Prior research finds expected returns decrease in firm-level total asset growth. This study shows that external growth, measured as asset growth raised from capital markets, has stronger power than total asset growth predicting the cross section of average returns. External growth subsumes the...

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...

This paper addresses the link between shocks to productivity trend growth and long-run consumption risk in a production economy model with recursive utility. Quantifying trend growth shocks, I find that persistent fluctuations in trend growth are the key driver of sizable long-run consumption...