Liquidity Biases in Asset Pricing Tests

50 Pages Posted: 17 Mar 2006 Last revised: 17 Aug 2009

See all articles by Elena N. Asparouhova

Elena N. Asparouhova

University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business

Hendrik Bessembinder

W.P. Carey School of Business

Ivalina Kalcheva

University of Texas at San Antonio - Department of Finance

Date Written: August 2009

Abstract

Microstructure noise in security prices biases the results of empirical asset pricing specifications, particularly when security-level explanatory variables are cross-sectionally correlated with the amount of noise. We focus on tests of whether measures of illiquidity, which are likely to be correlated with the noise, are priced in the cross-section of stock returns, and document a significant upward bias in estimated return premia for an array of illiquidity measures in CRSP monthly return data. The upward bias is larger when illiquid securities are included in the sample, but persists even for NYSE/AMEX stocks after decimalization. We introduce a methodological correction to eliminate the biases that simply involves WLS rather than OLS estimation, and find evidence of smaller, but still significant, return premia for illiquidity after implementing the correction.

Keywords: Bid-Ask Spreads, Liquidity, Asset Pricing, Beta Estimation

JEL Classification: G1, G2

Suggested Citation

Asparouhova, Elena N. and Bessembinder, Hendrik (Hank) and Kalcheva, Ivalina, Liquidity Biases in Asset Pricing Tests (August 2009). Journal of Financial Economics (JFE), Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=891615

Elena N. Asparouhova

University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business ( email )

1645 E Campus Center Dr
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9303
United States

Hendrik (Hank) Bessembinder (Contact Author)

W.P. Carey School of Business ( email )

W. P. Carey School of Business
PO Box 873906
Tempe, AZ 85287-3906
United States

HOME PAGE: http://isearch.asu.edu/profile/2717225

Ivalina Kalcheva

University of Texas at San Antonio - Department of Finance

San Antonio, TX 78249
United States

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