Fewings [5] and Myers and Turnbull [13] have arrived at diametrically conflicting conclusions regarding the effect of growth on risk as measured by beta, the relative systematic risk in the Sharpe-Lintner-Mossin (SLM) capital asset pricing model. Fewings states his result in an unequivocal way: “…systematic capitalization risk of common stocks is undoubtedly a positive function of the rate of growth of expected corporate earnings” ([5, p. 53]) Myers and Turnbull, on the other hand, state their result in a more conditional form, making the result depend on the nature of market expectations revisions but conclude that “increasing the growth rate decreases B …” ([13], P. 327).

Recently, the appropriateness of the weighted average cost of capital for making decisions on capital structure and the selection of projects has been seriously questioned. Arditti [1] showed that when project lives were finite, the weighted average cost of capital was not appropriate for valuing the firm. Beranek [2] demonstrates that when the objective is shareholder wealth maximization, the appropriate discount rate for capital budgeting decisions for finite lived projects n > 1 is not the traditional weighted average cost of capital.

The authors investigate the term structure of interest rates when the underlying state variables and production technologies follow the jump-diffusion processes. Even in some cases where the traditional expectations theory about the term structure is consistent with general equilibrium under diffusion processes, the traditional theory is not consistent under jump-diffusion processes. It is shown that bond prices are strictly higher under jump risks than otherwise and that consumers with logarithmic utility functions will develop hedge portfolios in the presence of jump diffusion.

ABSTRACT The authors investigate the term structure of interest rates when the underlying state variables and production technologies follow the jump‐diffusion processes. Even in some cases where the traditional expectations theory about the term structure is consistent with general equilibrium under diffusion processes, the traditional theory is not consistent under jump‐diffusion processes. It is shown that bond prices are strictly higher under jump risks than otherwise and that consumers with logarithmic utility functions will develop hedge portfolios in the presence of jump diffusion.