Liquidity Costs, Idiosyncratic Volatility and Expected Stock Returns
42 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2021 Last revised: 10 Nov 2022
Date Written: August 15, 2015
Abstract
This paper considers liquidity as an explanation for the positive association between expected idiosyncratic volatility (IV) and expected stock returns. Liquidity costs may affect the stock returns, through bid-ask bounce and other microstructure-induced noise, which will affect the estimation of IV. We use a novel method (developed by Weaver, 1991) to eliminate microstructure influences from stock closing price-based returns and then estimate IV. We show that there is a premium for IV in value-weighted portfolios, but this premium is less strong after correcting returns for microstructure bias. We further show that this premium is driven by liquidity in the prior month after correcting returns for microstructure noise. The pricing results from equally-weighted portfolios indicate that IV does not predict returns either before or after controlling for liquidity costs. These findings are robust after controlling for common risk factors as well as analysing double-sorted portfolios based on IV and liquidity.
Keywords: liquidity, asset pricing, idiosyncratic volatility, expected returns
JEL Classification: G120
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation