← Search

Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 36 No. 3 2012

Higher co-moments and asset pricing on London Stock Exchange

Alexandros Kostakis1,2; Kashif Muhammad; Antonios Siganos3

1 University of Liverpool · 2 University of Manchester · 3 University of Glasgow

open access

Abstract

This study examines the asset pricing implications of preferences over the higher moments of returns’ distributions. We show that in a market populated by risk-averse, prudent and temperate investors, firms whose returns exhibit negative coskewness or positive cokurtosis should yield higher premia relative to counterpart firms with positive coskewness and negative cokurtosis respectively. These theoretical predictions are empirically tested using a comprehensive dataset of shares listed on the London Stock Exchange during the period 1986–2008. Our empirical results confirm that coskewness and cokurtosis premia are genuinely priced in the UK market, over and above what covariance risk, size, value and momentum factors can explain. We also show that a theoretically motivated, higher co-moment asset pricing model has significant explanatory ability over the cross-section of coskewness and cokurtosis portfolio returns.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2011.10.002
Volume
36
Issue
3
Pages
913-922
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite