Implied Equity Duration:

A New Measure of Equity Risk

Patricia M. Dechow
The Carleton H. Griffin Deloitte & Touche LLP Collegiate Professor of Accounting,
University of Michigan Business School
Richard G. Sloan
Victor L. Bernard PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Collegiate Professor of Accounting and
Finance, University of Michigan Business School
Mark T. Soliman
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Michigan Business School

This Version: May 2002

Correspondence:
Richard G. Sloan
University of Michigan Business School
701 Tappan Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234
Email: sloanr@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 764-2325
Fax: (734) 936-0282

Key Words: Duration, Asset Pricing, Risk

KEL classification: G12; G14; M41
*

We are grateful for comments from workshop participants at UC Berkeley, Emory University, University
of Michigan, MIT, UCLA and University of Southern California. Thanks also to Paul Michaud for
programming assistance. Sloan and Dechow acknowledge financial support provided by the Michael A.
Sakkinen Research Scholar Fund at the University of Michigan Business School.

Abstract

We derive an expression for implied equity duration by adapting the traditional expression for
bond duration and develop an algorithm for its empirical estimation. We find that the standard
empirical predictions and results for bond duration hold for our measure of implied equity
duration. Stock return volatilities and betas are increasing in implied equity duration. Moreover,
estimates of common shocks to expected equity returns extracted using our measure of implied
equity duration capture a strong common factor in stock returns. We also show that book-tomarket ratio represents a special case of our expression for implied equity duration that imposes
restrictive assumptions on the evolution of future cash flows. Consequently, our implied equity
duration framework provides an explanation for the empirical properties of the book-to-market
related factor documented Fama and French (1993). Empirical tests confirm that the common
factor related to our more general measure of implied equity duration dominates and subsumes
the common factor related to book-to-market.

Introduction
Techniques for analyzing the risk characteristics of fixed income securities have evolved
within a theoretically rigorous framework based on the discounted expectations of the future
cash flows of the securities. Constructs such as duration and convexity are well established for
fixed income securities and are embraced by academics and practitioners alike. The analysis of
equity securities, in contrast, has evolved in a relatively ad hoc manner.

Following

disappointment with the performance of equilibrium pricing models such as the CAPM,
academics and practitioners have adopted empirically motivated procedures for the analysis of
equity risk. For example, following Fama and French (1993), a popular academic approach to
modeling the risk characteristics of stock returns is through a three-factor model incorporating a
market-related factor, a size-related factor and a book-to-market-related factor.

Similarly,

practitioners have embraced the notion of classifying stocks on the basis of market capitalization
and the extent to which they exhibit the style characteristics of value and growth. We
bridge this gap in the analysis techniques for fixed income and equity securities by developing an
implied equity duration measure that provides both a theoretically justifiable and empirically
powerful technique for the analysis of equity security risk.1
We begin by developing a measure of implied equity duration based on Macaulays
traditional measure of bond duration. The primary obstacle in implementing the bond duration
formula for equities is in the estimation of the expected future cash distributions for equities. We
develop a two-stage procedure to facilitate this task. First, using simple forecasting models
based on historical financial data, we estimate the expected future cash flows for a finite forecast
horizon. Second, we assume that the remaining value implicit in the observed stock price will be
distributed as a level perpetuity beyond our finite forecast horizon. We then apply the standard

duration formula to compute our measure of implied equity duration. We recognize that our
estimation procedure for implied equity duration represents a simple approximation based on
relatively crude forecasting assumptions. Nevertheless, the resulting duration estimates perform
well in empirical tests, and our basic framework is easily adapted to incorporate more
sophisticated forecasting models.
Empirical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of our measure of implied equity duration in
explaining the risk characteristics of equity security returns. Implied equity duration is strongly
positively related with stock return volatilities and betas and has incremental explanatory power
over past volatilities/betas in forecasting future volatilities/betas.

