Comparative Analysis of Industry and Country Diversification Benefits of the Equity Portfolio

Abstract

This study focuses on the construction of investment portfolios using different optimization methods (1/N, risk parity, hierarchical risk parity, mean variance) based on two ways of asset diversification—cross-country and cross-industry—and assesses their effectiveness using a number of metrics. The main research question is which approach to asset diversification turns out to be the most profitable for the investor in terms of return and risk. Research results’ degree of susceptibility of fluctuations in time is assessed by an interperiod analysis with the division of the time interval under consideration into crisis and noncrisis years. According to the results, the industry asset allocation strategy outperforms the asset allocation strategy focused on country diversification. In crisis years, these differences are amplified, but the results are highly dependent on the portfolio optimization method.