Linking factor portfolio construction to cross-sectional regressions of security returns on standardized factor exposures leads to a transparent and investable perspective on factor performance. Under capitalization-weighting, multivariate regression coefficients translate to portfolio returns...

Generalized additive models (GAM) are multivariate nonparametric regressions for non-Gaussian responses including binary and count data. We propose a spline-backfitted kernel (SBK) estimator for the component functions. Our results are for weakly dependent data and we prove oracle efficiency....