The Fiscal and Monetary Linkage between Stock Returns and Inflation

Contrary to economic theory and common sense, stock returns are negatively related to both expected and unexpected inflation. We argue that this puzzling empirical phenomenon does not indicate causality. Instead, stock returns are negatively related to contemporaneous changes in expected inflation because they signal a chain of events which results in a higher rate of monetary expansion. Exogenous shocks in real output, signalled by the stock market, induce changes in tax revenue, in the deficit, in Treasury borrowing and in Federal Reserve “monetization” of the increased debt. Rational bond and stock market investors realize this will happen. They adjust prices (and interest rates) accordingly and without delay. Although expected inflation seems to have a negative effect on subsequent stock returns, this could be an empirical illusion, since a spurious causality is induced by a combination of: (a) a reversed adaptive inflation expectations model and (b) a reversed money growth/stock returns model. If the real interest rate is not a constant, using nominal interest proxies for expected inflation is dangerous, since small changes in real rates can cause large and opposite percentage changes in stock prices.     

What Moves the Stock and Bond Markets? A Variance Decomposition for Long-Term Asset Returns

This paper uses a vector autoregressive model to decompose excess stock and 10-year bond returns into changes in expectations of future stock dividends, inflation, short-term real interest rates, and excess stock and bond returns. In monthly postwar U.S. data, stock and bond returns are driven largely by news about future excess stock returns and inflation, respectively. Real interest rates have little impact on returns, although they do affect the short-term nominal interest rate and the slope of the term structure. These findings help to explain the low correlation between excess stock and bond returns.     

STOCK MARKET RETURNS AND INFLATIONARY EXPECTATIONS: ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE FOR 1975–1979

This research investigates the impacts that inflationary expectations and errors in those expectations had upon the stock market during 1975 to 1979. Expected rates of inflation were obtained via (1) Box-Jenkins time-series analysis and (2) naive extrapolation. Statistical analysis indicates only weak support for a Fisher effect in determining stock prices. However, the analysis consistently indicates that unanticipated changes in inflation are negatively related to stock market returns.     

The Comovement of US and UK Stock Markets

US and UK stock returns are highly positively correlated over the period 1918–99. Using VAR‐based variance decompositions, we investigate the nature of this comovement. Excess return innovations are decomposed into news about future dividends, real interest rates, and excess returns. We find that the latter news component is the most important in explaining stock return volatility in both the USA and the UK and that stock return news is highly correlated across countries. This is evidence against Beltratti and Shiller's (1993) finding that the comovement of US and UK stock markets can be explained in terms of a simple present value model. We interpret the comovement as indicating that equity premia in the two countries are hit by common real shocks.     

On the Economic Link Between Asset Prices and Real Activity

Abstract:  This paper presents a model linking two financial markets (stocks and bonds) with real business cycle, in the framework of the Consumption Capital Asset Pricing Model with Generalized Isoelastic Preferences. Besides interest rate term spread, the model includes a new variable to forecast economic activity: stock market term spread. This is the slope of expected stock market returns. The empirical evidence documented in this paper suggests systematic relationships between business cycle's state and the shapes of two yield curves (interest rates and expected stock returns). Results are robust to changes in measures of economic growth, stock prices, interest rates and expectations generating mechanisms.     

Common stock returns,real activity,money, and inflation: Some international evidence

This paper tests whether the negative relationship between real stock returns and inflation in the United States is in fact proxying for a positive relationship between stock returns and real activity variables in six major industrial countries over 1966–1979. Consistent with Fama's ‘proxy-effect’ hypothesis, we document a negative relationship between inflation and real activity and a positive one between real stock returns and real activity variables. Real activity variables dominate money growth rates and expected and unexpected inflation in explaining real stock returns. A puzzling result that still remains is the positive role of money and the negative role of expected inflation in explaining these real stock returns in all major industrial countries.     

