Pitfalls in estimates of the relationship between stock returns and inflation

Empirical tests of the Fisher hypothesis give conflicting results, regardless of whether income growth is accommodated in the estimates. This paper shows theoretically and empirically that standard methods of testing the Fisher hypothesis give biased results and that the bias depends on the specification of the Fisher equation, the process governing inflation, measurement of inflation expectations, and the time aggregation of the data. Alternative tests show that share markets take several years to adjust to innovations in inflation and therefore that the Fisher hypothesis cannot be maintained. Helpful comments and suggestions from Hans Christian Kongsted, Darrel Turkington and seminar participants at the University of Western Australia, and University of Konstanz and, particularly, two referees, are gratefully acknowledged.     

Asymmetric inflation dynamics: Evidence from quantile regression analysis

This paper applies the regression quantile approach developed by Koenker and Xiao (2004) to investigate the dynamic behavior of inflation in 12 OECD countries. By analyzing the behavior in a wide range of quantiles, this method allows us to quantify the influence of various sizes of shocks that hit the inflation, and is able to capture possible asymmetric adjustment of the inflation towards to its long-run equilibrium. It therefore sheds new lights on the inflation dynamics compared with the conventional unit root methodologies. Our results suggest that generally, the inflation rates are not only mean-reverting but also exhibit asymmetries in their dynamic adjustments, in which large negative shocks tend to induce strong mean reversion, and on the contrary, large positive shocks do not. Policy implications related to the empirical findings are also provided.     

Natural gas prices and stock prices: Evidence from EU-15 countries

This study investigates the long-run relationship between natural gas prices and stock prices by using the Johansen and Juselius cointegration test and error–correction based Granger causality models for the EU-15 countries. We employ quarterly data covering the period from 1990:1 to 2008:1. Empirical findings suggest that there is a unique long-term equilibrium relationship between natural gas prices, industrial production and stock prices in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg. However, no relationship is found between these variables in the other ten EU-15 countries. Although we detect a significant long-run relationship between stock prices and natural gas prices, Granger causality test results imply an indirect Granger causal relationship between these two variables. In addition, we investigate the Granger causal relationship between stock returns, industrial production growth and natural gas price increase for Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg. As a result, increase in natural gas prices seem to impact industrial production growth at the first place. In turn, industrial production growth appears to affect stock returns.     

Analysis of sectoral credit default cycle dependency with wavelet networks: Evidence from Turkey

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between industrial production and sectoral credit defaults (non-performing loans ratio) cycle by wavelet network analysis in Turkey over the period January 2001–November 2007. We use feedforward neural network based wavelet decomposition to analyze the contemporaneous connection between industrial production cycles and sectoral credit default cycles at different time scales between 2 and 64 months. The main findings for Turkey indicates that industrial production cycles effect the sectoral credit default cycles at different time scales and thus indicate that the creditors should consider the multiscale sectoral cycles in order to minimize credit default rates.     

Dividend-Driven Trading Strategies: Evidence from the Warsaw Stock Exchange

This study presents an analysis of dividend-driven trading strategies based on dividend yield growth effects in the Polish stock market in the years 1994–2004. Results indicate that the dividend yield growth portfolios were capable of beating the market in the entire sample period. Their performance, however, was not consistent over time and the highest returns were obtained during final years. Empirical findings based on the analysis of different types of portfolios demonstrate the importance of dividends as a source of significant fundamental information items from stock market companies. At the same time, they show that a dividend investment strategy for the Polish stock market is most successful when the selection of stocks for the dividend yield growth portfolios is subject to further restrictions, most notably concerning company size.

Asymmetric behavior of inflation differentials in the euro area: Evidence from a threshold unit root test

This paper tests the existence of persistent inflation rate differentials in the euro area by employing linear as well nonlinear unit root tests. Besides linear unit root tests, a two-regime threshold unit root test examines the conjecture that inflation rate differentials follow a nonlinear two-regime process towards a threshold, switching from the persistent regime to the transitory one and vice versa. The results imply that threshold nonlinearity is confirmed in 10 out of the 16 cases. However, we have found unit root regime-switching behavior only in six out of the 16 cases under investigation. This finding implies that these inflation rate differentials were persistent when they were low (regime 1), but transitory when they were high (regime 2). This asymmetric behavior can possibly be explained by the different degree of pressure exercised on governments, which is accompanied with different inflation rate differentials. On the contrary, despite the evidence of nonlinearity, the majority of the inflation rate differentials are found to be monotonically persistent. Our results have strong implications for policy makers. In particular, the documented persistency in the inflation rate differentials might have long-run costs in terms of price and macroeconomic stability.     

