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Cross-sectional return dispersion and the equity premium

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  • Maio, Paulo

Abstract

In this paper, I examine whether stock return dispersion (RD) provides useful information about future stock returns. RD consistently forecasts a decline in the excess market return at multiple horizons, and compares favorably with alternative predictors used in the literature. The out-of-sample performance of RD tends to beat the alternative predictors, and is economically significant as indicated by the certainty equivalent gain associated with a trading investment strategy. RD has greater forecasting power for big and growth stocks compared to small and value stocks, respectively. I discuss a theoretical mechanism giving rise to the negative correlation between RD and the equity premium.

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  • Maio, Paulo, 2016. "Cross-sectional return dispersion and the equity premium," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 87-109.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finmar:v:29:y:2016:i:c:p:87-109
    DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2015.09.001
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    Cited by:

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    4. Atanasov, Victoria, 2021. "Unemployment and aggregate stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Riza Demirer & Rangan Gupta & Zhihui Lv & Wing-Keung Wong, 2019. "Equity Return Dispersion and Stock Market Volatility: Evidence from Multivariate Linear and Nonlinear Causality Tests," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, January.
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    7. McMillan, David G., 2019. "Predicting firm level stock returns: Implications for asset pricing and economic links," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 333-351.
    8. Fei, Tianlun & Liu, Xiaoquan & Wen, Conghua, 2019. "Cross-sectional return dispersion and volatility prediction," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    9. Jiawei Du, 2020. "A Research on Cross-sectional Return Dispersion and Volatility of US Stock Market during COVID-19," Papers 2007.11546, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.
    10. Maio, Paulo & Xu, Danielle, 2020. "Cash-flow or return predictability at long horizons? The case of earnings yield," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 172-192.
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    12. Alexandridis, Antonios K. & Apergis, Iraklis & Panopoulou, Ekaterini & Voukelatos, Nikolaos, 2023. "Equity premium prediction: The role of information from the options market," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Ilan Cooper & Paulo Maio, 2019. "Asset Growth, Profitability, and Investment Opportunities," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(9), pages 3988-4010, September.
    14. Grobys, Klaus & Heinonen, Jari-Pekka & Kolari, James, 2018. "Return dispersion risk in FX and global equity markets: Does it explain currency momentum?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 264-280.
    15. Ciner, Cetin, 2022. "Predicting the equity market risk premium: A model selection approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    16. Shi, Qi, 2023. "The RP-PCA factors and stock return predictability: An aligned approach," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. McMillan, David G., 2019. "Stock return predictability: Using the cyclical component of the price ratio," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 228-242.
    18. Eriksen, Jonas N., 2019. "Cross-sectional return dispersion and currency momentum," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 91-108.
    19. Kuntz, Laura-Chloé, 2020. "Beta dispersion and market timing," Discussion Papers 46/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.

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    Keywords

    Asset pricing; Stock return dispersion; Cross-sectional variance of stock returns; Predictability of stock returns; Out-of-sample predictability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

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