The Federal Reserve Board eagle logo links to Board's home page

International Finance Discussion Papers
The International Finance Discussion Papers logo links to the International Finance Discussion Papers home page Portfolio Inertia and the Equity Premium
Christopher Gust and David López-Salido
2009-984  (November 2009)

Abstract:  We develop a DSGE model in which aggregate shocks induce endogenous movements in risk. The key feature of our model is that households rebalance their financial portfolio allocations infrequently, as they face a fixed cost of transferring cash across accounts. We show that the model can account for the mean returns on equity and the risk-free rate, and generates countercyclical movements in the equity premium that help explain the response of stock prices to monetary shocks. The model is consistent with empirical evidence documenting that unanticipated changes in monetary policy have important effects on equity prices through changes in risk.

Full paper(277 KB PDF) | Full paper (screen reader version)

Keywords
Limited financial market participation, infrequent portfolio adjustment, equity premium

PDF files: Adobe Acrobat Reader   ZIP files: PKWARE


Home | IFDPs | List of 2009 IFDPs
Accessibility | Contact Us
Last update: November 10, 2009