Predictability and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns: A Challenge for Asset Pricing Models

Many modern macro finance models imply that excess returns on arbitrary assets are predictable via the price-dividend ratio and the variance risk premium of the aggregate stock market. We propose a simple empirical test for the ability of such a model to explain the cross-section of expected returns by sorting stocks based on the sensitivity of expected returns to these quantities. Models with only one uncertainty-related state variable, like the habit model or the long-run risks model, cannot pass this test. However, even extensions with more state variables mostly fail. We derive conditions under which models would be able to produce expected return patterns in line with the data and discuss various examples. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance.

Measuring Long Run Risks for Brazil

We study the temporal structure of risk prices, risk exposures and expected market returns for Brazil assuming the economy follows a long run risks model. The model consists on an endowment economy where aggregate consumption and dividend growth contain predictable components, and a representative agent has Epstein-Zin recursive preferences with CES specification. We show that aggregate consumption in Brazil is sufficiently predictable to generate risk premia associated with Epstein-Zin preferences in excess of traditional compensations induced by power utility. Moreover, risk compensation is dominated by permanent shocks both in the short and long run, as Epstein-Zin preferences mitigate the price of temporary shocks' risk.

Real Exchange Rates and Currency Risk Premiums

Standard finite horizon tests uncover only weak evidence of the predictive power of the real exchange rate for excess currency returns. On the other hand, in long-horizon tests, the real exchange rate strongly and negatively predicts future excess currency returns. Conversely, we can attribute most of the variability in real exchange rates to changes in currency risk premiums. The “habit” and “long-run risks” models replicate the predictive power of the real exchange rate for excess currency returns, but substantially overstate the fraction of the volatility of the real exchange rate due to risk premiums. Received December 14, 2017; Editorial decision October 14, 2018 by Editor: Raman Uppal. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.