Principal-Guaranteed Products: Paying Others to Bear Risk
Can principal-guaranteed products help an investor better manage portfolio risk? Ken French explains that principal protection would certainly be attractive if it were free. Unfortunately for...
View ArticleDiversification by Omission
Can investors build a better portfolio by combining asset classes that have low correlations? It is possible, explains Ken French, but not in the way that most investors attempt it. Some think they can...
View ArticleHow Can Retirees Determine a Sustainable Withdrawal Rate?
Ken French says the simplest answer is found in the rate offered on a long-term Treasury Inflation Protected Security (TIPS). You can go beyond the TIPS rate if you don't plan to live forever. Retirees...
View ArticleHomemade Dividends
Should retirees limit their spending to the interest and dividends they receive? Ken French says investors should be indifferent to how they raise cash, whether through dividends and interest, or...
View ArticleHome Bias
Investors tend to overweight their equity portfolios with stocks from their home country market. Ken French says that, while home bias is still the norm, investors have significantly increased their...
View ArticleQ&A with Fama at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Fama speaks candidly about academic progress, smart beta, and the efficient markets hypothesis. (View the video)
View ArticleFama: American Enterprise Institute Award and Interview
EFF: I was honored to be the recipient of the American Enterprise Institute's 2014 Irving Kristol Award at their annual dinner May 6. The institute has posted a video of the dinner, which includes...
View ArticleIGM Website
EFF/KRF: The IGM (Initiative on Global Markets of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business) web site has lots of good stuff from op eds to links to serious academic papers of the business...
View ArticleThe Becker-Posner Blog
EFF/KRF: Gary Becker (University of Chicago faculty member in economics and business and a Nobel Prize winner in economics) and Richard Posner (University of Chicago Law School professor and a US...
View ArticleWorking Papers
EFF/KRF: There is often a two or three year gap between the first draft of a paper and publication in a top finance journal. Most financial economists post their working papers on SSRN.com and,...
View ArticleEconomist Podcasts
EFF/KRF: The Economist provides unusually clear and accurate analysis of economic and financial issues. You can download podcasts from The Economist on iTunes.
View ArticleHistorical Returns
KRF: If you are looking for historical returns on our three factors and many other interesting portfolios, you can find them on my web site.
View ArticlePerformance of Mutual Funds
EFF/KRF: Our new paper, Luck versus Skill in the Cross Section of Mutual Fund Alpha Estimates, takes another look at the performance of mutual funds. Bootstrap simulations produce no evidence that any...
View ArticleCliff Asness on the U.S. Healthcare Bill
EFF/KRF: For an interesting and colorful economic analysis of the proposed U.S. Healthcare Bill we recommend "Health Care Mythology" by Cliff Asness, a Chicago Booth Ph.D.
View ArticleRobert Lucas in The Economist
KRF: Professor Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago has an interesting guest article in The Economist, "In defense of the dismal science."
View ArticleThe Squam Lake Group
KRF: The Squam Lake Group recently published "The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System". We launched the book with a conference in New York.
View ArticleLuck versus Skill in Mutual Fund Performance
By Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French Our paper, "Luck versus Skill in the Cross Section of Mutual Fund Returns," examines the performance during 1984-2006 of actively managed US mutual funds that...
View ArticleMy Life in Finance
By Eugene F. Fama Foreword I was invited by the editors to contribute a professional autobiography for the Annual Review of Financial Economics. I focus on what I think is my best stuff. Readers...
View ArticleVolatility and Premiums
By Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French Understanding volatility is crucial for informed investment decisions. Our paper explores the volatility of the market, size, and value premiums of the...
View ArticleDoes the Fed Control Interest Rates?
EFF: I have a new paper, "Does the Fed Control Interest Rates?". In it, I find that The Federal funds rate, FF, moves strongly toward the Fed's target, TF, but other rates show little day-to-day...
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