Unemployment fluctuations and the predictability of currency returns

Federico Calogero Nucera

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2017, vol. 84, issue C, 88-106

Abstract: We investigate whether unemployment fluctuations generate predictability in the cross-section of currency excess returns. We find that currencies with lower growth in the unemployment rate appreciate while currencies with higher growth in the unemployment rate depreciate. As a result, an investment strategy that involves investing in the former and short selling of the latter produces positive and sizable excess returns. Asset pricing tests show that the predictability is not driven by exposure to traditional risk factors such as global equity risk, global foreign exchange volatility risk, and downside risk but is related instead to an idiosyncratic unemployment risk.

Keywords: Currency portfolio returns; Unemployment fluctuations; Predictability; Risk-premia; Asset pricing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E44 F31 F44 G12 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:84:y:2017:i:c:p:88-106

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.07.007

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