It is often useful to price assets and other random payoffs by reference to other observed prices rather than construct full-fledged economic asset pricing models. This approach breaks down if one cannot find a perfect replicating portfolio. We impose weak economic restrictions to derive...

We present a consumption-based model that explains the procyclical variation of stock prices, the long-horizon predictability of excess stock returns, and the countercyclical variation of stock market volatility. Our model has an i.i.d. consumption growth driving process, and adds a slow-moving...

In this paper we argue that financial data are a useful proving ground for macroeconomic models, and we explore the channels that link asset market data to such models. We use Hansen and Jagannathan's bounds on the mean and standard deviation of discount factors to survey several asset pricing...

I examine a factor pricing model for stock returns. The factors are returns on physical investment, inferred from investment data via a production function. I examine the model's ability to explain variation in expected returns across asset and over time. The model is not rejected. It performs...

We solve a model with two i.i.d. Lucas trees. Although the corresponding one-tree model produces a constant price-dividend ratio and i.i.d. returns, the two-tree model produces interesting asset-pricing dynamics. Investors want to rebalance their portfolios after any change in value. Because the...

The new-Keynesian, Taylor-rule theory of inflation determination relies on explosive dynamics. By raising interest rates in response to inflation, the Fed induces ever-larger inflation or deflation, unless inflation jumps to one particular value on each date. However, economics does not rule out...

The new-Keynesian, Taylor-rule theory of inflation determination relies on explosive dynamics. By raising interest rates in response to inflation, the Fed induces ever-larger inflation or deflation, unless inflation jumps to one particular value on each date. However, economics does not rule out...

I survey the statistical evidence on average stock returns, and the economic theories that try to explain average stock returns. The statistical evidence suggests a period of low returns, followed by a slow reversion to a high long-term average return. However that evidence is quite uncertain....

We present a consumption-based model that explains the procyclical variation of stock prices, the long-horizon predictability of excess stock returns, and the countercyclical variation of stock market volatility. Our model has an i.i.d. consumption growth driving process, and adds a slow-moving...

If stocks go up, investors may want to rebalance their portfolios. But investors cannot all rebalance. Expected returns may need to change so that the average investor is still happy to hold the market portfolio despite its changed composition. In this way, simple market clearing can give rise...