Efficient Tests of Stock Return Predictability

John Campbell and Motohiro Yogo

No 1972, Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: Empirical studies have suggested that stock returns can be predicted by ï¬ nancial variables such as the dividend-price ratio. However, these studies typically ignore the high persistence of predictor variables, which can make ï¬ rst-order asymptotics a poor approximation in ï¬ nite samples. Using a more accurate asymptotic approximation, we propose two methods to deal with the persistence problem. First, we develop a pretest that determines when the conventional t-test for predictability is misleading. Second, we develop a new test of predictability that results in correct inference regardless of the degree of persistence and is efficient compared to existing methods. Applying our methods to US data, we ï¬ nd that the dividend-price ratio and the smoothed earningsprice ratio are sufficiently persistent for conventional inference to be highly misleading. However, we ï¬ nd some evidence for predictability using our test, particularly with the earnings-price ratio. We also ï¬ nd evidence for predictability with the short-term interest rate and the long-short yield spread, for which the conventional t-test leads to correct inference.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2002/HIER1972.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2002/HIER1972.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2002/HIER1972.pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Efficient tests of stock return predictability (2006)
Working Paper: Efficient tests of stock return predictability (2006)
Working Paper: Efficient Tests of Stock Return Predictability (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:harver:1972

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().