There is an ongoing debate in the literature about the apparent weak or negative relation between risk (conditional variance) and return (expected returns) in the aggregate stock market. We develop and estimate an empirical model based on the ICAPM to investigate this relation. Our primary...

We show in two ways that, ceteris paribus, investors require a positive return premium for taking aggregate distress risk. First, aggregate distress risk correlates positively with future excess stock market returns. Second, stocks that provide a poor hedge against aggregate distress risk have...

There is an ongoing debate in the literature about the apparent weak or negative relation between risk (conditional variance) and return (expected returns) in the aggregate stock market. We develop and estimate an empirical model based on the ICAPM to investigate this relation. Our primary...