We propose a new approach for estimating expected returns on individual stocks from a large number of firm characteristics. We treat expected returns as latent variables and apply the partial least squares (PLS) estimator that filters them out from the characteristics under an assumption that...

We theoretically analyze how index investing affects financial markets using a dynamic exchange economy with heterogeneous investors and two Lucas trees. We identify two effects of indexing: lockstep trading of stocks increases market volatility and stock return correlations but reduction in...

We consider five characteristics-based asset pricing models and study whether the non-market components of their stochastic discount factors (SDFs) are associated with macroeconomic shocks. Our analysis involves a comprehensive set of 127 macroeconomic variables and uses machine learning...