沪深港股市动态联动性研究——基于三元VAR-GJR-GARCH-DCC的新证据

随着经济全球化的迅速发展,国际资本市场呈现出一体化趋势,各地证券价格的联动性也日趋显著。本文梳理已有理论文献,并总结经验成果的不足,在此基础上,构建三元VAR-GJR-GARCH-DCC整合分析框架,对沪深港股市联动效应进行了严谨而全面的实证检验。研究结果表明:沪深港三个市场具有联动效应,直接或间接引导对方;沪深股市对港市的新息冲击做出类似的反应,并且它们与港市的动态关联性具有趋同性,该结论为沪深两市合并提供了新证据;三个市场的相关性具有时变的动态特征,"中国因素"与"世界因素"的相关性正趋于增强。上述实证结论对投资者重新认识市场运行机制,合理制定投资策略以及监管当局有效防范国内外股市风险,推进股市整合均具有重要的启示意义。     

股权激励与财务重述——基于中国A股市场上市公司的经验证据

本文以2005—2007年中国A股市场实施股权激励的上市公司及其配对样本为研究对象,采用Logistic回归法,考察了股权激励与财务重述的相关关系。研究发现,实施股权激励的公司发生财务重述的可能性要显著高于未实施股权激励的公司;相比基于业绩的股权激励模式,实施基于股价的股权激励模式的公司发生财务重述的可能性更高。研究结论支持了有股权激励尤其有基于股价的股权激励模式的上市公司经营者可能有短期盈余操纵行为的观点。     

Stock prices and money velocity: a multi-country analysis

What kind of information do stock prices offer for predicting velocity? This paper develops previous work by Milton Friedman for the US economy and shows that in a panel of 25 countries a wealth effect derived from the stock market has negatively influenced the ratio of nominal income to a broad definition of money. Taking quarterly data for the period 1961–1998, the relationship holds in Japan, the UK and Switzerland; in Italy a substitution effect (away from money) has also been operating. Overall, these empirical findings indicate the presence of systematic influences of stock price fluctuations on money velocity and suggest that the repercussions of asset inflation and deflation on the behavior of monetary aggregates should be monitored. First version received: July 1998/Final version received: November 2000     

The information content of market-based measures for the long-term inflation expectations of professionals: evidence from a midas analysis

Long-term inflation expectations taken from the Survey of Professional Forecasters are a major source of information for monetary policy. Unfortunately, they are published only on a quarterly basis. This article investigates the daily information content of market-based measures, such as inflation-linked swaps and breakeven inflation rates, for the next survey outcome. Using a mixed data sampling approach, we find that professionals account for the daily dynamics of market-based measures when they submit their long-term inflation expectations. We propose a daily indicator of professionals’ inflation expectations that outperforms alternative indicators that ignore the high-frequency dynamics of market-based measures. To illustrate the usefulness of the new indicator, we provide new evidence on the (re-)anchoring of U.S. inflation expectations.     

流动性、股票定价及时变性：来自我国沪深股市的经验证据

本文在经流动性风险调整的资产定价模型的基础上,通过引进四个工具变量,构建了一个检验模型,于时间序列上对中国股票市场进行了实证分析。实证结果显示：我国的股市流动性单位风险溢价于时间序列上存在显著的时变性。从而证实了投资者之内生流动性风险对股票收益率之影响效应,进而揭示了一个货币供给量影响股市的一个作用机制,即股票价格的涨跌由于流动性水平的不同和由前者导致的流动性风险溢价要求的不同而受到影响。     

Long memory,economic policy uncertainty and forecasting US inflation: a Bayesian VARFIMA approach

We compare inflation forecasts of a vector autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (VARFIMA) model against standard forecasting models. U.S. inflation forecasts improve when controlling for persistence and economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Importantly, the VARFIMA model, comprising of inflation and EPU, outperforms commonly used inflation forecast models.     

