Date of Submission

Spring 2013

Academic Program

Economics

Project Advisor 1

Olivier Giovannoni

Project Advisor 2

Alex Chung

Abstract/Artist's Statement

The equity premium has been high in the past century. However, is it a good indicator for investors to invest in the stock market? Economists have suggested a wide rage of variables to estimate the equity premium, mostly before 2002. Some indicate that equity premium is higher than expected, while others argue that equity premium is not predictable. This paper provides insights into this debate, summarizes explanations on equity premium puzzles, and explores determinants of equity premium. After digging out the possible factors affecting equity premium, I check the predictability of equity premium by performing time series test and Granger causality test, and provide practical explanation for the result. The result shows that the current equity premium is predictable and is significantly affected the dividend yield, the momentum, the Federal Reserve balances, and the government deficit (each represents fundamentals, behavioral finance, monetary policy, and fiscal policy accordingly). Comparatively, fundamental variables have more significant impacts on equity premium than macroeconomic variables and behavioral components do. Especially, monetary policy and fiscal policy all display significant powers during special events. For example, Federal Reserve balances have significant causal impact on equity premium during times of QE series. It is interesting to note that while the average equity premium for the last century was around 7%, the average equity premium since the 21th century has been slightly below zero. This finding indicates that the equity premium puzzle might have not existed for the recent ten years.

Distribution Options

Access restricted to On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.

Bard Off-campus Download

Bard College faculty, staff, and students can login from off-campus by clicking on the Off-campus Download button and entering their Bard username and password.

COinS