No Arbitrage and Arbitrage Pricing: A New Approach.

The authors argue that arbitrage pricing theories (APT) imply the existence of a low-dimensional nonnegative nonlinear pricing kernel. In contrast to standard constructs of the APT, they do not assume a linear factor structure on the payoffs. This allows the authors to price both primitive and derivative securities. Seminonparametric techniques are used to estimate the pricing kernel and test the theory. Empirical results using size-based portfolio returns and yields on bonds reject the nested capital asset pricing model and linear APT and support the nonlinear APT. Diagnostics show that the nonlinear model is more capable of explaining variations in small firm returns. Copyright 1993 by American Finance Association.