When rates of return on bonds are computed over extremely short holding periods, the ex post cross-sectional relationship between realized return and risk is linear. It is therefore possible, at any time, to extrapolate the cross-sectional relationship to a zero risk level, and thus to determine...

This paper traces the evolution of the concept of "mortgage yield", starting with the yield to prepayment which held sway until the mid-seventies, to the cash flow yield which dominated until the late eighties, to the option adjusted yield which is intellectually dominant today. It is argued...

This paper presents a simple model that provides insights about various measures of portfolio performance. The model explores three criticisms of these measures: (i) the inability to identify an appropriate benchmark portfolio; (ii) the possibility of overestimating risk because of market timing...

The usual approach to determine if market prices of uninsured bank liabilities reflect the risk of default is to regress the yield spread of bank debt against accounting measures of bank risk. To date these results have been mixed. Here we argue that this is because previous investigations lack...

Recent empirical findings suggest that equity returns are predictable. These findings document persistent cross-sectional and time series patterns in returns that are not predicted by extant theory, and are, therefore, often classified as anomalies. In this paper we synthesize the evidence on...