This article incorporates a time-varying severity of disasters into the hy-

We propose a dynamic risk-based model that captures the value premium. Firms are modeled as long-lived assets distinguished by the timing of cash flows. The stochastic discount factor is specified so that shocks to aggregate dividends are priced, but shocks to the discount rate are not. The model implies that growth firms covary more with the discount rate than do value firms, which covary more with cash flows. When calibrated to explain aggregate stock market behavior, the model accounts for the observed value premium, the high Sharpe ratios on value firms, and the poor performance of the CAPM. THIS PAPER PROPOSES A DYNAMIC RISK-BASED MODEL that captures both the high expected returns on value stocks relative to growth stocks, and the failure of the capital asset pricing model to explain these expected returns. The value premium, first noted by Graham and Dodd (1934), is the finding that assets with a high ratio of price to fundamentals (growth stocks) have low expected returns relative to assets with a low ratio of price to fundamentals (value stocks). This

We model the term structure of interest rates as resulting from the interaction between investor clienteles with preferences for specific maturities and risk-averse arbitrageurs. Because arbitrageurs are risk averse, shocks to clienteles ’ demand for bonds affect the term structure— and constitute an additional determinant of bond prices to current and expected future short rates. At the same time, because arbitrageurs render the term structure arbitrage-free, demand effects satisfy no-arbitrage restrictions and can be quite different from the underlying shocks. We show that the preferred-habitat view of the term structure generates a rich set of implications for bond risk premia, the effects of demand shocks and of shocks to short-rate expectations, the economic role of carry trades, and the transmission of monetary policy.

This paper presents a fully rational general equilibrium model that produces a timevarying exchange rate risk premium and solves the uncovered interest rate parity (U.I.P) puzzle. In this two-country model, agents are characterized by slow-moving external habit preferences derived from Campbell & Cochrane (1999). Endowment shocks are i.i.d and real risk-free rates are time-varying. Agents can trade across countries, but when a unit is shipped, only a fraction of the good arrives to the foreign shore. The model gives a rationale for the U.I.P puzzle: the domestic investor receives a positive exchange rate risk premium when she is more risk-averse than her foreign counterpart. Times of high riskaversion correspond to low interest rates. Thus, the domestic investor receives a positive risk premium when interest rates are lower at home than abroad. The model is both simulated and estimated. The simulation recovers the usual negative coefficient between exchange rate variations and interest rate differentials. When the iceberg-like trade cost is taken into account, the exchange rate variance produced is in line with its empirical counterpart. A nonlinear estimation of the model using consumption data leads to reasonable parameters when pricing the foreign excess returns of an American investor.

The term premium on nominal long-term bonds in the standard dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model used in macroeconomics is far too small and stable relative to empirical measures obtained from the data — an example of the “bond premium puzzle.” However, in models of endowment economies, researchers have been able to generate reasonable term premiums by assuming that investors have recursive Epstein-Zin preferences and face long-run economic risks. We show that introducing Epstein-Zin preferences into a canonical DSGE model can also produce a large and variable term premium without compromising the model’s ability to fit key macroeconomic variables. Long-run real and nominal risks further improve the model’s ability to fit the data with a lower level of household risk aversion.

This paper quantifies how variation in real economic activity and inflation in the U.S. influenced the market prices of level, slope, and curvature risks in U.S. Treasury markets. To accomplish this we develop a novel arbitrage-free DT SM in which macroeconomic risks – in particular, real output and inflation risks – impact bond investment decisions separately from information about the shape of the yield curve. Estimates of our preferred macro-DT SM over the twenty-three year period from 1985 through 2007 reveal that unspanned macro risks explained a substantial proportion of the variation in forward terms premiums. Unspanned macro risks accounted for nearly 90 % of the conditional variation in short-dated forward term premiums, with unspanned real economic growth being the key driving factor. Over horizons beyond three years, these effects were entirely attributable to unspanned inflation. Using our model, we also reassess some of Chairman Bernanke’s remarks on the interplay between term premiums, the shape of the yield curve, and macroeconomic activity.

The covariance between US Treasury bond returns and stock returns has moved considerably over time. While it was slightly positive on average in the period 1953— 2005, it was particularly high in the early 1980’s and negative in the early 2000’s. This paper specifies and estimates a model in which the nominal term structure of interest rates is driven by five state variables: the real interest rate, risk aversion, temporary and permanent components of expected inflation, and the covariance between nominal variables and the real economy. The last of these state variables enables the model to fit the changing covariance of bond and stock returns. Log nominal bond yields and term premia are quadratic in these state variables, with term premia determined mainly by the product of risk aversion and the nominal-real covariance. The concavity of the yield curve–the level of intermediate-term bond yields, relative to the average of short- and long-term bond yields–is a good proxy for the level of term premia. The nominal-real covariance has declined since the early 1980’s, driving down term premia.

Montreal, the CEPR meetings at Gerzensee, Econometric World Congress in London, EFA in Moscow, NYU Stern

Abstract not found

I survey work on the intersection between macroeconomics and finance. The challenge is to find the right measure of “bad times,” rises in the marginal value of wealth, so that we can understand high average returns or low prices as compensation for assets’ tendency to pay off poorly in “bad times.” I survey the literature, covering the time-series and cross-sectional facts, the equity premium, consumption-based models, general equilibrium models, and labor income/idiosyncratic risk approaches.