Moreover, estimates of

common shocks to expected equity returns extracted using our measure of implied equity
duration capture a strong common factor in stock returns. We also show that book-to-market
ratio represents a special case of our expression for implied equity duration that imposes
restrictive assumptions on the evolution of future cash flows. Consequently, our implied equity
duration framework provides a rigorous explanation for the empirical properties of the book-tomarket-related factor documented in Fama and French (1993). Empirical tests confirm that the
common factor related to our measure of implied equity duration dominates and subsumes the
common factor related to book-to-market.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. The next section discusses our
measure of implied equity duration and our empirical predictions. Section 2 describes our data,
Section 3 presents our results and section 4 concludes.

1.

Implied Equity Duration: Definition, Measurement and Predictions

1.1.

Definitions
The traditional measure of duration (D) for a bond is the Macaulay duration formula:

D=

t (1CF
+ r)
t

t =1

(1)

where CF denotes the cash flow at time t, r denotes the yield to maturity and P denotes the bond
price. This measure of duration is a weighted average of the times to each of the respective cash
flows on the bond, where the weights represent the relative contributions of the cash flows to the
bonds value. Intuitively, duration represents the average maturity of the bonds promised cash
flows.
The primary role of duration in the analysis of fixed income securities is as a measure of
bond price sensitivity to changes in the yield to maturity. Differentiating the expression for the
value of a bond with respect to the yield to maturity gives:

D
P
= P
r
1+ r

(2)

Intuitively, this result indicates that the relation between bond prices changes and changes in
bond yields is a simple function of duration:2
D
P

r
1+ r
P
The expression

(3)

D
is often referred to as the modified duration, and it provides a simple
1+ r

measure of the sensitivity of bond prices changes to yield changes.

Extending the duration concept to equities introduces two key problems:
1.

A bond typically makes a finite number of cash payments, while the sequence of
payments on equity is potentially infinite.

2.

The amount and timing of the cash payments on a bond are usually specified in advance
and subject to little uncertainty, while the payments on equity are not specified in
advance and can be subject to great uncertainty.
To address the first problem, we partition the duration formula in equation (1) into two

parts, a finite forecasting horizon of length T and an infinite terminal expression:

T

D =

CF t
CF t

t
(
1
+
)
(
1
+ r)t
r
t =1
t =1

+
T
P
CF t

t
t =1 (1 + r )

CF t
CF t

t
(
1
+
)
(
1
+ r)t
r
t =T +1
t =T +1

P
CF t

t
t =T +1 (1 + r )

(4)

Since we are now dealing with equity, P denotes the market capitalization of equity (stock price
multiplied by shares outstanding), CF denotes the net cash distributions to equity holders and r
denotes the expected return on equity. Equation (4) expresses equity duration as the valueweighted sum of the duration of the finite forecasting horizon cash flows and the duration of the
infinite terminal cash flows. Next, we assume that the terminal cash flow stream consists of a
level perpetuity with a value equal to the difference between the observed market capitalization
implicit in the stock price and the present value of the cash flows over the finite forecast period,
so that:

CF t
CF t
= (P
)

t
t
t =T +1 (1 + r )
t =1 (1 + r )

(5)

Recognizing that the duration of a level perpetuity beginning in T periods is T+(1+r)/r, and
substituting (5) into (4) simplifies our expression for equity duration to:
T

D =

t (1CF
+ r)

t =1

(1 + r )
)
+ (T +
r

(P

(1CF
+ r)
t

t =1

(6)

The assumption that the cash flow stream for an equity security can be partitioned into a finite
forecasting period and an infinite terminal expression is standard in the equity valuation
literature. The assumption that the terminal cash flows are realized as a level perpetuity is less
standard. More commonly, the terminal cash flows are assumed to grow at a constant terminal
rate, such as the expected macroeconomic growth rate. We make the level perpetuity assumption
for tractability and without loss of generality. As long as the forecasting horizon is long enough
to exhaust plausible opportunities for firm-specific or industry-specific super-normal growth, the
terminal growth rate will be a cross-sectional constant, and so will not be an important source of
cross-sectional variation in implied equity duration. Because the terminal cash flow perpetuity is
inferred from the observed stock, we refer to the resulting measure of equity duration as
implied equity duration. In other words, our measure of equity duration is based on investors
consensus expectations, as reflected in stock prices, rather than on necessarily rational forecasts
of future cash flows.
The discussion above deals with the infinite cash flow problem. The second problem in
implementing equation (6) is the forecasting of the finite period cash distributions, CFt 0tT.
Our forecasting model is based on recent research indicating that accounting-based performance
measures provide effective information variables for forecasting future cash flows (Nissim and
Penman 2001). We begin with the accounting identity that expresses net cash distributions to
equity in terms of earnings and book value of equity:3
CFt = Et ( BVt BVt 1 )

