Das Thema Risikoprämie für Aktien (Equity Risk Premium) wird hier zum ersten Mal verständlich erklärt. Die Risikoprämie für Aktien stellt einen Renditeausgleich dar für das erhöhte Risiko, das ein Anleger bei der Investition in Aktien eingeht, im Vergleich zu einer Investition in risikofreie Staatsanleihen. Die Risikoprämie ist zwar von der Theorie her einfach, jedoch in der Praxis ein sehr komplexes Phänomen. Für Finanzentscheidungen ist es von größter Bedeutung, daß man das Prinzip der Risikoprämie versteht und es anwenden kann. Cornell erläutert das Thema Schritt für Schritt sehr anschaulich und ohne terminologischen Ballast. Zunächst wird die Risikoprämie im Zusammenhang mit der Geschichte des Aktienmarktes betrachtet. Der Haussemarkt der 90er dient dabei als Fallstudie. Cornell zeigt, welche Rückschlüsse man durch die Analyse der Risikoprämie im historischen Verlauf für den Aktienmarkt ziehen kann, z.B. ob Aktienkurse steigen oder fallen oder ob sich der Aktienmarkt verändert. Vorausschauende Schätzungen der Risikoprämie werden anhand verschiedener konkurrierender Modelle analysiert, wobei die Vorzüge der jeweiligen Methode mitbewertet werden. 'Equity Risk Premium' ist das erste Buch, das dieses wichtige Prinzip der Risiko-Nutzen-Analyse erschöpfend behandelt. Es vermittelt einen tiefen Einblick und deckt alle Grundlagen ab, damit Investoren fundierte Finanzentscheidungen treffen können. Ein absolutes Muß für institutionelle Anleger, Geldmanager und Finanzvorstände, die auf eine fundierte Marktanalyse zurückgreifen müssen. (06/99)

The estimation of the equity (or "market") risk premium has become a cottage industry, both for academics and professionals. It is recognized as a key economic or financial parameter for a variety of interests and applications, yet opinions as to its magnitude either historical or projected vary widely. But not as widely as was once the case. There has been general acceptance, a consensus if you will, that historical equity return premia overstate what was anticipated or expected and that a large component of the historical equity return premium constitutes unanticipated capital gains. This paper explores the history of this idea and examines the role this it plays (or not) in a variety of recent and current methods of estimating the equity risk premium. Using a methodology similar to Fama and French (2002) but presaged in Copeland (1982) I describe the behavior of ex post and ex ante risk premia for the period 1872 to 2013 and estimate the equity risk premium going forward for the next 10 years (2014-2023). I also discuss various issues in the estimation of the equity risk premium, such as geometric versus arithmetic mean, top down versus bottom up forecasts of the equity risk premium, and whether to use dividend yields or P/E multiples in accounting for unanticipated capital gains. I conclude that the arithmetic equity risk premium as usually calculated is significantly overstated and that the current and expected future ERP is in the range of 3-4 percent for both geometric and arithmetic means, though likely in the upper half of this range.

In this paper, we propose a new two-stage method, including Principal Component Analysis and Boosted Regression Tree, to model conditional expected returns. With this technique, we address two potential criticisms on how to capture the true identity of the investors' information set, and how investors use the information in forming expected returns. Applying this risk premium proxy, we test whether risk premium is always positive. A number of asset pricing studies have focused on testing linear restrictions imposed by asset pricing models and largely ignore this important restriction. We find evidence that the positivity condition of the risk premium is violated for the US (CRSP index) in some states of the economy; these states are associated with periods of low corporate returns, low long term government bond returns, lagged negative risk premium, and downward sloping term structure.

Research into the equity risk premium, often considered the most important number in finance, falls into three broad groupings. First, researchers have measured the margin by which equity total returns have exceeded fixed-income or cash returns over long historical periods and have projected this measure of the equity risk premium into the future. Second, the dividend discount model—or a variant of it, such as an earnings discount model—is used to estimate the future return on an equity index, and the fixed-income or cash yield is then subtracted to arrive at an equity risk premium expectation or forecast. Third, academics have used macroeconomic techniques to estimate what premium investors might rationally require for taking the risk of equities. Current thinking emphasizes the second, or dividend discount, approach and projects an equity risk premium centered on 3½% to 4%.

What is the return to investing in the stock market? Can we predict future stock market returns? How have equities performed over the last two centuries? The authors in this volume are among the leading researchers in the study of these questions. This book draws upon their research on the stock market over the past two dozen years. It contains their major research articles on the equity risk premium and new contributions on measuring, forecasting, and timing stock market returns, together with new interpretive essays that explore critical issues and new research on the topic of stock market investing. This book is aimed at all readers interested in understanding the empirical basis for the equity risk premium. Through the analysis and interpretation of two scholars whose research contributions have been key factors in the modern debate over stock market perfomance, this volume engages the reader in many of the key issues of importance to investors. How large is the premium? Is history a reliable guide to predict future equity returns? Does the equity and cash flows of the market? Are global equity markets different from those in the United States? Do emerging markets offer higher or lower equity risk premia? The authors use the historical performance of the world's stock markets to address these issues.