The profitability and investment premium: Pre-1963 evidence

I investigate the profitability and investment premium in stock returns using hand-collected data from Moody's Manuals for 1940–1963. Controlling for value, the profitability premium emerges as important in this period. In contrast, there is no reliable relation between investment and returns, regardless of whether investment is measured using growth in total assets or book equity and even after extending the data back to 1926. In spanning regressions, factors constructed from profitability and book-to-market ratios (RMW and HML, respectively) improve the mean-variance efficient tangency portfolio but the investment factor (CMA) does not.     

The risk premium and long-run global imbalances

This study proposes that heterogeneous household portfolio choices within a country and across countries offer an explanation for global imbalances. We construct a stochastic growth multi-country model in which heterogeneous agents face the following restrictions on asset trade. First, the degree of US equity market participation is higher than that of the rest of the world. Second, a fraction of households in each country maintains a fixed share of equity in its portfolios. In our calibrated model, which matches the US net foreign asset position and the equity premium, the average US household loads up more aggregate risk than the average foreign household by investing in risky assets abroad and issuing risk-free assets. As a result, the US is compensated by a high risk premium and runs trade deficits even as a debtor country. The long-run average trade deficit in our model accounts for 50% of the observed US trade deficit.     

The high returns to low volatility stocks are actually a premium on high quality firms

Recent empirical research shows that low volatility stocks outperform high volatility stocks around the world. This study documents that the volatility effect is associated with the quality of the firm using a large sample of international stocks. First, adding a quality factor to the Fama–French model contributes to the explanation of the volatility effect. Furthermore, the negative volatility–return relation is shown to be stronger and significant only among high quality firms which are profitable and have stable cash flows. Second, a fundamental investment strategy that goes long high quality firms and short low quality firms performs like a volatility strategy and cannot be explained by common asset pricing models. However, a low–high volatility factor adds to the explanation of the return difference between high and low quality stocks as volatility and quality strategies have a common component.     

Profitability and investment‐based factor pricing models

Ex ante predictors of stock returns must exhibit explanatory power across the feasible set of investments. But empirical results of factor pricing models that incorporate firm investment and profitability cannot explain the apparently high returns of US small stocks with very high investment levels and very low profitability. Whilst these stocks comprise only a small fraction of US data sets, this is not the case across global markets. Using a data set that is concentrated with stocks that exhibit high investment despite low profitability, we demonstrate that such factor models are limited in their explanatory power over these stocks.     

The world ex ante risk premium: an empirical investigation

A number of recent papers have focused on testing the linearity restrictions implied by international asset pricing models. The tests, however, have not addressed an additional restriction implied by the models; namely, that the risk premium on the world portfolio is positive. This study provides a direct assessment of this restriction. The evidence indicates that the ex ante world market risk premium can be negative. The results are robust to market proxies that are hedged and unhedged with respect to currency risk. Subperiod analysis indicates that the rejection of the positive risk premium restriction is driven by the first half of the sample period.     

What explains the value premium? The case of adjustment costs,operating leverage and financial leverage

This paper empirically examines and compares the different theoretical predictions on how adjustment costs, operating and financial leverage influence the value premium. Consistent with Ozdagli (2012), financial leverage plays a dominant role, supported by adjustment costs (which represent the degree of investment irreversibility). Specifically, the observed value premium is driven by the financial leverage differences between value and growth firms, partially neutralized by investment irreversibility. The relation between the value premium and investment irreversibility is contrary to the intuition in Zhang (2005) and Cooper (2006). Operating leverage does not significantly influence the value premium.     

The value of convexity: a theoretical and empirical investigation

We explore from a theoretical and an empirical perspective the value of convexity in the US Treasury market. We present a quasi-model-agnostic approach that is rooted in the existence of some affine model capable of recovering with good accuracy the market yield curve and covariance matrix. As we show, at least one such model exists, and this is all we require for our results to hold. We show that, as a consequence, the theoretical ‘value of convexity’ purely depends on observable features of the yield curve, and on statistically determinable yield volatilities. We then address the question of whether the theoretical convexity is indeed correctly reflected in the shape of the yield curve. We present empirical results about the predictive power of a strategy based on the discrepancies between the theoretical and the predicted value of convexity. By looking at 30 years of data, we find that neither the strategy of being systematically long or short convexity (and immunized against ‘level’ and ‘slope’ risk) would have been profitable. However, a conditional strategy that looks at the difference between the ‘implied’ and the statistically estimated value of convexity would have identified extended periods during which the proposed approach would have delivered attractive Sharpe Ratios.     

The characteristics of informed trading: Implications for asset pricing

This paper investigates the linkage of microstructure, accounting, and asset pricing. We determine the relationship between firm characteristics as captured by accounting and market data and a firm's probability of private information-based trade (PIN) as estimated from trade data. This allows us to determine what types of firms have high information risk. We then use these data to create an instrument for PIN, the PPIN, which we can estimate from firm-specific data. We show that PPINs have explanatory power for the cross-section of asset returns in long sample tests. We also investigate whether information risk vitiates the influence of other variables on asset returns. We develop a PPIN factor and show that it dominates the Amihud factor in asset returns. Our results provide strong support for information risk affecting asset returns in long sample tests.     

Relationship between franking credits and the market risk premium: a comment

This paper examines two arguments presented in Gray and Hall (2006). First, that the generally used estimate of 0.06 for the market risk premium within the Officer version of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the generally used estimate of 0.50 for the parameter ‘gamma’ within the Officer framework are jointly inconsistent with evidence concerning the market risk premium in the standard version of the CAPM. Second, that the first two of these parameter estimates are also jointly inconsistent with the observed cash dividend yield on the Australian market. To resolve these problems, Gray and Hall recommend setting gamma to zero. The present paper shows that the first argument does not account for the fact that imputation induces a reduction in the market risk premium as defined in the standard version of the CAPM. The present paper also shows that both arguments identify a problem that characterizes only parts of the Officer framework, and these parts are not generally used in Australia. Therefore, rather than suggesting that gamma should be zero, Gray and Hall's analysis identifies parts of the Officer framework that should be avoided.     

Financial openness and profitability premium: Causal evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect

This study explores the impact of capital market openness on the profitability premium by using the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHKSC) programme as an exogenous shock. The empirical results show that (1) we can basically rule out the mispricing mechanism driving the significant profitability premium in China; (2) following SHKSC, the expected stock returns increase more across less profitable firms, and the less profitable firms have more increases in illiquidity, capital structure and information disclosure quality; and (3) the results are still robust after using propensity score matching analysis, deleting the highly volatile periods and conducting a firm-level test with the triple-differencing design.     

The law of one accounting variable

The ‘law of one accounting variable’ is defined in this paper as an extension of ‘the law of one price’. It says roughly that if the future payoffs of two assets are the same (in every state of the world), then the accounting variable of the assets are approximately the same. The paper derives a condition under which this law holds and shows that when the law holds for some accounting variables, these variables can replace betas in the multibeta representation of asset returns, provided some admissibility conditions are satisfied.     

Asset price bubbles: a survey

Why do asset price bubbles continue to appear in various markets? What types of events give rise to bubbles and why do arbitrage forces fail to quickly burst them? Do bubbles have real economic consequences and should policy makers do more to prevent them? This paper provides an overview of recent literature on bubbles, with significant attention given to behavioral models and rational models with frictions. The latest U.S. real estate bubble is described in the context of this literature.     

费率市场化对车险市场影响的经济学模型分析

为了解决车险市场长期以来高回扣、高代理费的混乱局面,我国在2003年1月1日推行费率市场化,但随之而来的是,不仅各保险公司仍然采用高代理费争夺市场,而且还出现了过低费率的非理性定价以及费率的频繁调整。本文将以事实为基础,通过分析代理人的经营情况和保险公司保费收入最大化的行为模式,建立一个保险需求函数的模型,来解释费率改革如何影响车险市场,并提出了反思和建议。     

The effect of corporate social responsibility on stock performance: new evidence for the USA and Europe

This paper provides new empirical evidence for the effect of corporate social responsibility on corporate financial performance. In contrast to former studies, we examine two different regions, namely the USA and Europe, and disentangle firm and sector specific impacts. Our econometric analysis shows that environmental and social activities of a firm compared with other firms within the industry are valued by financial markets in both regions. However, the respective positive effects on average monthly stock returns between 2003 and 2006 are more robust in the USA and, in addition, non-linear. Our analysis furthermore points to biased parameter estimates if incorrectly specified econometric models are applied: the seemingly significantly negative effect of environmental and social performance of the industry to which a firm belongs strongly declines and mostly becomes insignificant if the explanation of stock performance is based on the Fama–French three-factor or the Carhart four-factor models instead of the simple Capital Asset Pricing Model.     

