Volume 66, Issue 1 p. 177-201

Asset Pricing with Garbage

ALEXI SAVOV

Savov is with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. I am especially grateful to John Cochrane and Pietro Veronesi, as well as to Editor Campbell Harvey, and an anonymous referee and associate editor. I thank Shelly Schneider from Franklin Associates for providing the data. I also thank George Constantinides, Douglas Diamond, Robert Dittmar, John Heaton, and participants in the 2008 WFA Annual Meetings and the Chicago Booth Student Brownbag. I received support from the Center for Research in Security Prices. An Internet Appendix is available at http://www.afajof.org/supplements.asp.

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First published: 06 January 2011
Citations: 122

ABSTRACT

A new measure of consumption, garbage, is more volatile and more correlated with stocks than the canonical measure, National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) consumption expenditure. A garbage‐based consumption capital asset pricing model matches the U.S. equity premium with relative risk aversion of 17 versus 81 and evades the joint equity premium‐risk‐free rate puzzle. These results carry through to European data. In a cross‐section of size, value, and industry portfolios, garbage growth is priced and drives out NIPA expenditure growth.

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