Where Experience Matters: Asset Allocation and Asset Pricing with Opaque and Illiquid Assets

61 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2015

See all articles by Adrian Buss

Adrian Buss

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Raman Uppal

EDHEC Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Grigory Vilkov

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

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Date Written: February 2015

Abstract

Alternative assets, such as private equity, hedge funds, and real assets, are illiquid and opaque, and thus pose a challenge to traditional models of asset allocation. In this paper, we study asset allocation and asset pricing in a general-equilibrium model with liquid assets and an alternative risky asset, which is opaque and incurs transaction costs, and investors who differ in their experience in assessing the alternative asset. We find that the optimal asset-allocation strategy of the relatively inexperienced investors is to initially tilt their portfolio away from the alternative asset and to hold more of it with experience. Counterintuitively, a decrease in the transaction cost for the alternative asset increases the portfolio tilt at the initial date, and hence, the liquidity discount. Transaction costs may induce inexperienced investors to hold a majority of the illiquid asset at later dates, even if they are pessimistic about future payoffs, and produce a sizable liquidity discount. During periods when the alternative asset is illiquid, investors trade the liquid equity index instead, leading to strong spillover effects.

Keywords: alternative assets, heterogeneous beliefs, incomplete markets, portfolio choice, private equity, transaction costs

JEL Classification: G11, G12

Suggested Citation

Buss, Adrian and Uppal, Raman and Vilkov, Grigory, Where Experience Matters: Asset Allocation and Asset Pricing with Opaque and Illiquid Assets (February 2015). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10437, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2569266

Adrian Buss (Contact Author)

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management ( email )

Adickesallee 32-34
Frankfurt, 60322
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

Raman Uppal

EDHEC Business School ( email )

58 rue du Port
Lille, 59046
France

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

90-98 Goswell Road
London, EC1V 7RR
United Kingdom

Grigory Vilkov

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management ( email )

Adickesallee 32-34
Frankfurt am Main, 60322
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.vilkov.net

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