国家主权信用评级、跨国传染与股票市场回应?--基于全球48个经济体的事件研究

掌握主权信用评级变动的市场影响及其传染机制,对于投资者、国家金融安全及政府采取应对措施来说都意义重大。文章采用事件研究法,以1990-2013年全球48个经济体发生的评级事件和每日股指收益率数据为样本,实证研究了事件国评级变动对非事件国股票市场的影响及其传染渠道,结果表明：(1)评级下调会对股票市场产生显著为负的超额收益,但评级上调产生的超额收益不显著;(2)股票市场可以提前预测评级下调事件,但不能预测评级上调事件;(3)季风效应对评级调整的市场传染有一定的解释力;(4)净传染效应基本不显著,这说明评级事件的市场传染应该有经济基础,而不是由投资者心理预期这类非基本面因素造成的;(5)溢出效应可以较好地解释评级的市场传染,是评级变动影响市场及传染的主要渠道。文章的结论深化了我们对评级调整如何影响股票市场及其传染渠道的认识,也为中国防范国外主权信用评级变动风险提供了有益启示。     

Deficit sustainability and inflation in EMU: An analysis from the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level

Price determination theory typically focuses on the role of monetary policy, while the role of fiscal policy is usually neglected. From a different point of view, the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level takes into account monetary and fiscal policy interactions and assumes that fiscal policy may determine the price level, even if monetary authorities pursue an inflation targeting strategy. In this paper we try to test empirically whether the time path of the government budget in EMU countries would have affected price level determination. Our results point to the sustainability of fiscal policy in all the EMU countries but Finland, although no firm conclusions can be drawn about the prevalence of either monetary or fiscal dominance.     

机构投资者、现金股利政策与股票市场稳定性研究——来自2005—2009年中国A股上市公司的经验证据

论文基于2005—2009年中国A股上市公司年报数据的实证研究发现,当投资于发放现金股利的公司股票时,机构投资者持股比例与上市公司股票换手率、股票收益波动率、股价同步性等反映和衡量股票市场稳定性的三个渐次递进维度的指标都显著负相关;而当投资于不发放现金股利的公司股票时,机构投资者持股比例与衡量股票市场稳定性的指标显著正相关抑或不具有显著影响关系。这些结果表明上市公司的现金股利政策直接影响着机构投资者是选择长期的价值投资行为还是进行短期频繁的投机炒作,进而影响机构投资者稳定股票市场功能的有效发挥。论文的研究结论对于股票全流通时代发展机构投资者、引导投资者的长期价值投资行为以促进中国资本市场的健康稳定发展具有重要的启示和政策意义。     

Price stickiness, trend inflation, and output dynamics: a cross‐country analysis

Abstract.  Sticky price models based on menu costs predict that countries with high trend inflation should have (i) smaller impact effects of demand shocks on output and (ii) less persistent output fluctuations, relative to low‐trend inflation countries. These predictions are tested, controlling for changes in trend inflation, using a country‐specific approach. The results do not support the second prediction. That prediction is also not robust to a modified measure of trend inflation that excludes episodes of hyperinflation. These findings suggest that while price stickiness is important for understanding short‐run impact effects, real propagation mechanisms may drive persistence in output fluctuations.     

Politics and the stock market: Evidence from Germany

We analyze the interaction of stock market movements and politics in Germany. Evidence from popularity functions and VAR-based evidence suggests that stock market returns have affected the popularity of German governments. We only find weak evidence that the political process has had an impact on the stock market. In contrast to empirical evidence for the U.S., we do not find that German stock market returns tend to be higher during left-wing than during right-wing governments. Also in contrast to results for the U.S., we find no evidence for an election cycle in German stock market returns.     

Interest rate rules, inflation and the Taylor principle: an analytical exploration

Summary. The purpose of this article is to characterize optimal interest rate rules in the framework of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, and notably to scrutinize the “Taylor principle”, according to which the nominal interest rate should respond more than one for one to inflation. This model yields explicit solutions for the optimal rule. We find that the elasticity of response depends on numerous factors, such as the degree of price rigidity, the autocorrelation of the underlying shocks, or which measure of inflation is used. In general the optimal elasticity of the interest rate with respect to inflation needs not be greater than one.Received: 6 November 2003, Revised: 17 August 2004 JEL Classification Numbers: E5, E52, E58.J.-P. Bénassy: I wish to thank Daniel Laskar and an anonymous referee for their perceptive comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Of course all remaining deficiencies are mine.