This paper modeled the effects of firms’ fundamentals such as total assets and long-term debt and of macroeconomic variables such as unemployment and interest rates on quarterly stock prices of over 3000 US firms in the period 2000–07. The merged CRSP/Compustat database was augmented by...

We decompose the squared VIX index, derived from US S&P500 options prices, into the conditional variance of stock returns and the equity variance premium. We evaluate a plethora of state-of-the-art volatility forecasting models to produce an accurate measure of the conditional variance. We then...

We provide a new asymptotic analysis of model selection procedure that compares likelihoods of two candidate diffusion models. Our asymptotic analysis relies on two dimensional asymptotic expansions with shrinking sampling interval Δ and increasing sampling span T, and clarifies the different...

This paper investigates statistical properties of the local generalized method of moments (LGMM) estimator for some time series models defined by conditional moment restrictions. First, we consider Markov processes with possible conditional heteroskedasticity of unknown forms and establish the...

The paper considers a volatility model which introduces a persistent, integrated or near-integrated, covariate to the standard GARCH(1, 1) model. For such a model, we derive the asymptotic theory of the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator. In particular, we establish consistency and obtain limit...

A new semiparametric estimator for an empirical asset pricing model with general nonparametric risk-return tradeoff and GARCH-type underlying volatility is introduced. Based on the profile likelihood approach, it does not rely on any initial parametric estimator of the conditional mean function,...

We study the influence on firm risks of NASDAQ and NYSE firm payout initiations and omissions. These payout events can be interpreted as managerial signals of firm financial life-cycle maturation resulting in concomitant changes in firm risks. We remove confounding payout types and we match on...

Empirically, teenagers who use soft drugs are more likely to use hard drugs in the future. This pattern can be explained by a causal effect (i.e., state dependence between drugs or stepping-stone effects) or by unobserved characteristics that make people more likely to use both soft and hard...

This paper develops an estimation and testing framework for a stationary large panel model with observable regressors and unobservable common factors. We allow for slope heterogeneity and for correlation between the common factors and the regressors. We propose a two stage estimation procedure...

Recent literature on panel data emphasizes the importance of accounting for time-varying unobservable individual effects, which may stem from either omitted individual characteristics or macro-level shocks that affect each individual unit differently. In this paper, we propose a simple...