The term structures of equity and interest rates

This paper proposes a dynamic risk-based model capable of jointly explaining the term structure of interest rates, returns on the aggregate market, and the risk and return characteristics of value and growth stocks. Both the term structure of interest rates and returns on value and growth stocks convey information about how the representative investor values cash flows of different maturities. We model how the representative investor perceives risks of these cash flows by specifying a parsimonious stochastic discount factor for the economy. Shocks to dividend growth, the real interest rate, and expected inflation are priced, but shocks to the price of risk are not. Given reasonable assumptions for dividends and inflation, we show that the model can simultaneously account for the behavior of aggregate stock returns, an upward-sloping yield curve, the failure of the expectations hypothesis, and the poor performance of the capital asset pricing model.     

The Presidential Puzzle: Political Cycles and the Stock Market

The excess return in the stock market is higher under Democratic than Republican presidencies: 9 percent for the value‐weighted and 16 percent for the equal‐weighted portfolio. The difference comes from higher real stock returns and lower real interest rates, is statistically significant, and is robust in subsamples. The difference in returns is not explained by business‐cycle variables related to expected returns, and is not concentrated around election dates. There is no difference in the riskiness of the stock market across presidencies that could justify a risk premium. The difference in returns through the political cycle is therefore a puzzle.     

Are common stocks a good hedge against inflation? Evidence from the Pacific-rim countries

We explore whether the observed real stock return–inflation relations in the U.S. and 10 Pacific-rim countries for the sample period of 1970–1997 can be explained by the interaction between real and monetary disturbances. Ten countries exhibit a negative relation between real stock returns and inflation. Malaysia is the only country that exhibits a positive relation. For nine countries, real output disturbances drive a negative stock return–inflation relation, while monetary disturbances yield a positive relation. In addition, real shock components appear to be relatively more important than monetary shock components for these countries, and as a result the observed relation between stock returns and inflation is negative. Neither the tax hypothesis nor the monetary regime hypothesis seems to be easily compatible with the diverse experiences of the Pacific-rim countries.     

Interest rate smoothing and price level trend-stationarity

This paper discusses the definition and mechanics of central bank interest rate smoothing under rational expectations. A tension arising between interest rate smoothing and macroeconomic stabilization objectives induces non-trend-stationary price level and money stock behavior. The paper thereby helps explain why such nominal non-stationarities are widely observed. Further implications are drawn for base drift, distribution of real returns on long-term fixed-rate nominal debt, and operating characteristics of interest rate pegs and policy instruments.     

Market States and the Effect on Equity REIT Returns due to Changes in Monetary Policy Stance

This study investigates the effect of changes in monetary policy on US equity real estate investment trust (EREIT) returns in lower and higher return ranges during bull, bear, and volatile stock market states using quantile regression. Results show that EREIT returns are sensitive to changes in monetary policy at different EREIT return ranges in different market states. During bull markets, changes in monetary policy have a significant negative impact on EREIT when investors have lower expectations of real estate price increases, but are not effective when investors have higher expectations of real estate price increases. During volatile and bear markets, EREIT returns are not sensitive to changes in monetary policy stance. Results also show that EREIT returns respond positively to stock returns in various states and conditions.     

Stock Market Returns and Inflation: Evidence from Other Countries

This paper investigates the relation between common stock returns and inflation in twenty-six countries for the postwar period. Our results do not support the Fisher Hypothesis, which states that real rates of return on common stocks and expected inflation rates are independent and that nominal stock returns vary in one-to-one correspondence with expected inflation. There is a consistent lack of positive relation between stock returns and inflation in most of the countries.     

The Real Options Component and Market Value of Taiwan Technological Companies

Real options valuation has been applied in real investment extensively. However the empirical researches of real options components’ value are seldom studied. This study uses the panel data model to test whether the stock prices of Taiwan listed companies reflect investor’s expectations regarding the value of real options. This article demonstrates that investors cannot ignore the real options components when evaluating stock market value. The results also confirm that the proportion of a firm’s market value not due to assets-in-place is significantly and positively related to the variables of stock beta, skewness of stock returns, size, capital stock, and research and development. In addition, firms with lower firm life cycle have a higher real options value.     

An analysis of inflation and stock returns for the UK

Whether common stocks provide a hedge against inflation has been long debated. This paper focuses on this question by investigating the relationship between inflation and stock returns in the short term and medium term and under different inflationary regimes using the UK data. Empirical evidence suggests that the UK stock market fails to hedge against inflation in the short term. However, in the medium term there is mixed results. Results from different inflationary regimes show that the relationship between inflation and returns varies in different regimes.     