(7)

where Et represents accounting earnings at the end of period t and BVt represents the book value
of equity at the end of period t. Re-arranging the right-hand side of equation (7) gives:

 E
( BVt BVt 1 )
CFt = BVt 1 t

BVt 1
BVt 1

(8)

Equation (8) indicates that to forecast net cash distributions to equity, one needs to first forecast:
(i)

Return on equity (ROE) denoted by Et/BVt-1; and

(ii)

Growth in equity, denoted by (BVt-BVt-1)/ BVt-1.

It is well established that ROE follows a slowly mean reverting process [Stigler 1968, Penman
1991]. Moreover, both economic intuition and empirical evidence suggest that the mean to
which ROE reverts approximates the cost of equity [Nissim and Penman 2001]. We therefore
model ROE as a first-order autoregressive process with an autocorrelation coefficient based on
the long-run average rate of mean reversion in ROE and a long-run mean equal to the cost of
equity.
To forecast growth in equity, we rely on the results in Nissim and Penman (2001)
indicating that past sales growth is a better indicator of future equity growth than past equity
growth. Sales growth follows a mean reverting process similar to ROE, but mean reversion in
sales growth tends to be more rapid [see Nissim and Penman (2001)]. Economic intuition
suggests that the mean to which sales growth reverts should approximate the long-run
macroeconomic growth rate.4

We therefore model growth in equity as a first-order

autoregressive process, with an autocorrelation coefficient equal to the long-run average rate of
mean reversion in sales growth and a mean equal to the long-run GDP growth rate.
Implementation of our estimation procedure for implied equity duration requires four
financial variables and four forecasting parameters as inputs. We summarize these inputs in
Table 1. The four financial variables are book value (both current and lagged one year), sales

(both current and lagged one year), earnings (current) and market capitalization (current). The
four forecasting parameters are the autocorrelation coefficient for ROE, the autocorrelation
coefficient for sales growth, the cost of equity and the long-run GDP growth rate. We conduct
our analysis using annual data and obtain the required financial variables from the annual
COMPUSTAT files. Using pooled data over our sample period, we obtain average estimates of
the autocorrelation coefficients for ROE and sales growth of 0.57 and 0.24 respectively. The
long-run averages for cost of equity and GDP growth rate are based on the long-run averages
reported by Ibbotson (1999) of (approximately) 12% and 6% respectively. Note that we use a
nave forecast of the cost of equity that assumes it to be a cross-sectional constant. Such a nave
assumption is necessary however, to avoid the possibility that we could induce our empirical
results through systematic variation in the cost of equity capital. By assuming that the cost of
equity is a cross-sectional constant, we ensure that our measure of implied equity duration is
driven solely by differences in the timing of the expected future cash flows.5
Finally, we use a finite forecast horizon of ten years, because most of the mean reversion
in sales growth and ROE is complete after 10 years. We emphasize that these forecasting
procedures are relatively crude. For example, certain forecasting parameters have been shown to
vary systematically as a function of industry membership and other firm characteristics.
However, our immediate goal is to introduce the concept of implied equity duration and
demonstrate the ability of a relatively parsimonious empirical estimation procedure to produce an
effective measure of implied equity duration.
[Table 1 here]

