The Long-Run Risks Model And Aggregate Asset Prices: An Empirical Assessment

The long-run risks model of asset prices explains stock price variation as a response to persistent fluctuations in the mean and volatility of aggregate consumption growth, by a representative agent with a high elasticity of intertemporal substitution. This paper documents several empirical difficulties for the model as calibrated by Bansal and Yaron (BY, 2004) and Bansal, Kiku, and Yaron (BKY, 2007a). BY's calibration counterfactually implies that long-run consumption and dividend growth should be highly persistent and predictable from stock prices.