IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jfinqa/v61y2026i3p1216-1246_6.html

Equity Premium Predictability over the Business Cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Moench, Emanuel
  • Stein, Tobias

Abstract

Equity returns follow a pronounced V-shape pattern around the onset of recessions. They sharply drop into negative territory just before business cycle peaks and then strongly recover as the recession unfolds. Recessions are typically preceded by a flat yield curve. Probit models relying on the term spread as a predictor therefore time the beginning of recessions well. We show that model-implied recession probabilities based on the term spread strongly improve equity premium prediction in- and out-of-sample and outperform several benchmark predictors. Correcting for a structural break in the mean of the term spread in 1982 further strengthens the forecast performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Moench, Emanuel & Stein, Tobias, 2026. "Equity Premium Predictability over the Business Cycle," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(3), pages 1216-1246, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:61:y:2026:i:3:p:1216-1246_6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022109025102093/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Díaz, Juan D. & Hansen, Erwin & Cabrera, Gabriel, 2023. "Gold risk premium estimation with machine learning methods," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    3. Odendahl, Florens & Rossi, Barbara & Sekhposyan, Tatevik, 2023. "Evaluating forecast performance with state dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 237(2).
    4. C. Boucher & A. Jasinski & S. Tokpavi, 2023. "Conditional mean reversion of financial ratios and the predictability of returns," Post-Print hal-04352991, HAL.
    5. Boucher, C. & Jasinski, A. & Tokpavi, S., 2023. "Conditional mean reversion of financial ratios and the predictability of returns," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    6. Chatelais, Nicolas & Stalla-Bourdillon, Arthur & Chinn, Menzie D., 2023. "Forecasting real activity using cross-sectoral stock market information," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. Nicolas Chatelais & Arthur Stalla-Bourdillon & Menzie D. Chinn, 2022. "Macroeconomic Forecasting using Filtered Signals from a Stock Market Cross Section," NBER Working Papers 30305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cup:jfinqa:v:61:y:2026:i:3:p:1216-1246_6. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jfq .

    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.