Constructing common-factor portfolios

In this paper we construct common-factor portfolios using a novel linear transformation of standard factor models extracted from large data sets of asset returns. The simple transformation proposed here keeps the basic properties of the usual factor transformations, although some new interesting properties are further attached to them. Some theoretical advantages are shown to be present. Also, their practical importance is confirmed in two applications: the performance of common-factor portfolios are shown to be superior to that of asset returns and factors commonly employed in the finance literature.

On the welfare costs of business-cycle fluctuations and economic-growth variation in the 20th century

Lucas(1987) has shown a surprising result in business-cycle research: the welfare cost of business cycles are very small. Our paper has several original contributions. First, in computing welfare costs, we propose a novel setup that separates the effects of uncertainty stemming from business-cycle uctuations and economic-growth variation. Second, we extend the sample from which to compute the moments of consumption: the whole of the literature chose primarily to work with post-WWII data. For this period, actual consumption is already a result of counter-cyclical policies, and is potentially smoother than what it otherwise have been in their absence. So, we employ also pre-WWII data. Third, we take an econometric approach and compute explicitly the asymptotic standard deviation of welfare costs using the Delta Method. Estimates of welfare costs show major diferences for the pre-WWII and the post-WWII era. They can reach up to 15 times for reasonable parameter values = 0:985, and = 5. For example, in the pre-WWII period (1901-1941), welfare cost estimates are 0.31% of consumption if we consider only permanent shocks and 0.61% of consumption if we consider only transitory shocks. In comparison, the post-WWII era is much quieter: welfare costs of economic growth are 0.11% and welfare costs of business cycles are 0.037% the latter being very close to the estimate in Lucas (0.040%). Estimates of marginal welfare costs are roughly twice the size of the total welfare costs. For the pre-WWII era, marginal welfare costs of economic-growth and business-cycle uctuations are respectively 0.63% and 1.17% of per-capita consumption. The same gures for the post-WWII era are, respectively, 0.21% and 0.07% of per-capita consumption.

Implicações monotônicas das teorias de finanças : uma aplicação no mercado brasileiro

Muitas teorias de finanças implicam em relações monotônicas nos retornos esperados em função de variáveis financeiras, tais como a hipótese de preferência por liquidez e o Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). No entanto, estudos empíricos que testam este tipo de relação não são muitos explorados, principalmente no mercado brasileiro. A contribuição científica neste trabalho é utilizar ativos domésticos e verificar se no mercado nacional estas implicações monotônicas das teorias de finanças são sustentadas empiricamente. Fizemos uma revisão dos testes presentes na literatura para verificar a monotonicidade: os testes t, Bonferroni utilizado por Fama (1984), Wolak (1989) e o teste MR, de Patton e Timmermann (2010). Utilizamos a técnica de bootstrap e incluímos na análise dos resultados os testes “Up” e “Down”. No teste para verificar a hipótese de preferência por liquidez foram utilizadas as séries da taxa referencial de swaps DI pré-fixada para vencimentos de até 1 ano. Os testes convergem e encontram evidências estatísticas de relação monotônica entre os retornos e os prazos de vencimento. No caso do teste no CAPM, foram utilizadas as séries históricas do preço das ações que compuseram o índice IBrX. Contrário ao esperado, para os dados amostrados, os testes não sustentaram a implicação teórica de monotonicidade entre os retornos médios dos portfólios e os betas de mercado ordenados crescentemente. Este resultado é de grande relevância para o mercado brasileiro.

Prêmio de risco de investimento estrangeiro

Este estudo estima o prêmio de risco de investimento estrangeiro. Nós testamos se ações com maior covariância entre seus retornos e períodos ruins (quando o investimento estrangeiro em carteira na Bovespa é negativo) são mais caras e, portanto, apresentam menores retornos. A metodologia consiste num procedimento de dois passos: as sensibilidades aos fatores de risco são estimadas a partir de regressões em séries de tempo, então, estes coeficientes estimados são utilizados como variáveis explicativas na regressão em dados em painel. É utilizado o fator excesso de retorno do mercado, previsto pelo modelo CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model), como variável de controle. Os resultados indicam que o prêmio de risco de investimento estrangeiro é nulo quando a participação do investidor estrangeiro no estoque de ações listadas na Bovespa está em torno de 25%. Entretanto, à medida que aumenta a participação desse tipo de investidor, o prêmio de risco passa a ser significativo e positivo, atingindo 6,8% ao ano, quando a participação do investidor estrangeiro alcança metade do estoque de ações.

