his helpful comments on a previous version of this paper. The authors also thank Prof. Ralph Sonenshine from the American University and Prof. Christo Auret from University of the Witwatersrand for their helpful comments during the 26th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference. Furthermore, the authors are grateful for the two anonymous reviewers’ helpful remarks and comments. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Is the market portfolio consistent with the investors’ preferences for risk and return in the capital markets? The answer to this question is not so simple: on the one hand, the market portfolio (which is derived from a minimization of a coherent risk measurement) is an efficient portfolio in terms of risk and return and therefore should be consistent with the investor’s preference. On the other hand, since none of the current risk indices are considered to be coherent risk measurements, the market portfolio might not be consistent with the investors’ preference. This research attempts to fill this gap by invoking the Lorenz curve ranking method combined with compatible statistical tests, in order to rank the S&P 500 Index and its components in 2014–2017. We conclude that the S&P 500 Index is not considered to be the market portfolio from the investors’ point of view, but rather seen as another asset. In addition, we conclude that the investors exhibit a decreasing risk aversion behavior in ranking financial assets, which suggests that they are willing to take risks for higher rewards. This methodology presents a unique way to empirically examine the theoretical preference relation of von Neumann and Morgenstern.
AB - Is the market portfolio consistent with the investors’ preferences for risk and return in the capital markets? The answer to this question is not so simple: on the one hand, the market portfolio (which is derived from a minimization of a coherent risk measurement) is an efficient portfolio in terms of risk and return and therefore should be consistent with the investor’s preference. On the other hand, since none of the current risk indices are considered to be coherent risk measurements, the market portfolio might not be consistent with the investors’ preference. This research attempts to fill this gap by invoking the Lorenz curve ranking method combined with compatible statistical tests, in order to rank the S&P 500 Index and its components in 2014–2017. We conclude that the S&P 500 Index is not considered to be the market portfolio from the investors’ point of view, but rather seen as another asset. In addition, we conclude that the investors exhibit a decreasing risk aversion behavior in ranking financial assets, which suggests that they are willing to take risks for higher rewards. This methodology presents a unique way to empirically examine the theoretical preference relation of von Neumann and Morgenstern.
KW - Expected utility model
KW - Investment management
KW - Lorenz curves
KW - Marginal conditions for stochastic dominance
KW - Stochastic dominance rules
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093825786&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-020-01947-8
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-020-01947-8
M3 - Article
SN - 0377-7332
VL - 61
SP - 1883
EP - 1915
JO - Empirical Economics
JF - Empirical Economics
IS - 4
ER -