This paper proposes a flexible framework for analyzing the joint time series properties of the level and volatility of expected excess stock returns. An unobservable dynamic factor is constructed as a nonlinear proxy for the market risk premia with its first moment and conditional volatility driven by a latent Markov variable. The model allows for the possibility that the risk-return relationship may not be constant across the Markov states or over time. We find a distinct business cycle pattern in the conditional expectation and variance of the monthly value-weighted excess return. Typically, the conditional mean decreases a couple of months before or at the peak of expansions, and increases before the end of recessions. On the other hand, the conditional volatility rises considerably during economic recessions. With respect to the contemporaneous risk-return dynamics, we find an overall significantly negative relationship. However, their correlation is not stable, but instead varies according to the stage of the business cycle. In particular, around the beginning of recessions, volatility increase substantially, reflecting great uncertainty associated with these periods, while expected returns decrease, anticipating a decline in earnings. Thus, around economic peaks there is a negative relationship between conditional expectation and variance. However, toward the end of a recession, expected returns are at its highest value as an anticipation of the economic recovery, and volatility is still very high in anticipation of the end of the contraction. That is, the risk-return relation is positive around business cycle troughs. This time-varying behavior also holds for non-contemporaneous correlations of these two conditional moments.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of New York in its series Staff Reports with number
61.
References listed on IDEAS 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.:
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.)