Sellers of variance swaps earn time-varying risk premia for their exposure to realized variance, the level of variance swap rates, and the slope of the variance swap curve. To measure risk premia, we estimate a dynamic term structure model that decomposes variance swap rates into expected...

We develop and implement methods for determining whether introducing new securities or relaxing investment constraints improves the investment opportunity set for prospect investors. We formulate a new testing procedure for prospect spanning for two nested portfolio sets based on subsampling and...

We introduce econometric methods to perform estimation and inference on the permanent and transitory components of the stochastic discount factor (SDF) in dynamic Markov environments. The approach is nonparametric in that it does not impose parametric restrictions on the law of motion of the...

We derive a nonparametric test for constant (continuous) beta over a fixed interval of time. Continuous beta is defined as the ratio of the continuous covariation between an asset and observable risk factor (e.g., the market return) and the continuous variation of the latter. Our test is based...

This paper studies semi-parametric identification and estimation of the stochastic discount factor in consumption-based asset pricing models with latent state variables. The measurement equations for consumption and dividend shares are specified non-parametrically to allow for robust updating of...

In this paper we propose a class of nonparametric tests for anomaly effects in empirical asset pricing models in the framework of nonparametric panel data models with interactive fixed effects. Our approach has two prominent features: one is the adoption of nonparametric component to capture the...

We estimate the equity risk premium (ERP) by combining information from twenty models. The ERP in 2012 and 2013 reached heightened levels - of around 12 percent - not seen since the 1970s. We conclude that the high ERP was caused by unusually low Treasury yields.

The authors estimate the equity risk premium (ERP)—the expected return on stocks in excess of the risk-free rate—by combining information from twenty models for the period 1960-2013. They begin their analysis by categorizing the models into five classes: trailing historical mean, dividend...

We estimate the equity risk premium (ERP) by combining information from twenty models. The ERP in 2012 and 2013 reached heightened levels — of around 12 percent — not seen since the 1970s. We conclude that the high ERP was caused by unusually low Treasury yields

Portfolio sorting is ubiquitous in the empirical finance literature, where it has been widely used to identify pricing anomalies in different asset classes. Despite the popularity of portfolio sorting, little attention has been paid to the statistical properties of the procedure or to the...