Potencial de redução na demanda por energia elétrica no Rio de Janeiro através do modelo de preço variável

A energia elétrica é fundamental para o desenvolvimento de qualquer país e o Brasil atravessa atualmente uma crise energética devido ao baixo nível de seus reservatórios, então diversos temas sobre o sistema elétrico brasileiro vêm à tona a fim de dar mais confiabilidade e evitar futuros racionamentos, permitindo assim que a escassez de energia não seja um impeditivo para o crescimento econômico do país. O presente estudo calcula o potencial de redução de demanda por energia elétrica no estado do Rio de Janeiro através do modelo de preço variável, que consiste em ter tarifas distintas para o horário de ponta e fora de ponta. Este é um entre diversos programas de eficiência energética existentes no mundo atualmente. Para tal cálculo as principais premissas são a projeção de demanda máxima coincidente, o número de consumidores por classe e a elasticidade preço da demanda por energia elétrica. A partir dai são sugeridos três cenários de penetração de AMI (Advanced Metering infrastructure), e três cenários de variação de preço, chegando assim a nove resultados possíveis.

A consumption CAPM with a reference level

We study an intertemporal asset pricing model in which a representative consumer maximizes expected utility derived from both the ratio of his consumption to some reference level and this level itself. If the reference consumption level is assumed to be determined by past consumption levels, the model generalizes the usual habit formation specifications. When the reference level growth rate is made dependent on the market portfolio return and on past consumption growth, the model mixes a consumption CAPM with habit formation together with the CAPM. It therefore provides, in an expected utility framework, a generalization of the non-expected recursive utility model of Epstein and Zin (1989). When we estimate this specification with aggregate per capita consumption, we obtain economically plausible values of the preference parameters, in contrast with the habit formation or the Epstein-Zin cases taken separately. All tests performed with various preference specifications confirm that the reference level enters significantly in the pricing kernel.

A influência da alavancagem financeira na construção do custo de capital próprio: um estudo voltado para o mercado brasileiro

No contexto do Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), este trabalho investiga a significância da alavancagem financeira na construção do risco sistemático. Testamos com dados brasileiros o procedimento de desalavancagem e realavancagem do beta comumente realizado por analistas financeiros para a construção do custo de capital próprio de empresas não negociadas em bolsa de valores. Os resultados apontam que a inclusão do tax shield na fórmula de desalavancagem/realavancagem e a utilização de valores de mercado produzem resultados mais robustos, ao passo que as divisões por setores possuem pouca capacidade como segmentadores de classe de risco sistemático.

The equity premium puzzle: um estudo de viés de seleção dos ativos

As empresas de capital aberto, listadas em bolsa de valores, são naturalmente aquelas que vieram apresentando retornos superiores perante às demais empresas do seu setor. Assim, será que o viés de seleção desses ativos in uencia sigini cativamente no resultado do Equity Premium Puzzle, primordialmente lançado por Mehra and Prescott (1985)? É essa pergunta que este trabalho investiga e conclui que, sim, de fato pode haver uma in uência desse viés em explicar o Puzzle . Para isso, iremos gerar uma economia cujos ativos, por hipótese, sejam preci cados de acordo com o fator estocástico de desconto (SDF) baseado em consumo, ou seja, os modelos conhecidos como CCAPM (Consumption Capital Asset Pricing Model). Assim, essa economia será gerada via simulação de Monte Carlo, de forma que iremos construir um índice benchmark dessa economia, nos quais participariam apenas os ativos que foram historicamente mais rentáveis. Adota-se tal metodologia em paralelo à forma como os reais benchmarks são construidos (S&P 500, Nasdaq, Ibovespa), em que neles participam, basicamente, as empresas de capital aberta mais negociadas em Bolsa de Valores, que são, comumente, as empresas historicamente mais rentáveis da economia. Em sequência, iremos realizar a estimação via GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) de um dos parâmetros de interesse de uma economia CCAPM: o coe ciente de aversão relativa ao risco (CRRA). Finalmente, os resultados obtidos são comparados e analisados quanto ao viés de estimação.

Learning in peer-to-peer markets: evidence from Airbnb

Peer-to-peer markets are highly uncertain environments due to the constant presence of shocks. As a consequence, sellers have to constantly adjust to these shocks. Dynamic Pricing is hard, especially for non-professional sellers. We study it in an accommodation rental marketplace, Airbnb. With scraped data from its website, we: 1) describe pricing patterns consistent with learning; 2) estimate a demand model and use it to simulate a dynamic pricing model. We simulate it under three scenarios: a) with learning; b) without learning; c) with full information. We have found that information is an important feature concerning rental markets. Furthermore, we have found that learning is important for hosts to improve their profits.

