One of the most noticeable stylized facts in finance is that stock index returns are negatively correlated with changes in volatility. The economic rationale for the effect is still controversial. The competing explanations have different implications for the origin of the relationship: Are...

This study investigates the structural relationship between illiquidity and ex-ante returns in the German stock market over time. In line with other authors, we show that illiquidity is still a significant factor, but has had a weakened impact in more recent times. When considering structural...

We examine the effects of limited investor attention on stock returns by using Google search volume index to measure investor attention. We also investigate whether national culture and market development have any role in this relationship. We find that the impact of investor attention on stock...

Recent empirical evidence suggests that the variance risk premium predicts aggregate stock market returns. We demonstrate that statistical finite sample biases cannot “explain” this apparent predictability. Further corroborating the existing evidence of the U.S., we show that country...

Recent empirical evidence suggests that the variance risk premium predicts aggregate stock market returns. We demonstrate that statistical finite sample biases cannot “explain” this apparent predictability. Further corroborating the existing evidence of the U.S., we show that country...

Are Bunds special? This paper estimates the 'Bund premium' as the difference in convenience yields between other sovereign safe assets and German government bonds adjusted for sovereign credit risk, liquidity and swap market frictions. A higher premium suggests less substitutability of sovereign...

We examine the impact of dynamic hedging demand of German option and discount certificate markets on the autocorrelation of German stock price changes. We theoretically model the demand of liquidity providers in the discount certificate market, a structured financial product with a concave...