Essays in capital markets

This thesis consists of three essays in capital markets. The first essay presents a dynamic asset pricing model with heterogeneously informed agents. Unlike previous research, the general case where differential information leads to the problem of "forecasting the forecasts of others" and to non-trivial dynamics of higher order expectations is studied. In particular, it is proved that the model does not admit a finite number of state variables. A comparison of equilibria characterized by identical fundamentals but different information structure shows that the distribution of information has substantial impact on equilibrium prices and returns. In the second essay we explore several sources of serial correlation in returns of hedge funds and other alternative investments. We show that the most likely explanation is illiquidity exposure, i.e., investments in securities that are not actively traded and for which market prices are not always readily available. For portfolios of illiquid securities, reported returns will tend to be smoother than true economic returns, which will understate volatility and increase risk-adjusted performance measures such as the Sharpe ratio. We propose an econometric model of illiquidity exposure and develop estimators for the smoothing profile as well as a smoothing-adjusted Sharpe ratio.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Makarov, Igor, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leonid Kogan.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36288

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36288