This paper develops a new estimation procedure for characteristic-based factor models of security returns. We treat the factor model as a weighted additive nonparametric regression model, with the factor returns serving as time-varying weights, and a set of univariate non-parametric functions...

The nonparametric censored regression model, with a fixed, known censoring point (normalized to zero), is y=max[0,m(x)+e], where both the regression function m(x) and the distribution of the error e are unknown. This paper provides consistent estimators of m(x) and its derivatives with respect...