Time-varying leverage driven by common shocks to firm asset returns introduces a factor structure in idiosyncratic equity return volatilities (IVOL). In a standard dynamic capital structure model in which the CAPM holds for asset returns, we show that three factors explain the IVOL...

Standard factor models imply a linear relationship between expected returns on assets and their factor exposures. We provide the asymptotic properties of factor-model-based expected return estimators for individual assets and show that exploiting this linear relationship leads to precision gains...