When Uncertainty and Volatility Are Disconnected: Implications for Asset Pricing and Portfolio Performance

Yacine Ait-Sahalia, Felix Matthys (), Emilio Osambela and Ronnie Sircar ()
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Emilio Osambela: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/emilio-osambela.htm

No 2021-063, Finance and Economics Discussion Series from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Abstract: We analyze an environment where the uncertainty in the equity market return and its volatility are both stochastic and may be potentially disconnected. We solve a representative investor's optimal asset allocation and derive the resulting conditional equity premium and risk-free rate in equilibrium. Our empirical analysis shows that the equity premium appears to be earned for facing uncertainty, especially high uncertainty that is disconnected from lower volatility, rather than for facing volatility as traditionally assumed. Incorporating the possibility of a disconnect between volatility and uncertainty significantly improves portfolio performance, over and above the performance obtained by conditioning on volatility only.

Keywords: Risk Aversion; Stochastic Uncertainty; Stochastic Volatility; Uncertainty Aversion; Volatility and Uncertainty Disconnect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 p.
Date: 2021-09-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fmk, nep-ore and nep-rmg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: When Uncertainty and Volatility Are Disconnected: Implications for Asset Pricing and Portfolio Performance (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2021-63

DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2021.063

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