We illustrate our implied equity duration estimation procedure using two representative
firm-years from our sample in table 2. The first example in panel A is for Alaska Air in 1999
and is designed to be illustrative of low duration equity. The second example in panel B is for
Amazon.com in 1999 and is designed to be illustrative of high duration equity. Values for the
required forecasting variables are listed at the top left of each panel and the forecasting
parameters, which are assumed to be the same across firms, are listed at the top right of each
panel. Forecasts of cash flows and their present values are derived for the ten-year forecast
horizon. The growth rate is derived by reverting past sales growth to the long-run mean of 6%
using the autocorrelation coefficient of 0.24. Similarly, ROE is derived by reverting past ROE to
its long run mean of 12% using the autocorrelation coefficient of 0.57. Applying the forecast
growth rates to lagged book value generates the forecasts of future book values. Applying the
forecast ROEs to the lagged book value forecasts generates the earnings forecasts. Cash flow
forecasts are then backed out from earnings and book value forecasts using equation (7).
The duration of the finite forecast cash flows is equal to the ratio of the time weighted
present value to the present value of the forecast cash flows. The weight assigned to the finite
period duration is equal to the ratio of the present value of the forecast cash flows to the market
capitalization. The duration of the terminal cash flows is always equal to 19.33 [i.e., T + (1+r)/r
= 10 + 1.12/0.12=19.33]. The weight assigned to the terminal duration is simply one minus the
weight assigned to the finite period duration. Implied equity duration is computed by taking the
weighted sum of the finite and terminal period durations.
The computation for Alaska Air indicates that 64% of the value implicit in the current
price is expected to be realized during the finite forecast period. Alaska Airs forecast ROE

exceeds its forecast growth rate in every year of the finite forecast period, which results in
positive cash distributions in each of these periods. This results in a relatively low implied
equity duration figure of just 10.0 years for Alaska Air. The computation for Amazon.com
indicates that the cash flows realized during the forecast period amount to 21% of the value
implicit in the current price. In Amazons case, the negative current ROE and high growth rate
combine to generate cash flows over the finite forecast period that are mostly negative and have
a negative net present value. Implicit in this negative cash flow is the necessity for Amazon.com
to raise additional capital over the finite forecasting horizon. Not until the eighth year of the
finite period does the ROE exceed the growth rate in book value, which is what is required for
positive cash distributions. As a consequence of the negative weighting on the finite forecast
period duration, Amazons implied equity duration of 23.0 years exceeds the terminal period
duration of 19.33 years. Thus, duration tends to be low for firms with high ROE, low growth
and low market valuations and high for firms with low ROE, high growth and high market
valuations.
[Table 2 here]

1.2.

Equity duration and the earnings-to-price ratio and book-to-market ratios

Finance practitioners and academics frequently use earnings-to-price and book-to-market

ratios as equity style and risk characteristics. Our measure of implied equity duration is closely
related to these valuation ratios. We demonstrate the links by considering some special cases of
the implied equity duration formula in equation (6).

These special cases all involve the

assumption that the net cash distributions over the finite forecasting period take the form of a
level annuity, denoted A. The duration of a level annuity of length T is given by:
DA =

(1 + r )
T

r
(1 + r ) T 1

(9)

and the present value of a level annuity of amount A and length T is given by:
1
PV A = A

1
(1 + r ) T
r

(10)

Substituting these two equations into equation (6) and simplifying yields:
A
(1 + r )
D = T+
r T
r
P

(11)

This expression highlights the fact that implied equity duration is decreasing in the magnitude of
the net cash distributions paid over the finite forecast horizon. Differentiating (11) with respect
to A gives:
D
T
=
A
rP

10

(12)

Duration is decreasing in the magnitude of the annuity, with the rate of decrease being larger for
longer forecast horizons, lower discount rates and lower stock valuations.
Equation (11) is the key to understanding the relation between implied equity duration,
the earnings-to-price ratio and the book-to-market ratio. Recall from equation (8) that the net
cash distributions received over the finite forecast horizon can be expressed as:
E
( BVt BVt 1 )
CFt = BVt 1 t

BVt 1
BVt 1

If we assume that growth in equity is zero for all finite forecast periods (i.e., BVt= BV-1 for 0 t
T) and perfect persistence of current ROE over the forecast period (i.e.,

