How Much Stock Return Predictability Can We Expect From an Asset Pricing Model?

9 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2009 Last revised: 28 Apr 2010

See all articles by Guofu Zhou

Guofu Zhou

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School

Date Written: April 27, 2010

Abstract

Stock market predictability is of considerable interest in both academic research and investment practice. Ross (2005) provides a simple and elegant upper bound on the predictive regression R-squared that R^2 <= (1 R_f)^2 Var(m) for a given asset pricing model with kernel m, where R_f is the risk-free rate of return. In this paper, we tighten this bound by a squared factor of the correlation between the default pricing kernel and the state variables of the economy. Since the correlation can be substantially smaller than one, our bound can be much tighter than Ross's. An empirical application illustrates that while Ross's bound is not binding, our bound does.

Keywords: Predictive Regression, R-squared, Forecasting Stock Return

JEL Classification: C22, G11, G12

Suggested Citation

Zhou, Guofu, How Much Stock Return Predictability Can We Expect From an Asset Pricing Model? (April 27, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1478233 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1478233

Guofu Zhou (Contact Author)

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School ( email )

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