We measure ex-ante expectation errors by identifying sporadic versus persistent total asset growth ex-ante. Corporate profitability of high (low) asset-growth firms remains inferior (superior) after temporary asset expansion (contraction), hence ex-ante expectation errors are high. Corporate...

We empirically evaluate the predictions of the mispricing hypothesis with limits-to-arbitrage suggested by Shleifer and Vishny (1997) and the q-theory with investment frictions proposed by Li and Zhang (2010) on the negative relation between asset growth and average stock returns. We conduct...

This paper systematically examines the impact of nine popular arbitrage costs measures on cross-sectional mispricing based on ten well-known and robust anomalies. We show that binding arbitrage barriers slowly change over time. In early years with few publications documenting return anomalies,...

Based on U.S. stock returns from 1973 to 2015, this study found that the asset growth anomaly does not seem to be pervasive and investable. The trading strategy is robust only among a tiny portion of the equity market in terms of both number of stocks and capitalization. In addition to...

This paper provides a mispricing-based explanation for the negative relation between firm-level productivity and stock returns. Investors appear to underprice unproductive firms and overprice productive firms. We find evidence consistent with the speculative overpricing of productive firms...

This study comprehensively reexamines the debate over behavioral and rational explanations for the investment effect in an updated sample. We closely follow the previous literature and provide several differences. All our tests include five prominent measures of corporate investment and...

Macroeconomic risks only partially capture the profitability premium, while adding a misvaluation factor based on investor sentiment helps explain a substantial amount of it. The profitability premium mainly exists in firms whose market valuations are inconsistent with their profitability and...

The literature has provided mixed evidence on the relationship between cash holdings and average stock returns. We empirically verify that the relationship is positive and robust to the adjustment of risk, the construction of cash holdings portfolios, and the weighting scheme of portfolio...

This paper offers a novel understanding of the cause of the external financing anomaly, a well established observation that net overall external financing activities and future stock returns are negatively related. Recent studies argue that the external financing anomaly is driven by earnings...

In this paper, we hypothesize that if the negative relationship between asset growth and stock returns is due to mispricing, it should be more pronounced and more persistent when there are more severe limits to arbitrage. The empirical evidence supports our hypothesis. Our findings are not due...