Real Cash Flow Expectations and Asset Prices

Using survey forecasts, we find that systematic errors in expectations of long-term inflation and short-term nominal earnings growth are the main driver of prices and return puzzles for bonds and stocks. We demonstrate this by deriving and testing a single necessary and sufficient condition based on accounting identities. Errors in expectations of short-term inflation and long-term nominal earnings growth do not play a role in either asset market. Because of these systematic errors, real cash flow expectations closely match aggregate bond and stock prices, leaving little room for time-varying discount rates. These expectations also accurately match key return puzzles for bonds and stocks: the rejection of the expectations hypothesis and stock return predictability. These results are consistent with a simple model in which agents believe the persistences of inflation and nominal earnings growth are magnified versions of the objective persistences.