Equilibrium Variance Risk Premium in a Cost-free Production Economy
48 Pages Posted: 10 May 2018 Last revised: 10 Jan 2019
Date Written: January 5, 2018
Abstract
This paper extends the production-based equilibrium model studied by Zhang, Zhao, and Chang (2012), in which the stock return has constant volatility and the investor has a constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility function, into more general settings where the volatility of the stock return is stochastic and with jumps, and the investor has recursive preferences. The recursive preferences help us to separately find that the higher the elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS) and the relative risk aversion (RRA), the higher the equity and variance risk premiums. In equilibrium, risk premiums are determined by the diffusive and jump risks from the stock return and its volatility innovation. The empirical analysis documents that the production-based equilibrium model in a cost-free economy can well explain the equity premium puzzle and the term structure of the variance risk premium (VRP). In addition, our equilibrium model also explains the return predictability of VRP.
Keywords: Variance risk premium; term structure; equity premium puzzle; cost-free production economy; affine model.
JEL Classification: G12; G13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation