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The Asset-Pricing Implications of Government Economic Policy Uncertainty

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  • Jonathan Brogaard

    (Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195)

  • Andrew Detzel

    (Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195)

Abstract

Using the news-based measure of Baker et al. [Baker SR, Bloom N, Davis SJ (2013) Measuring economic policy uncertainty. Working paper, Stanford University, Stanford, CA] to capture economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in the United States, we find that EPU positively forecasts log excess market returns. An increase of one standard deviation in EPU is associated with a 1.5% increase in forecasted three-month abnormal returns (6.1% annualized). Furthermore, innovations in EPU earn a significant negative risk premium in the Fama–French 25 size–momentum portfolios. Among the Fama–French 25 portfolios formed on size and momentum returns, the portfolio with the greatest EPU beta underperforms the portfolio with the lowest EPU beta by 5.53% per annum, controlling for exposure to the Carhart four factors as well as implied and realized volatility. These findings suggest that EPU is an economically important risk factor for equities. This paper was accepted by Wei Jiang, finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Brogaard & Andrew Detzel, 2015. "The Asset-Pricing Implications of Government Economic Policy Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 3-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:61:y:2015:i:1:p:3-18
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2014.2044
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    References listed on IDEAS

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