Gains from diversification on convex combinations: A majorization and stochastic dominance approach

By incorporating both majorization theory and stochastic dominance theory, this paper presents a general theory and a unifying framework for determining the diversification preferences of risk-averse investors and conditions under which they would unanimously judge a particular asset to be superior. In particular, we develop a theory for comparing the preferences of different convex combinations of assets that characterize a portfolio to give higher expected utility by second-order stochastic dominance. Our findings also provide an additional methodology for determining the second-order stochastic dominance efficient set.     

Non-cooperative stochastic dominance games

A non-cooperative stochastic dominance game is a non-cooperative game in which the only knowledge about the players' preferences and risk attitudes is presumed to be their preference orders on the set ofn-tuples of pure strategies. Stochastic dominance equilibria are defined in terms of mixed strategies for the players that are efficient in the stochastic dominance sense against the strategies of the other players. It is shown that the set of SD equilibria equals all Nash equilibria that can be obtained from combinations of utility functions that are consistent with the players' known preference orders. The latter part of the paper looks at antagonistic stochastic dominance games in which some combination of consistent utility functions is zero-sum over then-tuples of pure strategies.     

Ordering of risks: a review

In this review we will consider and discuss the most important partial orderings of riks, namely consistent partial ordering and net-stop-loss ordering. More especially we will study the consequencies of ordering of risks for the compound risk: S = X₁+X₂+···+X_N.The impact of orderings of claim size distributions (F_X) and claim intensities (F_N) on orderings of claim amounts (F_S) is examined. The consequencies of these kind of orderings on orderings of risks by means of premium calculation principles is also discussed.In this framework the influence of the dangerousness of distributions on orderings of risks is given.In analogy with the notion of stochastic dominance appearing in the theory of finance, the notion of stop-loss dominance is introduced.     

Multiple criteria linear programming model for portfolio selection

The portfolio selection problem is usually considered as a bicriteria optimization problem where a reasonable trade-off between expected rate of return and risk is sought. In the classical Markowitz model the risk is measured with variance, thus generating a quadratic programming model. The Markowitz model is frequently criticized as not consistent with axiomatic models of preferences for choice under risk. Models consistent with the preference axioms are based on the relation of stochastic dominance or on expected utility theory. The former is quite easy to implement for pairwise comparisons of given portfolios whereas it does not offer any computational tool to analyze the portfolio selection problem. The latter, when used for the portfolio selection problem, is restrictive in modeling preferences of investors. In this paper, a multiple criteria linear programming model of the portfolio selection problem is developed. The model is based on the preference axioms for choice under risk. Nevertheless, it allows one to employ the standard multiple criteria procedures to analyze the portfolio selection problem. It is shown that the classical mean-risk approaches resulting in linear programming models correspond to specific solution techniques applied to our multiple criteria model. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Stochastic dominance and risk measure: A decision-theoretic foundation for VaR and C-VaR

Is it possible to obtain an objective and quantifiable measure of risk backed up by choices made by some specific groups of rational investors? To answer this question, in this paper we establish some behavior foundations for various types of VaR models, including VaR and conditional-VaR, as measures of downside risk. In this paper, we will establish some logical connections among VaRs, conditional-VaR, stochastic dominance, and utility maximization. Though supported to some extents with unanimous choices by some specific groups of expected or non-expected-utility investors, VaRs as profiles of risk measures at various levels of risk tolerance are not quantifiable – they can only provide partial and incomplete risk assessments for risky prospects.     

TSD-consistent performance assessment of mutual funds

This paper presents three new data envelopment analysis-based approaches to assess the relative efficiency of mutual funds (MFs). Each model considers an appropriate risk measure as input and an appropriate return measure as output. The risk and return measures have been chosen so that the proposed models are consistent with third-order stochastic dominance (TSD) rules. This means that the MFs found efficient by the proposed models are also, in a necessity condition sense, TSD efficient and therefore of highest consideration for all non-satiated, risk averse investors that also have decreasing absolute risk aversion. The proposed approach is illustrated with real data on a set of Spanish MFs and compared with existing approaches from the literature based on Mean–Variance and Mean–Variance–Skewness models.     

