We present new evidence on the predictability of aggregate market returns by developing two new prediction models, one risk-based, and the other purely statistical. The pricing kernel model expresses the expected return as the covariance of the market return with a pricing kernel that is a...

We measure "good" and "bad" variance premia that capture risk compensations for the realized variation in positive and negative market returns, respectively. The two variance premium components jointly predict excess returns over the next 1 and 2 years with statistically significant positive...

We study investor expectations of stock returns on the S&P 500 index using data from the Livingston survey over the 1952-2019 period. We find that investors have slow-moving and countercyclical expected stock returns consistent with consumption-based model predictions. We find no evidence that...

In this paper, I utilize cross--sectional weighted least square regressions to extract market value weighted zero--cost portfolios that are based on firm characteristics from both individual firm excess returns and risk--adjusted excess returns. The analysis shows that the value weighted size...