This article discusses on some of the problems associated with constructing a hedge fund benchmark including survivorship bias, self-selection bias, catastrophe bias and bull-market bias. Hedge fund investors are confronted with a paradox. In addition to the misconception, that diversification is at the expense of expected return, it is commonly...
Should exporters worry about country-of-origin bias? Although the pervasiveness of country-level product advertising suggests that they do, lack of data has limited the empirical study of subjective bias toward products from a specific country. Using data from the U.S. wine industry, including numerical blind tasting evaluations, this paper directly computes...
This paper proposes a novel bias correction method for magnetic resonance MR imaging that uses complementary body coil and surface coil images. The former are spatially homogeneous but have low signal intensity; the latter provide excellent signal response but have large bias fields. They present a variational framework where they...
This paper presents evidence of inefficient information processing in equity markets by documenting that biases in analysts' earnings forecasts are reflected in stock prices. In particular, it shows that investors fail to fully account for optimistic bias associated with analyst disagreement. This bias arises for two reasons. First, analysts issue...
Cognitive and personal decision bias creep into decision making. Bias call into question the correctness of a decision. This paper gives list of some of the more common cognitive decision biases such as a selective search for evidence - we tend to be willing to gather facts that support certain...
Organizations can be defined as knowledge-based systems with the objective to influence all knowledge processes. Defining and measuring the knowledge value of the company are key strategic concerns in contemporary companies. First, this paper discusses the basic knowledge measurement approaches. During the process of knowledge identification the interviewing method is...
This paper proposes a flexible and comprehensive approach for minimum bias models - "Generalized Minimum Bias Models"GMBM. Unlike the Generalized Linear Models GLMs that require the exponential family distribution assumption of response variables, the GMBM approach relaxes the distribution assumption. In addition, due to its model selection flexibility, it believes...
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, signed into law last July, is the government's response to a series of financial reporting scandals that rocked investors. Among other measures the law offers up stiff criminal penalties for accounting fraud. But in this, it suggest most accounting errors which, aren't the result of...
This paper examines survivorship bias in hedge fund returns by comparing two large databases. It finds that the survivorship bias exceeds 2% per year. Results of survivorship bias by investment styles indicate that the biases are different across styles. It reconcile the conflicting results about survivorship...
Benchmarking the stock market has never been more popular, primarily due to a surge in the demand for index funds over the past decade. In addition, with more than 100 equity market indexes, there are plenty of benchmarks from which to choose. However, it is important to realize that equity...
This paper investigates whether self-regulation in financial markets leads to greater industry bias and expertise in enforcement. Using hand-collected data on securities arbitration disputes from the National Association of Securities Dealers NASD, the author document that pro-industry arbitrators are selected more often to arbitration panels than pro-investor ones (selection on...
This paper examines problems in the CRSP Survivor Bias Free U.S. Mutual Fund Database ~CRSP, 1998! and compares returns contained in it to those in Morningstar. The CRSP database has an omission bias that has the same effects as survivorship bias. Although all mutual funds are listed in CRSP, return...
"How long will it take to find a new job?" This often is one of the first questions many older job hunters ask when starting searches. Their severance pay usually lasts less than a year, so finding a new position before it runs out can be their biggest concern. Older...
Hedge funds exhibit a high rate of attrition that has increased substantially over time. Using data over the period 1994-2001, the article shows that lack of size, lack of performance and an increasingly aggressive attitude of old and new fund managers alike are the main factors behind this. Although attrition...
This paper evaluates the bias properties of common estimators used in growth regressions derived from the Solow model. This paper suggests that using an OLS estimator applied in a single cross-section of variables averaged over time performs best in terms of the extent of bias on each of the estimated...
Performance appraisals are always sticky for everyone. While managers make an effort to be as objective as possible, there are always concerns about specific performance appraisals, and their accuracy. If you are going to evaluate your staff, then it is wise to be aware of factors that may affect your...
Eric Fox submits: I came across a paper published in the Review of General Psychology in 1998 authored by Raymond S. Nickerson of Tufts University. I believe that the concepts he discusses have applicability to current beliefs by bullish energy investors in the oil market.He presents a modern definition of...
This paper examines problems in the CRSP Survivor Bias Free U.S. Mutual Fund Database CRSP, 1998 and compares returns contained in it to those in Morningstar. The CRSP database has an omission bias that has the same effects as survivorship bias. Although all mutual funds are listed in CRSP, return...
This paper examines bias in Medicare Principal Impatient Diagnostic Cost Group model due to unobserved selection using HMO and FFS hospital use data. The objective of this dissertation is to determine whether the principal inpatient diagnostic cost group (PIP-DCG) model adequately adjusts for HMO health maintenance organization favorable selection, and,...
People are not naturally good decision makers. We tend to do superficial analyses of the choices available, and then make a quick decision based on personal biases and false assumptions. Not surprisingly, the results are poor-quality decisions. Learn how to improve your decision-making...
