The objective of this study is to answer the following research question: How large is a diversified portfolio? Although previous work is abundant, very little progress has been made in answering this question since the seminal work of Evans and Archer (1968). This study proposes two approaches to address the research question. The first approach is to measure the rate of risk reduction as diversification increases. For the first approach, I identify two kinds of risks: (1) risk that portfolio returns vary across time (Evans and Archer (1968), and Campbell et al. (2001)); and (2) risk that returns vary across portfolios of the same size (Elton and Gruber (1977), and O'Neil (1997)). I show that the times series risk reaches an asymptote as portfolio size increases. Cross sectional risk, on the other hand, does not appears to reach an asymptote as portfolio size increases. The second approach consists of comparing portfolios' performance to a benchmark portfolio that is assumed to be diversified (Statman (1987)). I develop a performance index. The performance index is calculated, for any given test portfolio, as the ratio of the Sharpe-like measure of the test portfolio to the Sharpe-like measure of the benchmark portfolio that is assumed to be diversified. The index is based on the intuition that an increase in portfolio size reduces times series risk and cross sectional risk, and increases transaction costs. Portfolio size is worth increasing as long as the marginal increase in the performance index from a decrease in risk is greater than the marginal decrease of the performance index from an increase in transaction costs. Diversification is attained when the value of the index reaches one. The results of my simulations indicate that the size of a well diversified portfolio is at the very least 30. This number can be substantially higher if, for example, the investment horizon length, the benchmark portfolio, and/or the cost of investing in the benchmark portfolio are changed. The active diversification strategy considered in this study, which consists of optimizing randomly selected portfolios, does not seem to produce smaller diversified portfolios. This result supports the market efficiency hypothesis.

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This thesis investigates whether estimating the inputs of the Markowitz (1952) Mean- Variance framework using various econometric techniques leads to improved optimal portfolio allocations at the country, sector and stock levels over a number of time periods. We build upon previous work by using various combinations of conventional and Bayesian expected returns and covariance matrix estimators in a Mean-Variance framework that incorporates a benchmark reference, an allowable deviation range from the benchmark weights and short-selling constraints so as to achieve meaningful and realistic outcomes. We found that models based on the classical maximum likelihood method performed just as well as the more sophisticated Bayesian return estimators in the study. We also found that the covariance matrix estimators analysed created covariance matrices that were similar to one another and, as a result, did not seem to have a large effect on the overall portfolio allocation. A sensitivity analysis on the level of risk aversion confirmed that the simulation results were robust for the different levels of risk aversion.

