IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ysm/wpaper/amz2540.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cross-sectional Variation in Stock Returns: Liquidity and Idiosyncratic Risk

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Spiegel
  • Xiaotong Wang

Abstract

The roles played by idiosyncratic risk and liquidity in determining stock returns have recently received a great deal of attention. However, recent empirical tests have not examined the interaction between these two factors. As others have shown (and this paper confirms) stocks idiosyncratic risk and liquidity are negatively correlated. To what extent then is each variable responsible for the observed cross sectional patterns in stock returns? Overall, using monthly data, the paper finds that stock returns are increasing with the level of idiosyncratic risk and decreasing in a stock's liquidity. However, while both liquidity and idiosyncratic risk play a role in determining returns, the impact of idiosyncratic risk is much stronger and often eliminates liquidity's explanatory power. The point estimates indicate that a one standard deviation change in idiosyncratic risk has between 2.5 and 8 times the impact of a corresponding change in liquidity on cross sectional expected returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Spiegel & Xiaotong Wang, 2005. "Cross-sectional Variation in Stock Returns: Liquidity and Idiosyncratic Risk," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2540, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Mar 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:wpaper:amz2540
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.som.yale.edu/icfpub/publications/2540.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Acharya, Viral V. & Pedersen, Lasse Heje, 2005. "Asset pricing with liquidity risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 375-410, August.
    2. Brennan, Michael J. & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1996. "Market microstructure and asset pricing: On the compensation for illiquidity in stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 441-464, July.
    3. Nelson, Daniel B, 1991. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Asset Returns: A New Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 347-370, March.
    4. Baker, Malcolm & Stein, Jeremy C., 2004. "Market liquidity as a sentiment indicator," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 271-299, June.
    5. Ghysels, Eric & Santa-Clara, Pedro & Valkanov, Rossen, 2005. "There is a risk-return trade-off after all," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 509-548, June.
    6. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2003. "Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 642-685, June.
    7. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    8. Heaton, John & Lucas, Deborah J, 1996. "Evaluating the Effects of Incomplete Markets on Risk Sharing and Asset Pricing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(3), pages 443-487, June.
    9. Easley, David & Kiefer, Nicholas M & O'Hara, Maureen, 1997. "One Day in the Life of a Very Common Stock," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(3), pages 805-835.
    10. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    11. Stoll, Hans R, 1978. "The Pricing of Security Dealer Services: An Empirical Study of NASDAQ Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1153-1172, September.
    12. Brennan, Michael J. & Chordia, Tarun & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1998. "Alternative factor specifications, security characteristics, and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 345-373, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Spiegel & Xiaotong Wang, 2005. "Cross-sectional Variation in Stock Returns: Liquidity and Idiosyncratic Risk," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2540, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Mar 2006.
    2. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2013. "Market Liquidity—Theory and Empirical Evidence ," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1289-1361, Elsevier.
    3. Geert Bekaert & Campbell R. Harvey & Christian Lundblad, 2007. "Liquidity and Expected Returns: Lessons from Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(6), pages 1783-1831, November.
    4. Andres, Christian & Cumming, Douglas & Karabiber, Timur & Schweizer, Denis, 2014. "Do markets anticipate capital structure decisions? — Feedback effects in equity liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 133-156.
    5. Chordia, Tarun & Sarkar, Asani & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2005. "The Joint Dynamics of Liquidity, Returns, and Volatility Across Small and Large Firms," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt6z81z2wc, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    6. Daniel Chai & Robert Faff & Philip Gharghori, 2013. "Liquidity in asset pricing: New Australian evidence using low-frequency data," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(2), pages 375-400, August.
    7. Chen, Xiaoyu & Chiang, Thomas C., 2016. "Stock returns and economic forces—An empirical investigation of Chinese markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 45-65.
    8. Ben-Rephael, Azi & Kadan, Ohad & Wohl, Avi, 2008. "The diminishing liquidity premium," CFS Working Paper Series 2008/52, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    9. Donadelli, Michael & Prosperi, Lorenzo, 2012. "On the role of liquidity in emerging markets stock prices," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 320-348.
    10. Khelifa Mazouz & Yuliang Wu & Rabab Ebrahim & Abhijit Sharma, 2023. "Dividend policy, systematic liquidity risk, and the cost of equity capital," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 839-876, April.
    11. Brennan, Michael J. & Chordia, Tarun & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar & Tong, Qing, 2012. "Sell-order liquidity and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 523-541.
    12. Frömmel, Michael & Han, Xing & Li, Youwei & Vigne, Samuel A., 2022. "Low liquidity beta anomaly in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    13. Sergio Bianchi & Massimiliano Frezza, 2018. "Liquidity, Efficiency and the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 19(2), pages 375-404, November.
    14. Florackis, Chris & Gregoriou, Andros & Kostakis, Alexandros, 2011. "Trading frequency and asset pricing on the London Stock Exchange: Evidence from a new price impact ratio," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3335-3350.
    15. Anthony W. Lynch & Sinan Tan, 2004. "Explaining the Magnitude of Liquidity Premia: The Roles of Return Predictability, Wealth Shocks and State-Dependent Transaction Costs," NBER Working Papers 10994, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2003. "Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 642-685, June.
    17. Thomas Paul & Thomas Walther & André Küster-Simic, 2022. "Empirical analysis of the illiquidity premia of German real estate securities," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 36(2), pages 203-260, June.
    18. Lischewski, Judith & Voronkova, Svitlana, 2012. "Size, value and liquidity. Do They Really Matter on an Emerging Stock Market?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 8-25.
    19. José Miralles Marcelo & María Miralles Quirós & José Miralles Quirós, 2004. "The Pricing of Systematic Liquidity Risk in Stock Markets," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 20, pages 162-176, December.
    20. Eckbo, B. Espen & Norli, Oyvind, 2005. "Liquidity risk, leverage and long-run IPO returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 1-35, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ysm:wpaper:amz2540. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/smyalus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.