← Search

Journal of Finance 1990

Stock Returns, Expected Returns, and Real Activity

Eugene F. Fama1,2

1 U.S. National Science Foundation · 2 Cornell University

Abstract

Measuring the total return variation explained by shocks to expected cash flows, time-varying expected returns, and shocks to expected returns is one way to judge the rationality of stock prices. Variables that proxy for expected returns and expected-return shocks capture 30% of the variance of annual NYSE value-weighted returns. Growth rates of production, used to proxy for shocks to expected cash flows, explain 43% of the return variance. Whether the combined explanatory power of the variables—about 58% of the variance of annual returns—is good or bad news about market efficiency is left for the reader to judge.

DOI
10.2307/2328716
Sources
openalex

Cite