Institutional investors have typically involved commercial property in their core portfolios for stable and income-oriented returns, particularly concentrated on low-risk traditional property sectors including office, retail and industrial property. Recent years have seen the strong growth in demand for quality commercial properties resulting in an imbalanced property investment market, with significant capital flows available (eg: growth in superannuation fund assets) for property investment from this increased appetite for commercial property. This has also been driven by some basic factors such as changing demographics. The demographic change has affected savings, investment and capital flows as the elderly prefer investments with the characteristics of higher yield and stability. Due to the ageing population, a compulsory superannuation system was introduced by the Australian government in 1992 which has driven significant increased capital flowing into investment markets. Since the increased capital flowed into investment markets with significantly compressed property yields, institutional investors have considered a range of emerging property sector investments such as self-storage, retirement, healthcare, and leisure properties to enhance the performance and provide diversification benefits in their portfolios. Specifically, recent years have also seen infrastructure emerge as a separate asset class for institutional capital, with the infrastructure asset class having distinctive characteristics and attractive features; particularly in a climate of significantly reduced government spending on infrastructure in most countries, as governments seek alternative funding options for infrastructure development and maintenance. However, only limited studies regarding the performance of the emerging property sectors and infrastructure investments have been conducted. As such, this PhD thesis focuses on both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the investment issues for the emerging property sectors and infrastructure. To provide a fuller view of the emerging property sectors and infrastructure, the empirical analysis in this thesis provided the performance assessments of Australian emerging property sector LPTs, US non-traditional REITs, UK direct leisure property, Australian infrastructure, US infrastructure and European infrastructure, as well as the strategic investment issues regarding emerging property sector and infrastructure investment via surveys with Australian emerging property sector LPT and infrastructure fund managers. With the development of an emerging property sector LPT index, the results of the empirical analysis indicate Australian emerging properties are characterised as higher risk-higher return property investments. The diversification benefit has been confirmed as adding emerging properties to an investment portfolio. The emerging property sector LPT fund managers’ survey has found new product diversity, strong performance, enhanced yield, greater choice of property and significant capital inflow available for property as the essential motivating factors for emerging property sector investment; whilst the quality and availability of data, the competition of emerging property investments/acquisitions, the depth of market and identifying reliable/strategic business partners, and the policy and regulation issues have been identified as the most significant risks in emerging property sector investment. For US non-traditional REIT analysis, self-storage REITs presented strong performance over the study period. The efficient frontier of portfolios consisting of self-storage REITs also presented enhanced efficiency, while healthcare and specialty REIT portfolios showed less significant efficiency. Due to no equivalent public emerging property series being available for UK, a direct leisure property total return series is obtained from IPD as the proxy of leisure property investment performance. Leisure property outperformed the other property sectors, as well as the other asset classes over the 26-year period to 2006. Similarly, the findings of the property portfolio and mixed-asset portfolio analyses suggest that adding leisure property to the UK property portfolios or mixed-asset portfolios has resulted in significant diversification gains. The findings of the infrastructure analyses have shown the consistent results of enhanced returns, lower risk and significantly improved diversification benefits by infrastructure investments over the three major infrastructure markets including Australia, US and Europe. With the rapidly expanding market in recent years, the strong performance and volatility of infrastructure investment has been moderate when the infrastructure markets are maturing. The Australian infrastructure fund managers’ survey has found stable cash flows, long duration, greater understanding of infrastructure, monopoly characteristics, inflation hedging and diversification benefits as the essential motivating factors for infrastructure investment; whilst infrastructure policy and over-valued infrastructure have been identified as the most significant risks in infrastructure investment. As the emerging property sectors and infrastructure are maturing as effective and significant investment vehicles in Australia and internationally, the issues assessed in this thesis taking on increased significance in the future. It is clearly evident that the property and infrastructure research in this thesis has lead to the enhanced understanding of alternative property and property-related assets and a fuller understanding of the investment dynamics of the emerging property sectors and infrastructure. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how and why teachers in New Zealand use portfolios</p><p>as a part of their teaching. The purpose is also to investigate if, and in that case how, a socio</p><p>cultural perspective on learning can be shown through the work with portfolios. To</p><p>investigate this we have made a case study in New Zealand where we interviewed six</p><p>teachers. The result of the investigation shows that our teachers use portfolios in both a</p><p>summative and a formative way. In a summative way to gather what the children have done in</p><p>school, and in a formative way to help the students to assess what they have done, how they</p><p>have done it and what they are going to do next. The formative part of the portfolio is also</p><p>used to help the students with their metacognition or to think about their thinking. The</p><p>portfolio is also used as a tool for a better communication between the school and the</p><p>students’ parents. The investigation also shows that the principals on these schools play a big</p><p>part in the development of the work with portfolios. For us, this investigation has resulted in a</p><p>good understanding in how and why New Zealand teachers can work with portfolios.</p>

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how and why teachers in New Zealand use portfolios as a part of their teaching. The purpose is also to investigate if, and in that case how, a socio cultural perspective on learning can be shown through the work with portfolios. To investigate this we have made a case study in New Zealand where we interviewed six teachers. The result of the investigation shows that our teachers use portfolios in both a summative and a formative way. In a summative way to gather what the children have done in school, and in a formative way to help the students to assess what they have done, how they have done it and what they are going to do next. The formative part of the portfolio is also used to help the students with their metacognition or to think about their thinking. The portfolio is also used as a tool for a better communication between the school and the students’ parents. The investigation also shows that the principals on these schools play a big part in the development of the work with portfolios. For us, this investigation has resulted in a good understanding in how and why New Zealand teachers can work with portfolios.

