Consumer Sentiment, Durable Consumption, and Stock Returns

Using the Michigan Survey of Consumers, we provide evidence that consumers' beliefs about current and future aggregate durable expenditure predict expected returns. We rationalize this finding through an asset pricing model with recursive preferences over non-durable and durable goods and belief formation through Bayesian learning. We estimate the model to match standard macroeconomic and financial moments. Expectations about future consumption growth enter the stochastic discount factor of the economy through consumers' intertemporal marginal rate of substitution. This generates the predictability of beliefs for all future asset returns