We ask whether stock returns in France, Germany, the UK and the US are predictable by three instruments: the dividend yield, the earnings yield and the short rate. The predictability regression is suggested by a present value model with earnings growth, payout ratios and the short rate as state...

Recently much progress has been made in developing optimal portfolio choice models accomodating time-varying opportunity sets, but unless investors are unreasonably risk averse, optimal holdings include unreasonably large equity positions. One reason is that most studies assume investors behave...

This paper examines the econometric performance of regime switching models for interest rate data from the US, Germany and the UK. There is strong evidence supporting the presence of regime switches but univariate models are unlikely to yield consistent estimates of the model parameters....

This paper successively introduces variable velocity, durability and habit persistence in a standard two-country general equilibrium model and explores their effects on the variability of exchange rate changes, forward premiums and the foreign exchange risk premium. A new feature of the model is...

Using non-parametric estimation methods, various authors have shown distinct non-linearities in the drift and volatility function of the US short rate, which are inconsistent with standard affine term structure models. We document how a regime-switching model with state dependent transition...