We evaluate whether machine learning methods can better model excess portfolio returns compared to the standard regression-based strategies generally used in the finance and econometric literature. We examine 17 benchmark factor model specifications based on Expected Utility Theory and theory...

We propose a new measure of the expected variance risk premium that is based on a forecast of the conditional variance from a GARCH-MIDAS model. We find that the new measure has strong predictive ability for future U.S. aggregate stock market returns and rationalize this result by showing that...

A model of portfolio return dynamics is considered in which the price of risk is permitted to be heterogeneous. In doing this, a novel method is proposed that delivers improved out-of-sample forecasts of portfolio returns. The main innovation is the use of a set of predictors that account for...

I provide evidence that risks in macroeconomic fundamentals contain valuable information about bond risk premia. I extract factors from a set of quantile-based risk measures estimated for US macroeconomic variables and document that they account for up to 31% of the variation in excess bond...

We examine the pricing of tail risk in international stock markets. We find that the tail risk of different countries is highly integrated. Introducing a new World Fear index, we find that local and global aggregate market returns are mainly driven by global tail risk rather than local tail...

We study implications of unpriced "granular measurement errors" -- idiosyncratic shocks to large firms that aren't well-diversified in market indices -- for asset pricing tests and propose alternative tests insensitive to them. We find stronger evidence of an intertemporal relation between the...

One of the objectives of the recent prudential regulation is to separate the computation of required capital for short- and long-run risks. This paper provides a coherent framework to define, compute, and update these components. We provide different examples, among which is the transition to...

We combine high-frequency stock returns with risk-neutralization to extract the daily common component of tail risks perceived by investors in the cross-section of firms. We find that our tail risk measure significantly predicts the equity premium, variance risk premium and realized moments of...

We provide a new monthly cross-sectional measure of stock market tail risk, defined as the average of the daily cross-sectional tail risk, rather than the tail risk of the pooled daily returns within a month. The former better captures monthly tail risk rather than merely the tail risk on...