Firm size is an essential factor in examining the relation between returns and idiosyncratic volatilities. This paper documents that, when the idiosyncratic volatility is specified by firm size, the size-portfolio idiosyncratic volatility is statistically significant in explaining the future...

I propose a Capital Asset Pricing Model in which investor demand exhibits a speculative component. In equilibrium, investors' optimal trade-off between diversification and speculation generates predictable patterns for stocks with extreme book-to-market ratios. Consistent with the model...

The paper empirically investigates three different methods to construct factors and identifies some pitfalls that arise in the application of Fama-French’s three-factor model to the Pakistani stock returns. We find that the special features in Pakistan significantly affect size and value...

This paper analyzes the long-run dynamics between quality of institutions measured by recently developed Index of institutionalized social technologies, and Economic performance in the sample of 84 countries covering the period 2002-2006. Panel cointegration tests and FM OLS (Fully Modified OLS)...

This paper is a substantially revised version of our earlier working paper, "Truth and Robustness in Cross-country Growth Regressions." The most important revisions concern the handling of missing observations in the cross-country data set. In the earlier paper, these had been handled through...

Firm Profitability - Does it really matter for shareholder return or ROE (return on equity)? Does this question sound oxymoron and antithetic? Not really. On the contrary, evidence has surfaced that Returns on equity - based on the shareholders' equity accounted in the balance sheet - is not...

We propose a unified explanation for two seemingly disparate empirical findings: the negative abnormal returns of distressed stocks, and of small growth stocks. Based on a counterintuitive result relating option prices to jump risk (Merton 76), we show via an investment valuation model that...