Et
E
= 0 for 0 t
BVt 1 BV1

T), then CFt = E 0 for 0 t T. The amount of the annuity for the finite forecast horizon is now
equal to earnings at the beginning of the forecast horizon, and equation (11) becomes:
D = T+

(1 + r ) E 0 T

r
P r

(13)

Here we see that there is a negative relation between implied equity duration and the earnings-toprice ratio. So the earnings-to-price ratio will be a good proxy for equity duration in firms where
growth in equity is low and ROE is highly persistent. Table 2 provides estimates of implied
equity duration for Alaska Air and Amazon.com based on (13) labeled earnings-to-price
approximation. The equation (13) approximation understates duration for Alaska Air. This
occurs because Alaska Air has a high current ROE and maintaining the ROE over the finite
horizon results in the higher cash distributions. On the other hand, equation (13) overstates
duration for Amazon, this occurs because Amazon has a very negative ROE and maintaining the
ROE over the finite forecast horizon results in more required capital infusions.
11

To see the relation between implied equity duration and the book to market ratio, assume
that growth in equity is again zero over the forecast period but that ROE immediately mean
reverts to the cost of capital in the first year of the forecast period (i.e.,

Et
= r for 0 t T).
BVt 1

Equation (8) now simplifies to CFt = r BV0 . The amount of the annuity for the finite forecast
horizon is equal to book value at the beginning of the forecast horizon multiplied by the cost of
capital, and implied equity duration becomes:
D = T+

(1 + r ) BV0

T
r
P

(14)

In this special case, there is a simple negative relation between implied equity duration and the
book-to-market ratio. The book-to-market ratio will be a good proxy for duration for firms
where growth in equity is low and ROE is rapidly mean reverting. Table 2 provides estimates of
implied equity duration for Alaska Air and Amazon.com based on (14) labeled book-to-market
approximation. The approximation based on equation (14) understates duration for both Alaska
Air and Amazon.com.

For Alaska Air, the understatement arises because the implicit

assumption of no growth in equation (14) results in higher cash distributions in the forecast
period. For Amazon, the understatement arises because the implicit assumptions of no growth
and the immediate mean reversion to a positive ROE result in higher cash distributions in the
finite forecast period.
The close links between our measure of implied equity duration and these popular
valuation ratios suggest that they may serve as useful proxies for equity duration. We explore
this possibility more fully in our empirical tests.

12

1.3 Empirical Predictions

The primary empirical implication of duration stems from the relation between ex post
holding period returns and changes in expected return. Denoting holding period returns as h and
changes in expected return as r, equation (3) indicates that the influence of a changes in
expected return on the ex post holding period is:
h=

D
P

r
P
1+ r

(15)

Empirical verification of the relation in (15) is difficult, because changes in expected equity
returns are not directly observable. Nevertheless, we can use (15) to generate predictions
concerning the role played by duration in transmitting expected return volatility to holding
period return volatility. First, defining volatility in terms of the standard deviation (), we can
use (15) to determine the impact of volatility in expected returns on the volatility of holding
period returns:

(h )

D
(r )
1+ r

(16)

Note that equation (16) only models the role of expected return shocks on volatility. It ignores
other potential sources of volatility, such as volatility attributable to cash flow shocks. Equation
(16) indicates that the impact of expected return volatility on holding period return volatility is
greater for long duration stocks. This leads to our first empirical prediction:
P1:

The volatility of equity holding period returns is increasing in equity duration.

Our first prediction relates to the total volatility of equity returns. However, asset-pricing theory
suggests that non-diversifiable volatility constitutes a more relevant measure of risk.

