Explaining Returns with Cash-Flow Proxies

Stock returns are correlated with contemporaneous earnings growth, dividend growth, future real activity, and other cash-flow proxies. The correlation between cash-flow proxies and stock returns may arise from association of cash-flow proxies with one-period expected returns, cash-flow news, and/or expected-return news. We use Campbell's (1991) return decomposition to measure the relative importance of these three effects in regressions of returns on cash-flow proxies. In some of the popular specifications, variables that are motivated as proxies for cash-flow news also track a nontrivial proportion of one-period expected returns and expected-return news. As a result, the R2 from a regression of returns on cash-flow proxies may overstate or understate the importance of cash-flow news as a source of return variance.

Large-sample estimation and inference in multivariate single-index models

By optimizing index functions against different outcomes, we propose a multivariate single-index model (SIM) for development of medical indices that simultaneously work with multiple outcomes. Fitting of a multivariate SIM is not fundamentally different from fitting a univariate SIM, as the former can be written as a sum of multiple univariate SIMs with appropriate indicator functions. What have not been carefully studied are the theoretical properties of the parameter estimators. Because of the lack of asymptotic results, no formal inference procedure has been made available for multivariate SIMs. In this paper, we examine the asymptotic properties of the multivariate SIM parameter estimators. We show that, under mild regularity conditions, estimators for the multivariate SIM parameters are indee

A Small-Sample Study of the New-Keynesian Macro Model

This paper presents a small-sample study of the threeequation- three variable New-Keynesian macro model. While the point estimates imply that the Fed has been stabilizing inflation fluctuations since 1980, our econometric analysis suggests considerable uncertainty regarding the stance of the Fed against inflation. We show that, if we add first order autocorrelation to the error terms of the New- Keynesian model, this is only marginally rejected.

Technical inefficiency and public capital in US States: A stochastic frontier approach

This paper estimates a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of all 48 contiguous U.S. states in the period 1970-1983, to attempt to measure and explain changes in technical efficiency. The model allows technical inefficiency to vary over time, and inefficiency effects to be a function of a set of explanatory variables in which the level and composition of public capital plays an important role. Results indicated that U.S. state inefficiency levels were significantly and positively correlated with the ratio of public capital to private capital. The proportion of public capital devoted to highways is negatively correlated with technical inefficiency, suggesting that not only the level but also the composition of public capital influenced state efficiency.Public capital productivity, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier approach

CEO Turnover and Relative Performance Evaluation

This paper examines whether CEOs are fired after bad firm performance caused by factors beyond their control. Standard economic theory predicts that corporate boards filter out exogenous industry and market shocks to firm performance when deciding on CEO retention. Using a new hand-collected sample of 1,590 CEO turnovers from 1993 to 2001, we document that CEOs are significantly more likely to be dismissed from their jobs after bad industry and bad market performance. A decline in the industry component of firm performance from its 75th to its 25th percentile increases the probability of a forced CEO turnover by approximately 50 percent. This finding is robust to controls for firm-specific performance. The result is at odds with the prior empirical literature which showed that corporate boards filter exogenous shocks from CEO dismissal decisions in samples from the 1970s and 1980s. Our findings suggest that the standard CEO turnover model is too simple to capture the empirical relation between performance and forced CEO turnovers, and we evaluate several extensions to the standard model.

Family dissolution and precautionary savings: an empirical analysis

The main research question of this paper is whether or not the risk of family disruption has an impact on the consumption/saving decisions of households. Although little empirical work exists in this area, often presenting indirect evidence, the theory is divided over the effect of family risk over saving and wealth accumulation. By using data from the Italian Survey on Households Income and Wealth, we build a probabilistic model to assess the probability of marital splitting, and then we insert this probability as a distinct or interacted regressor, in a statistically consistent way, into a linear model of consumption. Furthermore, we study the differential behaviour, in terms of consumption/saving choices, of couples experiencing marital splitting over the subsequent two years. The main result of our analysis is that family disruption risk generates precautionary savings, reducing current consumption. In fact, according to our estimates, on average, the risk of divorce generates an amount of additional yearly precautionary savings of around 800 euros at constant prices of the year 2000, which represents 11% of overall household savings.Family disruption risk; Precautionary saving; Risk sharing

Groth effects of inflation in Europe: How low is too low, how high is too high?

This paper reassesses the impact of in°ation on long-term growth for a panel of 14 EU countries. While previous research focuses on a linear nexus or allows for a piecewise linear relationship with one single threshold, we take account of a more complex relationship. We use a theoretical framework that allows for an explicit distinction between level and growth e®ects of in°ation. The empirical estimates for the full EU sample con¯rm the hypothesis that the relationship between in°ation and growth is positive for very low in°ation rates (i.e. below an estimate of 1.6%), insigni¯cant thereafter and negative for high, two-digit in°ation levels. The estimate of the in°ation level that divides the insigni¯cant from the negative e®ect is found to be higher in the group of traditional cohesion countries than for the rest of the sample.

FINITE SAMPLE PROPERTIES OF NONSTATIONARY BINARY RESPONSE MODELS: A MONTE CARLO AND RESPONSE SURFACE ANALYSIS

This paper investigates the finite sample distributions of maximum likelihood estimators for nonstationary probit models. We find that, analogous to standard OLS models, commonly used tests statistics almost always reject the null hypothesis of no relationship between xt and a latent yt, even when they are, in fact, generated by independent random walks. However, if cointegrating relationships are present in the model, parameter distributions are better behaved and standard z and Wald test statistics are consistent.Binary choice, Probit models, Nonstationay processes, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C250,