From stochastic dominance to mean-risk models: Semideviations as risk measures

Two methods are frequently used for modeling the choice among uncertain outcomes: stochastic dominance and mean-risk approaches. The former is based on an axiomatic model of risk-averse preferences but does not provide a convenient computational recipe. The latter quantifies the problem in a lucid form of two criteria with possible trade-off analysis, but cannot model all risk-averse preferences. In particular, if variance is used as a measure of risk, the resulting mean–variance (Markowitz) model is, in general, not consistent with stochastic dominance rules. This paper shows that the standard semideviation (square root of the semivariance) as the risk measure makes the mean-risk model consistent with the second degree stochastic dominance, provided that the trade-off coefficient is bounded by a certain constant. Similar results are obtained for the absolute semideviation, and for the absolute and standard deviations in the case of symmetric or bounded distributions. In the analysis we use a new tool, the Outcome–Risk (O–R) diagram, which appears to be particularly useful for comparing uncertain outcomes.     

基于随机参照点的均值-风险分析

本文依据参照依赖偏好模型提出了基于随机参照点的风险度量方法,进而构建了均值-风险模型,并讨论了该决策方法与随机占优之间的一致性。研究发现,该决策方法不仅与一级随机占优是一致的而且与二级随机占优也是一致的。由于二级随机占优与期望效用理论的一致性,因而所构建的均值-风险模型与期望效用理论也是一致的。     

Alternate risk measures for emergency medical service system design

The stochastic nature of emergency service requests and the unavailability of emergency vehicles when requested to serve demands are critical issues in constructing valid models representing real life emergency medical service (EMS) systems. We consider an EMS system design problem with stochastic demand and locate the emergency response facilities and vehicles in order to ensure target levels of coverage, which are quantified using risk measures on random unmet demand. The target service levels for each demand site and also for the entire service area are specified. In order to increase the possibility of representing a wider range of risk preferences we develop two types of stochastic optimization models involving alternate risk measures. The first type of the model includes integrated chance constraints (ICCs ), whereas the second type incorporates ICCs  and a stochastic dominance constraint. We develop solution methods for the proposed single-stage stochastic optimization problems and present extensive numerical results demonstrating their computational effectiveness.     

Stochastic comparisons of multivariate mixtures

In this paper we establish multivariate hazard rate, multivariate reverse hazard rate, and multivariate likelihood ratio stochastic orderings among multivariate random mapping (mixture) distributions. The new results streamline and simplify the proofs of some partial results that have recently appeared in the literature. Some applications in reliability theory and risk management are described.     

Optimal allocation of policy limits and deductibles under distortion risk measures

In the literature, orderings of optimal allocations of policy limits and deductibles were established by maximizing the expected utility of wealth of the policyholder. In this paper, by applying the bivariate characterizations of stochastic ordering relations, we reconsider the same model and derive some new refined results on orderings of optimal allocations of policy limits and deductibles with respect to the family of distortion risk measures from the viewpoint of the policyholder. Both loss severities and loss frequencies are considered. Special attention is given to the optimization criteria of the family of distortion risk measures with concave distortions and with only increasing distortions. Most of the results presented in this paper can be applied to some particular distortion risk measures. The results complement and extend the main results in Cheung [Cheung, K.C., 2007. Optimal allocation of policy limits and deductibles. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 41, 291-382] and Hua and Cheung [Hua, L., Cheung, K.C., 2008a. Stochastic orders of scalar products with applications. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 42, 865-872].     

Portfolio choice and optimal hedging with general risk functions: A simplex-like algorithm

The minimization of general risk functions is becoming more and more important in portfolio choice theory and optimal hedging. There are two major reasons. Firstly, heavy tails and the lack of symmetry in the returns of many assets provokes that the classical optimization of the standard deviation may lead to dominated strategies, from the point of view of the second order stochastic dominance. Secondly, but not less important, many institutional investors must respect legal capital requirements, which may be more easily studied if one deals with a risk measure related to capital losses.     

RISK-BASED MULTIATTRIBUTE DECISION-MAKING IN PROPERTY AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT

ABSTRACT. Determining best management systems for properties and evaluating their sustainability at the watershed scale are useful and important aspects of integrated watershed management. Multiattribute decision-making (MADM) is very useful for modeling the selection of best management systems for properties in a watershed. This paper reviews four MADM approaches including utility theory, surrogate worth tradeoff, free iterative search and stochastic dominance with respect to a function (SDWF). Emphasis is on determining how the first three methods could be used to determine the best (most preferred) combinations of attributes and associated management systems for a property. An application of the expected utility method with risk neutral preferences is presented in which farmer's preferences for five attributes are used to rank five farming systems for an agricultural watershed in Missouri. A framework is presented for assessing the sustainability of the best management systems for all properties in a watershed and the cost-effectiveness of policies for enhancing sustainable resource management at the watershed scale.     

