What are the determinants of firms' market value? We incorporate quasi-fixed labor and intangible capital inputs into the neoclassical model of investment, and estimate the contribution of each input for explaining firms' market value. Using the generalized method of moments, we estimate that,...

Motivated from investment-based asset pricing, we propose a new factor model that consists of the market factor, a size factor, an investment factor, and a return-on-equity factor. The new model [i] outperforms the Carhart (1997) four-factor model in pricing portfolios formed on earnings...

Motivated from investment-based asset pricing, we propose a new factor model consisting of the market factor, a size factor, an investment factor, and a return on equity factor. The new factor model outperforms the Carhart four-factor model in pricing portfolios formed on earnings surprise,...

This paper compares the Hou, Xue, and Zhang (2014) q-factor model and the Fama and French (2014a) five-factor model on both conceptual and empirical grounds. It raises four concerns with the motivation of the five-factor model: The internal rate of return often correlates negatively with the...

The neoclassical investment model matches cross-sectional asset prices both in first differences and in levels. With ten book-to-market deciles as the testing portfolios, the investment model largely matches the Tobin's Q spread and the average return spread across the extreme deciles. The...

The standard dynamic investment model fails to explain the value spread, which is the difference in the market equity-to-capital ratio between extreme book-to-market deciles. Even when the model manages to fit the valuation ratios across some testing assets, the implied expected return errors...

A new methodology for equity valuation arises from the perspective of managers' supply of capital assets. Under q-theory, managers optimally adjust the supply of assets to changes in their market value. The first-order condition of investment then provides a valuation equation that infers asset...

My dissertation aims at understanding the economic determinants of the cross-section of equity returns. It contains three chapters. Chapter One constructs a dynamic general equilibrium production economy to explicitly link expected stock returns to firm characteristics such as firm size and the...

Self-service technology (SST) has been widely adopted by service oriented companies in different settings, such as hotel, restaurant, and airport. Although customers are less hesitant about using SST nowadays than before, how to increase customer satisfaction and repeat patronage remains an...