{"title":"Certainty of uncertainty for asset pricing","authors":"Fuwei Jiang , Jie Kang , Lingchao Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.jempfin.2024.101501","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Uncertainty is known to be crucial in asset pricing, yet evidence from a comprehensive analysis of various uncertainty measures remains sparse. By machine learning, we construct a novel economic uncertainty index derived from a heterogeneous range of uncertainty measures and investigate its predictability of stock returns. Our composite uncertainty index exhibits robust in- and out-of-sample predictability of stock market returns over the one- to 12-month horizon. The predictive power stems from the volatility-orthogonal components of individual uncertainty measures and becomes more pronounced during high uncertainty and high sentiment periods. The predictability of our economic uncertainty index aligns with theoretical frameworks linking uncertainty to future investment, cash flows, and market expectations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":15704,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Empirical Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 101501"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Empirical Finance","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927539824000367","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Uncertainty is known to be crucial in asset pricing, yet evidence from a comprehensive analysis of various uncertainty measures remains sparse. By machine learning, we construct a novel economic uncertainty index derived from a heterogeneous range of uncertainty measures and investigate its predictability of stock returns. Our composite uncertainty index exhibits robust in- and out-of-sample predictability of stock market returns over the one- to 12-month horizon. The predictive power stems from the volatility-orthogonal components of individual uncertainty measures and becomes more pronounced during high uncertainty and high sentiment periods. The predictability of our economic uncertainty index aligns with theoretical frameworks linking uncertainty to future investment, cash flows, and market expectations.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Empirical Finance is a financial economics journal whose aim is to publish high quality articles in empirical finance. Empirical finance is interpreted broadly to include any type of empirical work in financial economics, financial econometrics, and also theoretical work with clear empirical implications, even when there is no empirical analysis. The Journal welcomes articles in all fields of finance, such as asset pricing, corporate finance, financial econometrics, banking, international finance, microstructure, behavioural finance, etc. The Editorial Team is willing to take risks on innovative research, controversial papers, and unusual approaches. We are also particularly interested in work produced by young scholars. The composition of the editorial board reflects such goals.