This paper shows that the stylized fact of average mutual fund underperformance documented in the literature stems from expansion periods when funds have statistically significant negative risk-adjusted performance and not recession periods when risk-adjusted fund performance is positive. These...

In this paper, I analyze the role of credit risk in explaining cross-sectional stock returns. I utilize Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads to construct a credit risk factor-mimicking portfolio, which I label as Distressed-minus-Stable (DMS). As CDS contracts are written mainly on large firms, our...

In a 2001 interview in Forbes, Warren Buffett suggested that the ratio of the market value of publicly traded stocks to economic output could identify potential equity market mispricings. This paper investigates the return-predictive characteristics of the market value of equity-to-gross...

We forecast quarterly US stock returns using eighteen predictor variables both individually and in multivariate regressions, with the former also used in forecast combinations. Using rolling and recursive approaches, we consider a range of statistical and economic evaluation measures. We...

We find that consumption risk is lower in states that implement counter-cyclical fiscal policies. Moreover, firms whose investor base are concentrated in counter-cyclical states have lower stock returns, along with firms that relocate their headquarters to a counter-cyclical state. Therefore,...

We study return predictability of the Dow Jones Industrial Average indices from 1900 to 2009. We find strong evidence that time-varying return predictability is driven by changing market conditions, consistent with the implications of the adaptive markets hypothesis. During market crashes, no...

Small businesses tend to be owned by wealthy households. Such entrepreneur households also own a large share of U.S. stock market wealth. Fluctuations in entrepreneurs' hunger for risk could therefore help explain time variation in the equity premium. The paper suggests an entrepreneurial...