This paper deals with the estimation of the risk–return trade-off. We use a MIDAS model for the conditional variance and allow for possible switches in the risk–return relation through a Markov-switching specification. We find strong evidence for regime changes in the risk–return relation....

Some recent studies of conditional factor models do not specify conditioning information but use data from small windows to estimate the time series of conditional alphas and betas. In this paper, we propose a nonparametric method using an optimal window to estimate time-varying coefficients. In...

We first provide a cleaner and comprehensive out-of-sample test of three competing asset-pricing models. Our results suggest that the value and momentum factors have pervasive pricing power. Motivated by Garlappi and Yan (2011), we then examine if there is a unifying risk-based explanation for...

Contrary to the hypothesis that informed short sellers increase their positions prior to earnings announcements, we find that short activity declines in the pre-announcement period compared with activity in non-announcement time. This statistically significant, but economically modest, decline...

This paper investigates the informational effect of trading and market segmentation on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) paying particular attention to the recent phenomenon: fleeting orders.11Consistent with Hasbrouck and Saar (2009), fleeting orders are defined as non-marketable limit...

In this paper we develop a discrete-time pricing model for European options where the log-return of the underlying asset is subject to discontinuous regime shifts in its mean and/or volatility which follow a Markov chain. The model allows for multiple regime shifts whose risk cannot be hedge out...

We study how professional forecasters form equity market expectations based on a new micro-level dataset which includes rich cross-sectional information about individual characteristics. We focus on testing whether agents rely on the beliefs of others, i.e., consensus expectations, when forming...

This paper investigates whether the risk-free rate may explain the movements observed in the conditional second moments of asset returns. Original results are derived, within the C-CAPM framework, that attest the existence of a channel connecting these seemingly unrelated quantities. The...

This paper provides empirical evidence that combinations of option implied and time series volatility forecasts that are conditional on current information are statistically superior to individual models, unconditional combinations, and hybrid forecasts. Superior forecasting performance is...

This paper examines financial contagion, that is, whether the cross-market linkages in financial markets increase after a shock to a country. We use a new measure of local dependence (introduced by Tjøstheim and Hufthammer (2013)) to study the contagion effect. The central idea of the new...