We investigate the implications of ambiguity aversion for retained earnings. We show that firms can eliminate distortions such as underinvestment by paying out earnings that maximizes shareholder wealth. We show that there is a negative relationship between ambiguity and retained earnings and...

In this paper, we provide evidence on two alternative mechanisms of interaction between returns and volatilities: the leverage effect and the volatility feedback effect. We stress the importance of distinguishing between realized volatility and implied volatility, and find that implied...

This paper proposes a novel methodology to construct optimal portfolios that incorporates the occurrence of systemic events. Investors maximize a modified Sharpe ratio conditional on a systemic event. We solve the portfolio allocation problem analytically under the absence of short-selling...

Expected returns vary when investors face time-varying investment opportunities. In theory, structural long-run risk models (Bansal and Yaron, 2004) and no-arbitrage affine models (Duffie, Pan, and Singleton, 2000) emphasize sources of risk that are not observable to the econometrician. We show...