The Long Run Drivers Of Stock Returns: Total Payouts And The Real Economy

HFA Padded
HFA Staff
Published on
Updated on

The Long Run Drivers of Stock Returns: Total Payouts and the Real Economy by Roger G. Ibbotson

Stock Return Estimation Methods

  • Historical Risk Premiums: measure over various markets and time periods (Ibbotson & Sinquefield)
  • Consensus forecasts: individual investors , economists , and institutional inves tors , e.g., Welch (2001)/(2004), Fernandez Lopez
  • Demand: degree of investor risk avers ion and other characteristics , e.g., Ibbotson, Siegel & Diermeier (1984), Mehra & Prescott (1985), Mehra (2003), Constantinides (2003), Kaplan (2016)
  • Real economy (supply): stock market is constrained to be part of the economy, e.g., Diermeier, Ibbotson & Siegel (1984), Shiller (2000), Fama & French (2002), Ibbotson & Chen (2003)

Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation Study (1976/1977)

  • Ibbotson/Sinquefield (1976/1977) conduct study of drivers of long-run asset class returns, using the S&P Composite as the measure of large cap stocks (similar to this study)
  • Key return building blocks :
    • Equity risk premium
    • Horizon premium
    • Default premium
    • Real interest rates
    • Inflation

Stock Returns

Stock Returns

Stock Returns

The Supply of Stock Returns

Long-Run Stock Returns: Participating in the Real Economy

  • Ibbotson & Chen (2003) decompose his torical return of s tocks into different supply components : dividends, earnings, book value, and GDP per capita growth
  • Most of return is attributable to the supply of corporate fundamentals (e.g., dividends and earnings etc.) and real economic productivity (i.e., GDP per capita)
  • P/E growth and changing factor shares only account for a small portion of his torical returns
  • This next page updates original 1926-2000 sample to include 1871-2014, (without s tock buybacks )

Stock Returns

Stock Returns

Literature Review

  • Drivers of Rise of Buybacks:
    • SEC rule 10b-18 in 1982 provided a safe harbor for firms to conduct share buybacks without a suspicion of share price manipulation (e.g., Grullonand Michaely, 2002)
    • Tax benefits (e.g., Grullonand Michaely, 2002)
    • Greater flexibility than dividends (e.g., Guayand Harford, 2000)
    • Alternative motivations: undervaluation/signaling, management of “dilution effects”, EPS management (e.g., Allen and Michaely, 2003, and Brav, Campbell, Michaely2005)
  • International Evidence on Buybacks:
    • Increasing evidence of international importance of buybacks: European Union (von Eijeand Megginson, 2008), Japan (Tong et al, 2012), Australia (Brown and O’Day, 2006)

See full slides below.

HFA Padded

The post above is drafted by the collaboration of the Hedge Fund Alpha Team.

Leave a Comment