Two main approaches are commonly used to empirically evaluate linear factor pricing models: regression and SDF methods, with centred and uncentred versions of the latter. We show that unlike standard two-step or iterated GMM procedures, single-step estimators such as continuously updated GMM...

Even though a multi-factor linear asset pricing model can be equivalently represented in a Beta or in a stochastic discount factor (SDF) form, its inferential efficiency and pricing accuracy features may differ when estimated by the generalized method of moments (GMM), both in small and in large...

We examine the pricing performance of out-of-sample pricing factors in the broad cross-section of currency returns. To this end, we develop a methodology for estimating empirical minimum-dispersion stochastic discount factors (SDFs) under constraints on maximum position leverage. Under leverage...

Cross-sectional asset pricing tests with GMM can generate spuriouslyhigh explanatory power for factor models when the moment conditions are specifiedsuch that they allow the estimated factor means to substantially deviate from theobserved sample averages. In fact, by shifting the weights on the...

We build an equilibrium model to explain why stock return predictability concentrates in bad times. The key feature is that investors use different forecasting models, and hence assess uncertainty differently. As economic conditions deteriorate, uncertainty rises and investors' opinions...

This paper examines both intertemporal and contemporaneous relationship between excess US Treasury futures returns and realized moments - realized volatility, realized skewness and realized kurtosis using high-frequency data. We find realized skewness to have significant negative effect on...

This paper is concerned with statistical inference and model evaluation in possibly misspecified and unidentified linear asset-pricing models estimated by maximum likelihood and one-step generalized method of moments. Strikingly, when spurious factors (that is, factors that are uncorrelated with...

In this paper we investigate the predictive power of cross-sectional volatility, skewness and kurtosis for future stock returns. Adding to the work of Maio (2016), who finds cross-sectional volatility to forecast a decline in the equity premium with high predictive power in-sample as well as...

Two main approaches are commonly used to empirically evaluate linear factor pricing models: regression and stochastic discount factor (SDF) methods, with centered and uncentered versions of the latter. We show that unlike standard two-step or iterated generalized method of moments (GMM)...

Three concepts: stochastic discount factors, multi-beta pricing and mean-variance efficiency, are at the core of modern empirical asset pricing. This chapter reviews these paradigms and the relations among them, concentrating on conditional asset-pricing models where lagged variables serve as...