Imperfectly credible disinflation under endogenous time-ependent pricing

The real effects of an imperfectly credible disinflation depend critically on the extent of price rigidity. Therefore, the study of how policymakers’ credibility affects the outcome of an announced disinflation should not be dissociated from the analysis of the determinants of the frequency of price adjustments. In this paper we examine how credibility affects the outcome of a disinflation in a model with endogenous timedependent pricing rules. Both the initial degree of price ridigity, calculated optimally, and, more notably, the changes in contract length during disinflation play an important role in the explanation of the effects of imperfect credibility. We initially evaluate the costs of disinflation in a setup where credibility is exogenous, and then allow agents to use Bayes rule to update beliefs about the “type” of monetary authority that they face. In both cases, the interaction between the endogeneity of time-dependent rules and imperfect credibility increases the output costs of disinflation, but the pattern of the output path is more realistic in the case with learning.

Imperfectly credible disinflation under endogenous time-dependent pricing

The real effects of an imperfectly credible disinflation depend critically on the extent of price rigidity. Therefore, the study of how policymakers’ credibility affects the outcome of an announced disinflation should not be dissociated from the analysis of the determinants of the frequency of price adjustments. In this paper we examine how the policymaker’s credibility affects the outcome of an announced disinflation in a model with endogenous time-dependent pricing rules. Both the initial degree of price ridigity, calculated optimally, and, more notably, the changes in contract length during disinflation play an important role in the explanation of the effects of imperfect credibility. We initially evalute the costs of disinflation in a setup where credibility is exogenous, and then allow agents to update beliefs about the “type” of monetary authority that they face. We show that, in both cases, the interaction between the endogeneity of time-dependent rules and imperfect credibility increases the output costs of disinflation.

Income inequality in a job-search model with heterogeneous time preferences

This paper explores the use of an intertemporal job-search model in the investigation of within-cohort and between-cohort income inequality, the latter being generated by the heterogeneity of time preferences among cohorts of homogenous workers and the former by the cross-sectional turnover in the job market. It also offers an alternative explanation for the empirically-documented negative correlation between time preference and labor income. Under some speciÖc distributions regarding wage offers and time preferences, we show how the within-cohort and between-cohort Gini coe¢ cients of income distribution can be calculated, and how they vary as a function of the parameters of the model.

The role of no-arbitrage on forecasting: lessons from a parametric term structure model

Parametric term structure models have been successfully applied to innumerous problems in fixed income markets, including pricing, hedging, managing risk, as well as studying monetary policy implications. On their turn, dynamic term structure models, equipped with stronger economic structure, have been mainly adopted to price derivatives and explain empirical stylized facts. In this paper, we combine flavors of those two classes of models to test if no-arbitrage affects forecasting. We construct cross section (allowing arbitrages) and arbitrage-free versions of a parametric polynomial model to analyze how well they predict out-of-sample interest rates. Based on U.S. Treasury yield data, we find that no-arbitrage restrictions significantly improve forecasts. Arbitrage-free versions achieve overall smaller biases and Root Mean Square Errors for most maturities and forecasting horizons. Furthermore, a decomposition of forecasts into forward-rates and holding return premia indicates that the superior performance of no-arbitrage versions is due to a better identification of bond risk premium.

Endogenous time-dependent rules and the costs of disinflation with imperfect credibility

This paper examines the output effects of monetary disinflation in a model with endogenous time-dependent pricing rules and imperfect credibility of the disinflation policy. We find that these features interact to generate an additional effect on top f the ones obtained with either endogenous time-dependent rules (Bonomo and Carvalho, 2003) or imperfect credibility (Ball, 1995) in isolation. This results in higher output costs of monetary disinflation.

A time-varying markov-switching model for economic growth

This paper investigates economic growth’s pattern of variation across and within countries using a Time-Varying Transition Matrix Markov-Switching Approach. The model developed follows the approach of Pritchett (2003) and explains the dynamics of growth based on a collection of different states, each of which has a sub-model and a growth pattern, by which countries oscillate over time. The transition matrix among the different states varies over time, depending on the conditioning variables of each country, with a linear dynamic for each state. We develop a generalization of the Diebold’s EM Algorithm and estimate an example model in a panel with a transition matrix conditioned on the quality of the institutions and the level of investment. We found three states of growth: stable growth, miraculous growth, and stagnation. The results show that the quality of the institutions is an important determinant of long-term growth, whereas the level of investment has varying roles in that it contributes positively in countries with high-quality institutions but is of little relevance in countries with medium- or poor-quality institutions.