Motivated by recent US evidence, we evaluate the predictive power of changes in the weight of large firms in the aggregate stock market ("Goliath vs David" (GVD)) for Swiss stock market returns and bond market returns. Previous research suggests that the asset return dynamics in the US and...

This paper shows that standard multifactor asset pricing models provide an adequate description of excess returns on stock indexes of German industrial sectors. The only exception is the banking sector index. It offers lower monthly excess returns than suggested by exposures to risk factors in...

Based on a vector autoregressive model, this paper shows that time variation in monthly excess returns on Swiss government bonds and stocks is predominantly driven by news of inflation and dividends, respectively. This finding is in marked contrast to US evidence which points to a more prominent...