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The Geometry of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator of the Zero‐Beta Return
Author(s) -
KANDEL SHMUEL
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1986.tb05040.x
Subject(s) - mathematics , estimator , maximum likelihood , parabola , statistic , statistics , efficient frontier , partition (number theory) , portfolio , geometry , combinatorics , economics , financial economics
This paper explores geometric relations, in mean‐variance space, among the sample frontier, the maximum likelihood estimator, and two other estimators of the zerobeta return. It is also demonstrated that a partition of the portfolio space is determined by a family of parabolas; the zeros of each parabola are the maximum likelihood estimators associated with all portfolios on the parabola. This observation is the basis for an additional interpretation of the statistic of the Likelihood Ratio Test of portfolio efficiency without a riskless asset.