Firm Characteristics and Stock Returns : The Role of Investment-Specific Shocks

Average return differences among firms sorted on valuation ratios, past investment, prof-itability, market beta, or idiosyncratic volatility are largely driven by differences in exposures offirms to the same systematic factor related to embodied technology shocks. Using a calibratedstructural model, we show that these firm characteristics are correlated with the ratio of growthopportunities to firm value, which affects firms' exposures to capital-embodied productivityshocks and risk premia. We thus provide a unified explanation for several apparent anomalies inthe cross-section of stock returns---namely, predictability of returns by these firm characteristicsand return comovement among firms with similar characteristics