Date of Award
Summer 8-2020
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Financial Economics
Department
Economics and Finance
Major Professor
Sudha Krishnaswami
Second Advisor
Luca Pezzo
Third Advisor
Walter J. Lane
Fourth Advisor
Arja H. Turunen-Red
Abstract
Even though they are parsimonious, financial intermediary pricing models deliver an impressive performance in the cross-section of expected returns. The premise of the theory behind such models is that intermediaries better represent the marginal investor because of their competency level as traders and because they are less exposed to frictions. In addition, researchers hint at market frictions contributing to the performance of factor models, whether they are theory-based or reduced-form. Motivated by the lack of empirical evidence, we study the performance of factor models conditional on frictions. First, we examine 13 frictions individually and find that they lack the ability to explain the cross-section of re- turns. Then, we create an index to represent the level of market frictions at each point in time. Importantly, We find that frictions collectively impact the performance of factor models. Consistent with the theories, we document that the performance of theory-based and reduced-form models differ depending on the level of frictions. In addition, we find evidence that intermediary-based models outperform household-based models, especially in periods of high frictions, as suggested by the theory. Our findings hold when using different specifications of the frictions index.
Recommended Citation
Alfnaisan, Naif, "The Impact of Frictions on Asset Pricing" (2020). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2801.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2801
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.