The Cross Section of Expected Returns and Amortized Spreads

The cross-sectional relationship between expected returns and amortized spreads is studied in an overlapping-generations economy with an average investor. The commonality in liquidity is directly incorporated into the asset-pricing relation. In a static equilibrium, the amortized spread of an asset is related to its expected return through four channels; namely: the equilibrium zero-beta rate, the market risk premium, a level effect, and an incremental sensitivity effect. Although both are present over the entire period, their relative importance shifts from a significant level to a significant sensitivity effect from the earlier to most recent sub-period in the Canadian stock market.