Time-Varying Betas and Cross-Sectional Return-Risk Relation: Evidence from the UK

P. Fraser, F. Hamelink, Martin Hoesli and B. MacGregor

Working Papers from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Universite de Geneve-

Abstract: The seminal study by Fama and MacBeth (1973) initiated a stream of papers testing for the cross-sectional relation between return and risk. The debate wether beta is a valid measure of risk has been renimated by Fama and French (1992) and subsequent studies. Rather than focusing on exogenous variables that have a larger explanatory power than an asset's beta in cross sectional tests, we assume the matrix of variances-covariances to follow a time varying ARCH process. Using monthly data from the UK market from February 1975 to December 1996, we compare the cross sectional return-risk relations obtained with an unconditional specification for asset's betas to those obtained when the estimated betas are based on an ARCH model. We also investigate the Pettengill, Sundaram and Mathure (1995) approach, which allows a negative cross sectional return-risk relation in periods in which the market portfolio yields a negative return relative to the risk free rate. These tests are also carried out on samples pertaining to a specific month and on samples from which a particular month is removed. Our result suggest that CAPM holds in downward moving markets than in upward moving markets hence beta is a more appropriate measure of risk in bear markets.

Keywords: ECONOMETRICS; FINANCIAL MARKET (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C20 G10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Time-varying betas and the cross-sectional return-risk relation: evidence from the UK (2004)
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:ehecge:2000.03

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Universite de Geneve- Suisse; Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Universite de Geneve, faculte des SES. 102 Bb. Carl-Vogt CH - 1211 Geneve 4, Suisse. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().