We present evidence that the predictive ability of the yield spread for short-run inflation is related to its predictive ability for economic activity. In particular, an increase in the slope of the term structure predicts an increase in output growth and a decrease in inflation of equal...

The advent of the single currency within the European Union provides a natural experiment to measure how the cost of equity changes as globalization takes place. This is because the launch of the single currency has led to the elimination of currency-related restrictions on the composition of...

The paper examines whether or not the convergence of European economies towards Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the launch of the single currency leads to an increase in stock market integration through a reduction in investment barriers. We estimate a conditional asset pricing model,...

Higher initial margin requirements are associated with lower subsequent stock market volatility during normal and bull periods, but show no relationship during bear periods. Higher margins are also negatively related to the conditional mean of stock returns, apparently because they reduce...

This paper shows that during the 1990s the process of gradual economic and monetary integration, which eventually led to EMU, also resulted in a reduction in the equity cost of capital. A similar reduction was not present in the three EU countries which chose not to enter the Eurozone. There was...

In this paper we investigate the relation of the value/growth anomaly with the anomaly on corporate financing activities. We find that value/growth and external financing indicators could be related in capturing stock returns attributable to sales growth. However, external financing indicators...