The profitability of carry trades

The uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition suggests that carry trades whereby investors borrow in the low interest rate currency and invest in the high interest rate currency should not result in excess profits over the long run. In this paper, we test the significance of the conventional empirical failure of UIP condition. Using the four bilateral pound parities we fail to detect significant excess carry trade profits for the yen, euro and swiss franc–pound parities. The only parity for which the carry trade consistently makes excess profits is the dollar–pound parity. This result is somewhat surprising as this is the currency pair with the lowest interest rate differential. We are extremely grateful for the anonymous referee’s comments on this paper.     

Growth vs value investing: Persistence and time trend before and after COVID-19

Value investing and growth investing allow economic experts to adopt different investment strategies depending on their chosen specialty; the two investment types have been conditioned by the pandemic, changing the trend of investments and their results. This research aims to analyze the behavior and trends of the different investment strategies before and after the health crisis. We use methodologies based on fractional integration and cointegration to analyze the persistence and trend of the series and their relationship in the long run. We find that the shock is long-lived and causes a change in trend; however, we find no evidence of mean reversion. In addition, we use multivariate wavelet analysis to analyze the correlation between both time series, concluding that a growth-based investment strategy is more successful than a value-based investment strategy. We use neural networks to corroborate our results.     

The reinvestment risk premium in the valuation of British and Russian government bonds

This article studies the dynamic properties of the reinvestment risk premium in the UK and RF government bond markets. In a new interest rate environment when sovereign debt trades at a low and even negative yields and bond funds are struggling to earn sufficient returns, bond investors have become increasingly wary of reinvestment risk largely neglected previously. The reinvestment risk premium is quantified on the basis of replicating portfolios and further analyzed with respect to exposure to exogenous influence with the help of cointegration techniques. The findings are that in both markets investors recognize the significance of reinvestment risk. However, there are differences in the sensitivity of the reinvestment risk premium to exogenous indicators. In the UK government bond market investors tend to be guided by more conservative indicators but are ready to forecast in the medium-run; in the RF government bond market investors tend to be guided by less conservative indicators but are ready to forecast only in the short-run.     

Re-examination of the historical equity risk premium in Australia

In light of the ongoing debate over the value of the equity risk premium, its increasing use in the regulatory setting, and the impact of dividend imputation on the premium, this paper presents a timely new look at the historical equity risk premium in Australia, and provides an improved understanding of the historical record. We document concerns about data quality that become increasingly important the further back in time one looks. In particular, there are sufficient question marks over the quality of data prior to 1958 to warrant any estimates based thereon to be treated with caution. Accordingly, we present a new set of estimates of the historical equity risk premium corresponding to periods of increasing data quality but of decreasing sample size. Relative to bonds (bills), the equity premium has averaged 6.3 per cent (6.8 per cent) per annum over 1958–2005, which is a period of relatively good data quality. Together with other results in the paper, the findings reveal a historical estimate that is substantially less than widely cited historical studies would otherwise indicate. We reconcile prior evidence through documenting a dividend adjustment that has typically been overlooked. We also provide estimates that incorporate an adjustment for imputation credits.     

Timing is money: The factor timing ability of hedge fund managers

This paper studies the level, determinants, and implications of the factor timing ability of hedge fund managers. We find that approximately 34% of hedge funds display factor timing ability on at least one factor over the full sample, concentrated especially at the market, size, and bond factors. Better factor timing skills are on average related to funds that are more experienced and more flexible, but the cross-factor heterogeneity is considerable. Factor timing is associated with outperformance; the top factor timing funds outperform the bottom factor timing funds with a significant 4.32% per annum. Timing skills, though, do not directly lead to higher net flow.     

The other January effect: International, style, and subperiod evidence

We report international, style, and subperiod evidence for the other January effect (OJE) documented in Cooper et al. [2006. The other January effect. Journal of Financial Economics 82, 315–341]. When examining the OJE in 22 countries starting as early as 1801, we find that the spread between 11-month returns following positive and negative Januarys does tend to be positive. However, the spreads are rarely statistically significant and the returns of other calendar months exhibit similar subsequent 11-month return spreads. Further, the international OJE spreads and the OJE spreads in disaggregate U.S.-style portfolios are more related to the U.S. market-level January return, rather than the respective country-specific or portfolio-specific January return. Finally, the OJE is weaker over the 1975–2006 post-discovery period than over the 1940–1974 pre-discovery period. Our evidence indicates that the OJE is primarily a U.S. market-level-based phenomenon that has diminished over time, which suggests a ‘temporary anomaly’ interpretation.