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Review of Financial Studies Vol. 29 No. 8 2016

Skewness in Expected Macro Fundamentals and the Predictability of Equity Returns: Evidence and Theory

Riccardo Colacito; Eric Ghysels; Jinghan Meng; Wasin Siwasarit

Abstract

We document that the first and third cross-sectional moments of the distribution of GDP growth rates made by professional forecasters can predict equity excess returns, a finding that is robust to controlling for a large set of well-established predictive factors. We show that introducing time-varying skewness in the distribution of expected growth prospects in an otherwise standard endowment economy can substantially increase the model-implied equity Sharpe ratios, and produce a large amount of fluctuation in equity risk premiums.

Volume
29
Issue
8
Pages
2069-2109
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib

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