EARNINGS EXPECTATIONS, FIRM SIZE, AND THE INFORMATIVENESS OF STOCK PRICES

The notion that prices impound a wide array of information, including market expectations, has led to earnings forecast models conditioned on prices. Yet, presumably, analysts' forecasts capture both public information and certain private information not previously impounded in prices. Accordingly, price-based models are seemingly an inefficient, and less effective, source of expecta-tions. This article investigates this hypothesis using financial analysts', price-based, and naive forecasts. Results indicate that analysts' forecasts (1) are at least as accurate as price-based and naive models, and (2) yield better expectations for market tests relating returns and earnings. These inferences are robust across different information environments. The evidence suggests that analysts either possess private information or are more effective information processors, or both.     

The Formation of Inflation Expectations: Microdata Evidence from Japan

We propose a novel approach for measuring inflation expectations, which can alleviate the rounding number problem. Furthermore, we examine how consumers form inflation expectations. We find that consumers heterogeneously update their information sets on prices; 46% of the consumers collect information about the consumer price index at least once a quarter, while the remaining consumers less frequently or never obtain this information. We also find that forecast revisions are sensitive to a change in food prices. More than half of consumers are attentive only to a change in food prices and may form their inflation expectations using food price changes as a signal of fluctuations in the overall inflation rates. The existence of consumers who are inattentive to aggregate inflation casts doubt on the transmission of monetary policy through the management of expectations.     

Evidence on the existence of speculative bubbles in farmland prices

We conduct tests for the contribution of speculative bubbles to farmland prices. These tests are carried out under the hypothesis that farmland investors rationally form expectations. The outcome of tests reported here allows us to infer whether farmland prices are determined by market fundamentals-discounted returns from the highest economic land use-or whether rumors about farmland price movements are self-fulfilling. The tests are stationarity and cointegration tests relating farmland prices to rents. The tests are carried out using data from three farm production regions-the Corn Belt, the Northern Plains, and the Lake States. In each region, we find little evidence to reject the hypothesis that market fundamentals determine farmland prices.     

Thinking about Prices versus Thinking about Returns in Financial Markets

Prices and returns are alternative ways to present information and to elicit expectations in financial markets. But do investors think of prices and returns in the same way? We present three studies in which subjects differ in the level of expertise, amount of information, and type of incentive scheme. The results are consistent across all studies: asking subjects to forecast returns as opposed to prices results in higher expectations, whereas showing them return charts rather than price charts results in lower expectations. Experience is not a useful remedy but cognitive reflection mitigates the impact of format changes.     

异质预期、群体演化与资产价格波动机制

信息和心理偏差的非完全同质性导致投资者形成异质的主观预期,因而市场中的投资者可细分为持有不同主观预期的群体。当原群体成员主观预期发生调整时,该群体成员可能就会转移到与其新预期相似的群体中,或者与其他投资者组成一个新的群体,从而引发群体间规模的此消彼长或新预期类型群体的产生,最终实现群体间的演化。据此,文章提出"个体—群体—群体"的演化路径,系统阐述了资产价格波动的形成机制:现实市场中的群体演化必然引起不同资金流的合并或分化,从而导致市场资金流分布格局发生演变,进而推动资产价格波动。这一结论从社会互动这一独特视角进一步揭示了资产价格波动及资产价格泡沫形成机制。     

A continuous time equilibrium model of forward prices and futures prices in a multigood economy

This paper is a theoretical investigation of equilibrium forward and futures prices. We construct a rational expectations model in continuous time of a multigood, identical consumer economy with constant stochastic returns to scale production. Using this model we find three main results. First, we find formulas for equilibrium forward, futures, discount bond, commodity bond and commodity option prices. Second, we show that a futures price is actually a forward price for the delivery of a random number of units of a good; the random number is the return earned from continuous reinvestment in instantaneously riskless bonds until maturity of the futures contract. Third, we find and interpret conditions under which normal backwardation or contango is found in forward or futures prices; these conditions reflect the usefulness of forward and futures contracts as consumption hedges.     

When Does a Merger Create Value? Using Option Prices to Elicit Market Beliefs

I introduce and test a method to identify market expectations about value creation in mergers. Post‐announcement market prices reflect beliefs about both merged and standalone firm values, and the likelihood of either outcome. Stock prices alone do not contain sufficient information to identify these latent beliefs. By adding exchange‐traded stock option data, I deliver a clear decomposition of observed value change into two parts: 1) value creation and 2) new information about standalone value. Previous research has struggled to disentangle the two. This decomposition provides a strong and practical measure of the market's expectations about value creation in a merger.     

Learning from Trading

The incorporation of diverse information into asset prices isempirically examined in an actual securities market with multiplerounds of trade. Using prices of Israeli index and nominal bondsof equal maturity, we calculate implied expectations of inflationthat has already occurred but for which the official statistichas not yet been announced. Learning is defined as the convergenceof these expectations to the actual level of inflation in theperiod after the end of the month but before the announcementof the official statistic. We find that the variance of theinflation expectation errors decreases with trading days inthis period. The decline in the variance suggests that investorslearn, by repeatedly observing prices, about the distributionof other investors' information. We also find a positive relationbetween the dispersion of relative price changes and the sizeof the inflation-expectation errors on the first round of trade.The correlation diminishes as investors learn about the distributionof inflation information in the economy.     

The implied volatility term structure of stock index options

This paper tests the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of implied volatility for several national stock market indexes. The tests indicate that the slope of at-the-money implied volatility over different maturities has predictive ability for future short-dated implied volatility, although not to the extent predicted by the expectations hypothesis. The low forecast power may be due to failure to control for a risk premium in the prices of the options. Evidence is presented that a time-varying risk premium proportional to the level of market volatility is consistent with the results.     

Monetary Policy and Financial Markets

Monetary policy and financial markets are intrinsically linked. Central banks conduct monetary policy by influencing financial market prices. Financial market prices reflect the expectations of market participants about future economic and monetary developments. Monetary policy works primarily through expectations. Transparency and credibility render monetary policy more effective. However, they are no substitutes for action. If a credible central bank uses words with the explicit aim of substituting them for action, it will risk losing credibility. To avoid what has been described as “the dog chasing its tail” problem, central banks must exercise caution in basing their monetary policy decisions on financial market information. The information about expected future developments reflected in market prices must be continuously cross-checked against economic and monetary indicators in what amounts to a “checks and balances” approach to monetary policy.     

Do the Forward Sales of Real Estate Stabilize Spot Prices?

We examine the effect of forward sale (pre-sale) activities on the volatility of spot prices in the real estate market. The abundance of pre-sales data and major changes in regulatory control on the pre-sale market during the 90's in Hong Kong allow us to undertake empirical tests using Hong Kong's real estate data. Our results show that the volatility of spot prices increased significantly after forward sales were severely dampened by regulatory control measures introduced in 1994, but decreased again when the measures were partly relaxed in 1998. The results contribute to the long lasting debate on whether the introduction of a futures market reduces the volatility of spot prices. Previous studies were mainly conducted in markets with low transaction costs, notably financial markets. By utilizing the unique regulatory changes in the pre-sale market of Hong Kong, we are able to conduct an experiment on the conditional volatility of spot prices in a high information-cost environment, thereby shedding light on the important role of forward housing contracts in providing price expectation information for spot trading.     

PRIVATE INFORMATION ACQUISITION IN EXPERIMENTAL MARKETS PRONE TO BUBBLE AND CRASH

This paper reports the results of twelve experimental markets designed to investigate whether a costly private information system decreases the propensity of price bubbles to form. A private information system is hypothesized to decrease traders' subjective uncertainty about the behavior of other traders by reinforcing common expectations for all traders. Results show that private information does not eliminate price bubbles, but asset prices converge toward the rational expectations predictions with trader experience. The price of private information is related to the expected gains derived from asset trading.     

