Bond Premium in Turkey

In this paper we examine the difference between T-Bill returns and common stock returns in Turkey. We observe that there is a bond premium in Turkey unlike the equity premia in developed countries. As an attempt to explain this surprising observation, we incorporate inflation risk and default risk to the Mehra and Presscott (1985) dynamic asset pricing model. Calibration with reasonable parameter values indicate that the inflation risk alone is not sufficient to explain the observed bond premium. However by allowing for the presence of a perceived default probability, we can explain the observed bond premium on Turkish T-Bills over Turkish common stocks.