The Total Risk Premium Puzzle

59 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2019

See all articles by Oscar Jorda

Oscar Jorda

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; University of California, Davis - Department of Economics

Moritz Schularick

University of Bonn - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Alan M. Taylor

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Date Written: March 2019

Abstract

The risk premium puzzle is worse than you think. Using a new database for the U.S. and 15 other advanced economies from 1870 to the present that includes housing as well as equity returns (to capture the full risky capital portfolio of the representative agent), standard calculations using returns to total wealth and consumption show that: housing returns in the long run are comparable to those of equities, and yet housing returns have lower volatility and lower covariance with consumption growth than equities. The same applies to a weighted total-wealth portfolio, and over a range of horizons. As a result, the implied risk aversion parameters for housing wealth and total wealth are even larger than those for equities, often by a factor of 2 or more. We find that more exotic models cannot resolve these even bigger puzzles, and we see little role for limited participation, idiosyncratic housing risk, transaction costs, or liquidity premiums.

Keywords: Consumption-based asset pricing, Equity premium, housing premium, risk aversion

JEL Classification: E44, G12, G15, N20

Suggested Citation

Jorda, Oscar and Schularick, Moritz and Taylor, Alan M., The Total Risk Premium Puzzle (March 2019). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP13595, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3360062

Oscar Jorda (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco ( email )

101 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States
4159742691 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/economists/oscar-jorda/

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States
530-5549382 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://old.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/jorda/

Moritz Schularick

University of Bonn - Department of Economics ( email )

Bonn
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Alan M. Taylor

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States
530-752-1572 (Phone)
530-752-9382 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/amtaylor/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

HOME PAGE: http://nber.org

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://cepr.org

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