Forecasting stock market volatility and the informational efficiency of the DAX-index options market

Alternative strategies for predicting stock market volatility are examined. In out-of-sample forecasting experiments implied-volatility information, derived from contemporaneously observed option prices or history-based volatility predictors, such as GARCH models, are investigated to determine if they are more appropriate for predicting future return volatility. Employing German DAX-index return data it is found that past returns do not contain useful information beyond the volatility expectations already reflected in option prices. This supports the efficient market hypothesis for the DAX-index options market.     

The Structure of Asset Prices and Socially Useless/Useful Information

This paper relates the value of additional information to asset prices in a pure exchange setting. The price structure of interest revolves around a “pricing-hypothesis”: the prices in an economy with less information are unbiased estimators of the prices that would obtain in a more informative economy. Two basic results are developed. First, if the incremental information is useless then the pricing-hypothesis applies. Second, if the pricing hypothesis is assumed valid, then the information is valuable in a weak sense. The results are also considered in the context of empirical research. The case is made for viewing statistical tests of association between prices and signals as tests of the social value of information.     

Information,interest rates,and the volatility of asset prices

The volatility of an asset price is modelled as a function of the volatility of an information signal, real interest rates and inflation expectations. Volatility depends on the duration of cash flows, and the degree to which cash flows are indexed to real rates and inflation. The model is applied to determine asset betas, the volatility of the futures prices of assets and the volatility of equity prices.     

IPO pricing: growth rates implied in offer prices

This paper studies the valuation of companies going public and defines a methodology to infer the growth expectations implicit in the prices of their Initial Public Offering (IPO). The proposed reverse-engineered DCF model is operable by individual investors, as it does not require access to private information or sell-side analysts’ forecasts. Applying the procedure to a sample of IPOs in three European countries (France, Italy, and Germany), we estimate the cash flow growth implied by offer prices and examine the bias of implied growth in comparison to the realized. We find that the estimated growth in cash flow is much higher than its actual realization, with the median IPO firm overvalued at the offering by 74%. Estimation errors increase with IPO firms’ leverage and underpricing, and decrease with age, size, and book-to-market ratios. Further tests find that post-IPO stock returns are lower for issues whose implied growth is more upward biased.     

Expectations Models of Asset Prices: A Survey of Theory

This paper identifies restrictions on preferences under which various classes of “expectations” theories of asset prices—i.e., uncertainty models of asset prices which coincide with the corresponding certainty theory except that expected future prices replace actual future prices—are valid. Major classes of expectations models surveyed are martingale models, the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates, and models of exhaustible resources and futures markets. In each case the required restriction is related to the assumptiono f risk—neutrality, but the precise nature of the required restriction is shown to differ significantly among the various classes of expectations theories.     

Market Created Risk

We develop a multiperiod rational expectations model of securities market equilibrium in which equilibrium prices may move between periods even though it is common knowledge that no new information has arrived about ultimate security payoffs. This happens because investors know they have imperfect information about the endowments of other investors and this knowledge affects their probability beliefs about the prices that will prevail at the intermediate trading date. These beliefs are reflected in the equilibrium at the initial trading date when investors focus on the probabilities of intermediate capital gains and losses, rather than ultimate payoffs.     

Empirical Tests of the Fundamental-Value Hypothesis in Land Markets

The land-price boom of the 1970s followed by the bust of the 1980s generated considerable interest in the determination of land prices and the study of whether those prices reflect fundamental value. In this article, three techniques are used to examine the fundamental-value hypothesis in Iowa and Nebraska agricultural land markets. Duration dependence tests indicate that land markets are not affected by rational expectations bubbles. Conversely, Markov chain and time-reversibility tests suggest that land prices depart from fundamental value due to the existence of nonrandom price changes and asymmetric land price patterns. The results of this research should be viewed as a complement to the existing body of knowledge in our quest to enhance our understanding of agricultural land-price movements.     

Rational expectations equilibrium with transaction costs in financial markets

We obtain a closed-form solution to a rational expectations equilibrium model with transaction costs in the framework of Grossman and Stiglitz [1980. American Economic Review 70, 543–566]. Individual private information incorporated into prices is reduced due to suppressed trading activities by transaction costs. The fraction of informed traders in equilibrium increases (decreases) with transaction costs when the costs are low (high). The informativeness of prices decreases with transaction costs.