Recent studies have found unmeasured intangible capital to be large and important. In this paper we observe that by nature intangible capital is also very different from physical capital. We find it plausible to argue that the accumulation process for intangible capital differs significantly...

This paper presents an equilibrium model that provides a rational explanation for twofeatures of data that have been considered puzzling: The positive relation between USdividend yields and nominal interest rates, often called the Fed-model, and the time-varying correlation of US stock and bond...

In this paper, we extend the concept of News Impact Curve developed by Engle and Ng (1993) to the higher moments of the multivariate returns' distribution, thereby providing a tool to investigate the impact of shocks on the characteristics of the subsequent distribution. For this purpose, we...

This paper examines the determinants of stock returns in a small open economy using an APT framework. The analysis is conducted for the Swiss stock market which has the particularity of including a large proportion of firms that are exposed to foreign economic conditions. Both a statistical and...

This paper analyzes the persistence or serial correlation of expected returns as well as the univariate time-series approach that studies the implied autocorrelation function of realized stock returns, including mean reversion and its conditions. In particular, we critically examine whether...

We shed new light on the negative relationship between real stock returns or real interest rates and (i) ex post inflation, (ii) expected inflation, (iii) unexpected inflation and (iv) changes in expected inflation. Using the structural vector autoregression methodology, we propose a...

In this research we study the specification and the power of classic test statistics used in long-term event studies analysis. Using simulations in random samples, we show that test statistics based on an arbitrary benchmark are well specified and as powerful as the ones based on the size and...

The surge in international asset trade since the early 1990s has lead to renewed interest in models with international portfolio choice, an aspect that was largely cast aside when the ad-hoc portfolio balance models of the 1970s were replaced bymodels of optimizing agents. We develop the...

This paper provides a new formal framework to value final-salary defined-benefit pension plans. The valuation framework proposed builds on the familiar idea of discounting future cash flows. Hence, the first step of the valuation process is to find a closed-form solution of the pension fund's...