Herskovic, Bernard - 2014
We show that firms' idiosyncratic volatility obeys a strong factor structure and that shocks to the common factor in … idiosyncratic volatility (CIV) are priced. Stocks in the lowest CIV-beta quintile earn average returns 5.4% per year higher than … heterogeneous-agent model. In the model, CIV is a priced state variable because an increase in idiosyncratic firm volatility raises …