Efficient "Myopic" Asset Pricing in General Equilibrium: A Potential Pitfall in Excess Volatility Tests / Willem H. Buiter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buiter, Willem H.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w2251.

NBER working paper series no. w2251

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Efficient "Myopic" Asset Pricing in General Equilibrium

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1987.

Summary:

Excess volatility tests for financial market efficiency maintain the hypothesis of risk-neutrality. This permits the specification of the benchmark efficient market price as the present discounted value of expected future dividends. By departing from the risk-neutrality assumption in a stripped-down version of Lucas's general equilibrium asset pricing model, I show that asset prices determined in a competitive asset market and efficient by construction can nevertheless violate the variance bounds established under the assumption of risk neutrality. This can occur even without the problems of non-stationarity (including bubbles) and finite samples. Standard excess volatility tests are joint tests of market efficiency and risk neutrality. Failure of an asset price to pass the test may be due to the absence of risk neutrality rather than to market inefficiency.

Notes:

Print version record

May 1987.