We find that gold has not performed particularly well compared to other assets. However, there is a place for gold-related assets in institutional portfolios separate from commodities and energy equities. The role for gold lies in its diversification and macroeconomic hedging benefits.We examine...

I quantify the causal impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on time-varying expected returns. The exogenous timing of macroeconomic announcements provides an instrument for uncertainty. Using daily measures of macroeconomic uncertainty and expected equity market returns, I find announcements...

Previous research finds that machine learning methods predict short-term return variation in the cross-section of stocks, even when these methods do not impose strict economic restrictions. However, without such restrictions, the models' predictions fail to generalize in a number of important...

This paper documents a durable increase in the cross-sectoral dispersion of earnings expectations during the COVID-19 crisis. The rise in dispersion of earnings forecasts can be explained by the introduction of lockdown measures, which had a particularly adverse impact on the travel sector....

Why does the short-term slope of the yield curve predict recessions? We explore the economic forces underlying Treasury yields' fluctuations and highlight the roles of a tight monetary policy stance and expectations of lower inflation in predicting downturns. While the monetary policy stance is...

As defined contribution (DC) plans have grown and have increasingly become the primary retirement savings vehicle, asset allocators are increasingly interested in incorporating illiquid private assets in these retirement funds to offer participants access to investment portfolios and...

We decipher monetary policy shocks by directly connecting them to the stance a central bank expresses in its communication about different topics. To measure topic-specific central bank stances, we apply textual analysis techniques to press conference statements of the European Central Bank...

Financialization of commodity markets has been a broadly discussed topic in recent years. However, its implications for commodity investors have not yet been fully explored. This paper concentrates on the macroeconomic determinants of commodity returns in financialized and non-financialized...

We conduct a decomposition for the stock market return by incorporating the information from 124 macro variables. Using factor analysis, we estimate six common factors and run a VAR containing these factors and financial variables such as the market dividend yield and the T-bill rate. Including...

This paper documents a durable increase in the cross-sectoral dispersion of earnings expectations during the COVID-19 crisis. An empirical analysis shows that the rise in dispersion of earnings forecasts can be explained by the introduction of lockdown measures, which had a particularly adverse...