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Risk, Uncertainty and Asset Prices

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Author Info
Bekaert, Geert
Engstrom, Eric
Xing, Yuhang

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Abstract

We identify the relative importance of changes in the conditional variance of fundamentals (which we call "uncertainty") and changes in risk aversion ("risk" for short) in the determination of the term structure, equity prices and risk premiums. Theoretically, we introduce persistent time-varying uncertainty about the fundamentals in an external habit model. The model matches the dynamics of dividend and consumption growth, including their volatility dynamics and many salient asset market phenomena. While the variation in dividend yields and the equity risk premium is primarily driven by risk, uncertainty plays a large role in the term structure and is the driver of counter-cyclical volatility of asset returns.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 5947.

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Date of creation: Nov 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5947

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Related research
Keywords: equity premium; excess volatility; external habit; stochastic risk aversion; term structure; time variation in risk and return; uncertainty;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing
G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Geert Bekaert & Marie Hoerova & Martin Scheicher, 2009. "What Do Asset Prices Have to Say About Risk Appetite and Uncertainty?," Working Paper Series 1037, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. George M. Constantinides & Anisha Ghosh, 2008. "Asset Pricing Tests with Long Run Risks in Consumption Growth," NBER Working Papers 14543, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Hanno Lustig & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Adrien Verdelhan, 2008. "The Wealth-Consumption Ratio," NBER Working Papers 13896, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Bank for International Settlements, 2006. "The recent behaviour of financial market volatility," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 29, 11. [Downloadable!]
  5. Lieven Baele & Geert Bekaert & Koen Inghelbrecht, 2007. "The determinants of stock and bond return comovements," Research series 200711-27, National Bank of Belgium. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Tim Bollerslev & Natalia Sizova & George Tauchen, 2009. "Volatility in Equilibrium: Asymmetries and Dynamic Dependencies," CREATES Research Papers 2009-05, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
  7. Tim Bollerslev & Tzuo Hao & George Tauchen, 2008. "Expected Stock Returns and Variance Risk Premia," CREATES Research Papers 2008-48, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Møller, Stig Vinther, 2008. "Habit persistence: Explaining cross-sectional variation in returns and time-varying expected returns," Finance Research Group Working Papers F-2008-04, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Business Studies. [Downloadable!]
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