Data envelopment analysis models of investment funds

This paper develops theory missing in the sizable literature that uses data envelopment analysis to construct return-risk ratios for investment funds. It explores the production possibility set of the investment funds to identify an appropriate form of returns to scale. It discusses what risk and return measures can justifiably be combined and how to deal with negative risks, and identifies suitable sets of measures. It identifies the problems of failing to deal with diversification and develops an iterative approximation procedure to deal with it. It identifies relationships between diversification, coherent measures of risk and stochastic dominance. It shows how the iterative procedure makes a practical difference using monthly returns of 30 hedge funds over the same time period. It discusses possible shortcomings of the procedure and offers directions for future research.     

Data envelopment analysis of mutual funds based on second-order stochastic dominance

Although data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been extensively used to assess the performance of mutual funds (MF), most of the approaches overestimate the risk associated to the endogenous benchmark portfolio. This is because in the conventional DEA technology the risk of the target portfolio is computed as a linear combination of the risk of the assessed MF. This neglects the important effects of portfolio diversification. Other approaches based on mean–variance or mean–variance–skewness are non-linear. We propose to combine DEA with stochastic dominance criteria. Thus, in this paper, six distinct DEA-like linear programming (LP) models are proposed for computing relative efficiency scores consistent (in the sense of necessity) with second-order stochastic dominance (SSD). The aim is that, being SSD efficient, the obtained target portfolio should be an optimal benchmark for any rational risk-averse investor. The proposed models are compared with several related approaches from the literature.     

Risk preference modeling with conditional average: an application to portfolio optimization

The paper introduces a new risk measure called Conditional Average (CAVG), which was designed to cover typical attitudes towards risk for any type of distribution. It can be viewed as a generalization of Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), two commonly used risk measures. The preference structure induced by CAVG has the interpretation in Yaari’s dual theory of choice under risk and relates to Tversky and Kahneman’s cumulative prospect theory. The measure is based on the new stochastic ordering called dual prospect stochastic dominance, which can be considered as a dual stochastic ordering to recently developed prospect stochastic dominance. In general, CAVG translates into a nonconvex quadratic programming problem, but in the case of a finite probability space it can also be expressed as a mixed-integer program. The paper also presents the results of computational studies designed to assess the preference modeling capabilities of the measure. The experimental analysis was performed on the asset allocation problem built on historical values of S&P 500 sub-industry indexes. The research was supported by the grant PBZ-KBN-016/P03/99 from the State Committee for Scientific Research.     

A class of bivariate stochastic orderings,with applications in actuarial sciences

This paper is concerned with the bivariate extension of a wide class of univariate orderings said to be of convex-type. Attention is paid to random vectors valued in a rectangle or an orthant of the real plane. Various orderings used in probability and statistics (such as the stochastic dominance, the upper orthant order, the orthant convex order, the correlation order and the supermodular order) can be seen as particular cases. The practical applications of these orderings seem to be very promising, especially in actuarial sciences.     

基于几种风险测度的多阶段组合优化研究

基于均值-方差(MV)、VaR(Value at Risk)、CVaR(Conditional VaR)、HMCR(p=1,2,3)(Higher Moment Coherent Risk)几种风险测度进行多阶段组合优化研究。首先从一致性公理和随机占优一致性角度分析几种风险测度的风险识别能力,认为HMCR(p=2,3)的风险识别能力最高,然后给出静态和动态下的风险规避型的规划函数及多阶段CVaR和HMCR模型,最后依据单阶段和多阶段优化模型,对上证50指数成份股进行实证分析。对比单阶段和多阶段下几种风险测度优化组合的累计收益率及几种风险测度之间的关系,结合上证50指数收益率发现,多阶段优化组合要整体优于单阶段优化组合,且HMCR(p=2,3)要优于指数收益率和其它几种风险测度。从投资者投资决策方面来分析,HMCR(p=2,3)型积极投资策略比较适用于股市平稳期、顶峰期和下降期,被动投资策略比较适用于股市上升期。     

Robust stochastic dominance and its application to risk-averse optimization

We introduce a new preference relation in the space of random variables, which we call robust stochastic dominance. We consider stochastic optimization problems where risk-aversion is expressed by a robust stochastic dominance constraint. These are composite semi-infinite optimization problems with constraints on compositions of measures of risk and utility functions. We develop necessary and sufficient conditions of optimality for such optimization problems in the convex case. In the nonconvex case, we derive necessary conditions of optimality under additional smoothness assumptions of some mappings involved in the problem.