13

In

particular, the capital asset pricing model indicates that only systematic risk () that is related to
movements in the market portfolio should be priced. Defining hm as the ex post holding-period
return on the market portfolio, Dm as the duration of the market portfolio and rm as the expected
return on the market portfolio, we can use (15) to determine the impact of common shocks to
expected returns, (rm) on systematic risk ((h,hm)):

(h, hm ) =

(h, hm ) D (1 + rm )

(r , rm )
2 (hm ) Dm (1 + r )

(17)

The final term in (17) represents the sensitivity of changes in the expected return on the equity
security to changes in the expected return on the market portfolio. There is a large body of
empirical evidence documenting strong common shocks to expected equity returns [e.g.,
Campbell and Shiller (1988), Campbell and Mei (1993)]. Thus, we expect the final term to be
positive and close to one for the typical equity security. Equation (17) indicates that the impact
of common expected return volatility on holding period return volatility is increasing in the
duration of the equity security relative to the duration of the market portfolio. Equation (17)
forms the basis for our second prediction:
P2:

Equity betas computed from holding-period returns are increasing in the duration of the
equity relative to the duration of the market portfolio.
Tests of our second prediction build on evidence in Campbell and Mei (1993) and

Cornell (1999). Campbell and Mei use a log-linear approximation of returns to estimate the
proportion of the variation in beta attributable to common variation in cash flows versus common
variation in expected returns.

They find that the betas are largely attributed to common

innovations in expected returns. Thus, their evidence implies that equation (17) should capture

14

an important determinant of beta. Cornell anticipates our second prediction by recognizing that
Campbell and Meis results imply that equity duration should be an important determinant of
betas. He presents preliminary tests in this respect by correlating betas with earnings-to-price
ratios, dividend-to-price ratios and growth forecasts.

Cornell provides mixed and indirect

evidence in support of P2. We build on Cornells results by constructing more direct tests of P2.
Our second prediction rests on the assumption that some shocks to expected returns are
common across securities. However, it does not necessarily rule out the case of idiosyncratic
shocks to expected returns.

For example, liquidity has been proposed as an important

determinant of expected returns [e.g., Amihud amd Mendelson (1983)].

Therefore, events

having an impact on a firms liquidity, such as changes in exchange listing, addition/removal

from an index and the listing of derivative securities, may result in idiosyncratic shocks to
expected returns. Denoting hf and rf as the firm-specific components of realized and expected
returns respectively and substituting into (16) yields:

(h f )

D
(r f
1+ r

(18)

from which we generate our third prediction:

P3:

The standard deviation of the idiosyncratic component of realized holding-period returns

is increasing in equity duration.
Our first three predictions concern associations between equity duration and common

measures of volatility. Our remaining predictions concern the ability of equity duration to
capture a unique common factor in stock returns. We estimate a factor related to duration using
two alternative procedures. Our first procedure uses a straightforward regression approach that

15

attempts to directly estimate the common shocks to expected returns through cross-sectional
regressions of holding period returns on duration:
hit = t + t

Dit
+ it
(1 + r )

(19)

The model in (19) is estimated separately for each calendar month in our sample. Comparing
equation (19) to equation (15), we see that if duration is estimated without error and shocks to
expected returns are common across equities, then t=0 and t=rt. The intuition behind this
regression is that we can infer the common shock to expected returns be observing the
differential holding period returns on stocks of differing durations. We make two predictions
with respect to the estimates:
P4:

The estimates from equation (19) are negatively correlated with the holding period
returns on the market portfolio.

P5:

The estimates from equation (19) are negatively correlated with the holding period
returns on long duration bonds.

P4 follows directly from the observation that measures the change in the common expected
return on equities. Increases in the expected return on equities should lead to reductions in
equity prices and lower holding period returns on equities. Thus, we should observe a negative
correlation between and the returns on the market portfolio. P5 is more tenuous, since it
requires commonality in the expected return shocks across stocks and bonds. If shocks to the
risk free rate of return are a significant source of shocks to the expected returns on both stocks
and bonds, then there should be a negative correlation between and long duration bond returns.