Stock Returns,Inflation, and Economic Activity: The Survey Evidence

The primary purpose of this paper is the use of survey expectations data to study the empirical relationships between stock returns, inflation, and economic activity. In the course of this analysis and as a secondary purpose, the paper discusses general considerations involving the use of expectations proxies and makes recommendations for econometric techniques. The main empirical findings are: (1) Hypothesized relationships between expected economic activity and expected inflation do not in practice appear to be important in explaining the negative relationship between expected inflation and stock returns. (2) Nevertheless, the survey data do lend some support to the hypothesis of a quantity theory relationship between expected inflation and expected economic activity, holding constant monetary growth. (3) The cross-forecaster dispersion of economic activity forecasts, a proxy for real uncertainty, appears to be a significant determinant of stock returns. Inclusion of this variable eliminates the negative impact of expected inflation.     

Property shares, appraisals and the stock market: An international perspective

A severe problem facing both real estate researchers and investors is the lack of reliable real estate returns data. Property shares, the shares of companies which invest in property and manage a portfolio of real estate, have been proposed as indicators of real estate performance. Property shares exist in many countries, are publicly traded, and their returns are not inherently biased. For three countries, we investigate the relationships with common stock and appraisal-based returns which property share returns exhibit. Our results indicate that property shares are closely related to the stock markets on which they trade, thereby confirming previous findings for the United States. However, property share returns also predict appraisal-based indices.     

What moves international stock and bond markets?

We study the relation between international mutual fund flows and the different return components of aggregate equity and bond markets. First, we decompose international equity and bond market returns into changes in expectations of future real cash payments, interest rates, exchange rates, and discount rates. News about future cash flows, rather than discount rates, is the main driver of international stock returns. This evidence is in contrast with the typical results reported only for the US. Inflation news instead is the main driver of international bond returns. Next, we turn to the interaction between these return components and international portfolio flows. We find evidence consistent with price pressure, short-term trend chasing, and short-run overreaction in the equity market. We also find that international bond flows to emerging markets are more sensitive to interest rate shocks than equity flows.     

The Real Options Component of Firm Market Value: The Case of the Technological Corporation

Abstract:   This paper tests whether stock prices reflect investor's expectations regarding the value of real options. The analysis is implemented based on a sample of 391 high‐tech companies listed on main OECD stock markets during the period December 1994 through December 2000. Results confirm the predicted relation between the fraction of a firm's market value not accounted for by its assets‐in‐place, and a series of variables that are assumed to disclose its real options value, variables such as research and development activity, risk and skewness of stock returns, and size. The results are robust even after controlling for valuation date, sub‐industry, country, and alternative measures of risk.     

The comovement of US and German bond markets

We use a vector-autoregression, with parameter estimates corrected for small-sample bias, to decompose US and German unexpected bond returns into three ‘news’ components: news about future inflation, news about future real interest rates, and news about future excess bond returns (term premia). We then cross-country correlate these news components to see which component is responsible for the high degree of comovement of US and German bond markets. For the period 1975-2003 we find that inflation news is the main driving force behind this comovement. When news is coming to the US market that future US inflation will increase, there is a tendency that German inflation will also increase. This is regarded bad news for the bond market in both countries whereby bond prices are bid down leading to immediate negative return innovations and changing expectations of future excess bond returns. Thus, comovement in expected future inflation is the main reason for bond market comovement.     

INTEREST RATE CHANGES AND COMMON STOCK RETURNS OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS: REVISITED

In this paper the interest rate sensitivity of common stock returns of financial firms is re-examined. Considered here are (1) current, anticipated, and unanticipated changes in interest rates; (2) depository and nondepository firms; and (3) three different-maturity interest rate indices. Results lend strong support for a negative effect of both current and unanticipated interest rate changes. Although some exceptions are observed, stock returns of most subsectors of both financial and nonfinancial firms are not sensitive to anticipated interest rate changes. The findings of this study are robust to the choice of a particular model of interest rate expectations.