We provide empirical evidence for the incomplete information model advanced by Merton (1987), which shows that the relation between idiosyncratic volatility (IV) and expected return is conditional on the firm's investor base. Using four different proxies for investor base, we show that...

Hazard stocks are opposite of lottery stocks. We proxy hazard stocks with the minimum daily idiosyncratic return over the past month, a negative shock labelled IMIN, and examine the relation between hazard stocks and expected returns. The literature on lottery-stocks implies that investors...