Weekly Top 5 Papers – October 17, 2014

ssrn_toppapersheader_1017141. ‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration by Andrew Francis (Emory University – Department of Economics) and Hugo Mialon (Emory University – Department of Economics)

2. A Brief Introduction to the Basics of Game Theory by Matthew Jackson (Stanford University – Department of Economics)

3. CAPM: An Absurd Model by Pablo Fernandez (University of Navarra – IESE Business School)

IESE, the Business School I work for, is committed to the development of leaders who aspire to have a deep, positive and lasting impact on people, firms and society; to inspiring leaders to work with a spirit of service and integrity, basing their actions on the highest standards of professionalism and accountability.

It is important to tell our students (MBAs and executives) the truth: what we do know and what we do not know

Ricardo Yepes, professor of philosophy of my university, describes what is going on in some places: “Learning means being able to keep perceiving reality as it truly is: complex – and not trying to fit every new experience into a closed and pre-conceived notion or overall scheme”.  Doing the later is not ethical.
-Pablo Fernandez

4. A Critique of Public International Law: Letter from Éamon De Valera to the Heads of Government of the Major Allied Powers — April 3, 1945 by Seth Tillman (National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth) – Faculty of Law)

5. Retirement Risk, Rising Equity Glidepaths, and Valuation-Based Asset Allocation by Michael Kitces (The Kitces Report & Nerd’s Eye View) and Wade Pfau (The American College)

Our newest article is the third in a series we have written together
on asset allocation for retirees. The first two of those articles have
been published, and working papers for all three articles remain
available on SSRN. Our research falls into the fields of applied
personal finance and retirement income planning. Research in this area
can be read and understood by well-informed laypeople, in addition to
the general audience of researchers.

In our newest article, we consider more about the interplay between
two of the three ways to approach dynamic asset allocation strategies
in retirement. The three approaches are mechnical asset allocation
glidepaths which are a function of age, valuation-based asset
allocation which responds the downside risk or upside potential
implied when Robert Shiller’s cyclically-adjusted price earnings ratio
deviates far from its historical median, and asset allocation which
varies in response to the funded status of the retiree as implied by
the ratio of their assets to liabilities. In the new research, we find
that mechanical rising equity glidepaths are best suited for times
when retirement begins at a high valuation level. In other valuation
environments, valuation-based asset allocation has performed well in
the historical context and can be overlayed with an age-based
glidepath. Fixed asset allocations also perform reasonably well in
different market environments.
-Wade Pfau