Working Paper

Does idiosyncratic risk matter: another look

Abstract: We show that the equal-weighted average stock volatility analyzed by Goyal and Santa-Clara (GS, 2003) forecasts stock returns because of its co-movements with stock market volatility. Moreover, contrary to the positive relation hypothesized by GS and many others, we find that the value-weighted average stock volatility is negatively related to future stock returns when combined with stock market volatility. This puzzling result reflects the fact that the alue-weighted average stock volatility is negatively correlated with the consumption-wealth ratio, and its predictive power vanishes if we control for the latter in the forecasting equation. The idiosyncratic volatility proposed by GS thus provides no information beyond the forecasting variables advocated by Guo (2003)2:26 PM 10/17/03

Keywords: Stock market; Asset pricing;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2003

Number: 2003-025