Researchers typically employ cross-sectional regression methods to identify firm-level characteristics that help to explain the cross-section of average stock returns. I develop a straightforward approach for testing whether the coefficient estimates produced by these methods satisfy the pricing...

I analyze the cross-section of covariance risk for individual stocks using a new type of multivariate volatility model in which firm characteristics serve as time-varying loadings on fundamental factors. The evidence points to strong linkages between firm characteristics and covariance risk, and...

Prior research finds no discernible relation between the realized value premium (the spread between the returns on value and growth stocks) and forecasts of real GDP growth produced by professional economists. This finding appears to be driven by an unmodeled structural break. During the...

I propose a regime-switching generalization of instrumented principal components analysis (IPCA) that yields new insights about the relation between characteristics, factor loadings, and expected stock returns. Using a two-regime specification, I find evidence of a high-volatility regime in...