The classical mean-variance model, proposed by Harry Markowitz in 1952, has been one of the most powerful tools in the field of portfolio optimization. In this model, parameters are estimated by their sample counterparts. However, this leads to estimation risk, which the model completely ignores. In addition, the mean-variance model fails to incorporate behavioral aspects of investment decisions. To remedy the problem, the notion of ambiguity aversion has been addressed by several papers where investors acknowledge uncertainty in the estimation of mean returns. We extend the idea to the variances and correlation coefficient of the portfolio, and study their impact. The performance of the portfolio is measured in terms of its Sharpe ratio. We consider different cases where one parameter is assumed to be perfectly estimated by the sample counterpart whereas the other parameters introduce ambiguity, and vice versa, and investigate which parameter has what impact on the performance of the portfolio.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar hur elevers reflekterande kring en utveckling inom ett ämne från årskurs sex till årskurs nio ser ut. Materialet består av ett inspelat material från vårterminen 2009. Skolan som eleverna har gått på är en friskola som arbetar utifrån portfoliometoden. Inom portfoliometoden är reflektion ett viktigt verktyg som eleverna ska använda sig av. I skolans kursplaner står det att elever ska kunna reflektera kring bland annat sin egen utveckling vilket också är syftet med den uppgift eleverna har fått i det granskade materialet. Jag har försökt att fånga elevernas reflektioner i ett analysschema som jag konstruerat utefter John Deweys teori och analys av reflektionen. Det jag tycker mig se är att eleverna har en bra förmåga att reflektera och de verkar vana med verktyget. De flesta verkar ställa sig frågan varför de gjort som de gjort och försöker komma på förslag genom tidigare erfarenheter och dra slutsatser därefter. / 2010ht4687

Aim: The purpose of the thesis is to give small private investors an insight the financial world of derivatives and to show that an investor does not need to consult with an advisor in order to make decisions about the investments. The aim was to show through a new product that a small investor can beat the market return. Method: The method used in the thesis is to collect data over a three year period for an option, a bull ETF and a treasury bill. The database DataStream was used to obtain statistics of the option and the Treasury bill and Nasdaq OMX Nordic was used for the Bull ETF. We calculated the expected return and variance of each in order to use in the portfolio. Having the information needed we then used a trial-and-error method to calculate the weight each component will be given, with the help of Excel and its Solver add-on. Result &amp; Conclusion: The results were surprising in that over the three year period the product had a 100% increase, while the market only went up by 30%. The major reason for the products strong return was that the daily earnings were shifted everyday so that the weights remained constant throughout the life of the product. The issue with the product was that no transaction costs were included in the calculations, and as there would be at least one transaction per day the costs would be enormous for the given product. Suggestions for Further Research: As one of the limitations for the thesis was that no transactions cost were included, one idea for further research could be to calculate the transaction costs as well as seeing if there is a method to minimize them so that the product could be profitable. Contribution to the Field: To our knowledge we are the first to test theses three components in order to from a structured product. Through our method interested parties could do the same with other components or retest our product. We have showed through our method one way to create your own structured product.

<p>Organizational researchers have long considered innovation a critical activity. While insightful regarding the nature of the innovation process and the rewards and risk associated with innovation, prior work has neglected the perspective that innovations function within a firm's wider product portfolio. This perspective enables assessment of when innovations truly generate value for firms and the mechanisms through which it does so. I propose a general theory for how innovation creates new value for a firm and apply this theory to understanding how new value from innovation is reflected in the changes it manifests in the diversity of a firm's product portfolio.</p><p>This dissertation addresses these issues by examining how innovation introductions drive two types of changes in the firm's portfolio - product portfolio and within-brand portfolio diversification - and how those changes influence the new value firms will capture. In addition, I examine the degree to which these outcomes are contingent upon the characteristics of the innovation itself. Thus, I address the inherent interdependencies in managing innovations while still capturing the influence of individual innovation characteristics. </p><p>The importance of this topic lies in both theory and practice. Theoretically, this work sheds light on the degree to which innovation value is a function of the value accrued to the innovation itself and its interdependency with the firm's overall product and brand portfolios. Practically, understanding how the new value from innovation incorporates the effect of the innovation on the firm's portfolio enables firms to grasp how decisions they make regarding innovation pipelines and in managing their overall portfolio influences their expected success.</p> / Dissertation