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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 130 No. 1 2018

Micro(structure) before macro? The predictive power of aggregate illiquidity for stock returns and economic activity

Yong Chen1; Gregory W. Eaton2; Bradley S. Paye3

1 Texas A&M University · 2 Oklahoma State University · 3 Virginia Tech

Abstract

This paper constructs and analyzes various measures of trading costs in US equity markets covering the period 1926–2015. These measures contain statistically and economically significant predictive signals for stock market returns and real economic activity. We decompose illiquidity proxies into a component capturing aggregate volatility and a residual. The predictive content of these components differs in important ways. Specifically, we find strong evidence that the component of illiquidity uncorrelated with volatility forecasts stock market returns. Both the volatility and residual components of illiquidity contain information regarding future economic activity.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.05.011
Volume
130
Issue
1
Pages
48-73
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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