This study addresses the impact of equity market liquidity on Canadian economic growth and investigates how consumer attitudes/sentiments affect the dynamic macro-liquidity relationship. Using various market liquidity proxies (e.g., illiquidity ratio and open interest of equity futures) while...

Firm Profitability - Does it really matter for shareholder return or ROE (return on equity)? Does this question sound oxymoron and antithetic? Not really. On the contrary, evidence has surfaced that Returns on equity - based on the shareholders' equity accounted in the balance sheet - is not...

The Great Financial Crisis of 2007-09 confirmed the vital importance of advancing our understanding of macrofinancial linkages, the two-way interactions between the real economy and the financial sector. The crisis was a bitter reminder of how sharp fluctuations in asset prices, credit and...

We propose a unified explanation for two seemingly disparate empirical findings: the negative abnormal returns of distressed stocks, and of small growth stocks. Based on a counterintuitive result relating option prices to jump risk (Merton 76), we show via an investment valuation model that...

We propose to measure growth opportunities by firms' exposure to idiosyncratic volatility news. Theoretically, we show that the value of a growth option increases in idiosyncratic volatility but its response to volatility of aggregate shocks can be either positive or negative depending on option...

We propose a unified explanation for two seemingly disparate empirical findings: the negative abnormal returns of distressed stocks, and of small growth stocks. Based on a counterintuitive result relating option prices to jump risk (Merton (1976)), we show via an investment valuation model that...

Many market participants continuously dole out advice that higher economic growth results in higher investment returns. This tendency persists even though there has been much investment research providing evidence to the contrary. With the help of some examples and data presented by others, the...

This paper documents that the increase in public debt can lead to higher dividend payout to shareholders, which suggests public debt can be a strong cash flow predictor which helps better predict future stock returns. Specifically, the higher public debt-to-GDP ratio can predict both higher...

Firm size is an essential factor in examining the relation between returns and idiosyncratic volatilities. This paper documents that, when the idiosyncratic volatility is specified by firm size, the size-portfolio idiosyncratic volatility is statistically significant in explaining the future...

Fractional trading (FT)—the ability to trade less than a full share—allows low-budget retail investors to trade high-priced stocks. This paper quantifies FT's impact on retail ownership and trading of high-priced stocks by exploiting its sequential introduction at four brokerage firms since...