16

However, if shocks to expected returns on equities are largely attributable to shocks to the equity
premium, then we will still find support for P4, but not necessarily P5.
Existing academic research has focused on three significant common factors in stock
returns: a market factor, a factor related to firm size and a factor related to the book-to-market
ratio [Fama and French 1993]. Our procedure for constructing a duration-related factor uses the
Fama and French approach of constructing a mimicking portfolio for duration. That is, we take
the difference between the monthly returns on stocks with high versus low durations. This
relatively crude factor estimation procedure results in a loss of efficiency relative to the
regression procedure. However, using this procedure allows us to directly compare our duration
factor to the book-to-market factor created by Fama and French 1993. Recall from the previous
section that the book-to-market ratio can be interpreted as a crude duration proxy. Our objective
is to assess the relative ability of our measure of implied equity duration to capture a common
factor in expected returns. Accordingly, we test the following two predictions:
P6:

A mimicking portfolio for duration captures strong common variation in stock returns.

P7:

A mimicking portfolio for duration subsumes a mimicking portfolio for book-to-market in

capturing common variation in stock returns.

2.

Data

Our sample includes all firms with available data from the NYSE, Amex and NASDAQ
from 1963 through 1998. Financial statement data are obtained from the COMPUSTAT annual
tapes. Earnings are measured using income before extraordinary items (annual data item #18).
Market value of equity is calculated by multiplying price as of the fiscal year end (annual data
item #199) with the number of shares outstanding as of the fiscal year end (data item #25). Book

17

value of common equity (BV) represents the par value of common stock, treasury stock,
additional paid in capital and retained earnings as of the fiscal year end (annual data item #60).
Observations with negative book value of equity are deleted from the sample. Sales growth is
calculated as the one-year discrete growth rate in annual net sales (annual data item #12). Stock
returns are drawn from the Center for Research on Securities Prices (CRSP) daily tape. We use
the CRSP value-weighted index with dividends as our measure of the market return. The excess
monthly market return is equal to the monthly market return less the one-month treasury bill rate.
We compute three measures of stock return volatility all using weekly holding period
returns over a two-year period. First we compute the standard deviation of total monthly stock
returns (), second we estimate a market model regression for each firm and use the beta (), and
third we use the market model regression residual standard deviation (f). For each firm-year,
we compute volatility using both historical and forward data. The historical estimates employ
data from the two-year period ending at the end of the fiscal year from which we obtain our
financial data. The forward estimates use data from the two-year period beginning at the end of
the fiscal year from which we obtain our financial data.
To be included in our final sample, a firm must have non-missing values for all the
required variables from COMPUSTAT and must have at least some of the required return data
available on CRSP.

This sample consists of 126,870 firm-year observations.

Of these

observations, data is available to compute at least one of the volatility metrics for 102,684
observations. We also winsorize the one-percent tails of each of the financial ratios computed
using the COMPUSTAT data to reduce the influence of extreme outliers.

18

Finally, we obtain data on monthly percent long-term government bond returns from
Ibbotson Associates. We construct our excess long-bond return series by subtracting the onemonth Treasury bill rate, measured at the beginning of the month.
3.

Results

3.1.

Descriptive Statistics
Panel A of Table 3 reports univariate statistics on our implied equity duration variable.

Implied equity duration has a mean of 15.1 years and a standard deviation of 4.1 years. The
lower quartile value is 13.3 and the upper quartile value is 17.4. Thus, for most firms duration is
somewhat below 19.3 years, the value of duration in the special case where no cash distributions
are made in the finite forecast horizon. Most firms therefore distribute just a small proportion of
the value represented by their stock price during the 10-year finite forecast period. However, the
minimum value of duration is 16.8 years, indicating that there are exceptions. A negative value
for duration requires that the present value of the cash flows over the finite forecast horizon
exceed the market value of equity. One explanation for such a situation is that the stock is
underpriced. An alternative explanation is that our forecasting model has incorrectly forecast
that past profitability will continue into the future. At the other extreme, the maximum value of
duration is 32.0 years. For duration to be so much greater than 19.3 years, the negative present
value of the finite forecast period cash flows must be large relative to the market capitalization.
Panel B of Table 3 reports the correlations between implied equity duration and related
financial variables. The correlations are generally strong and are consistently of the expected
signs. Implied equity duration is strongly negatively correlated with book-to-market (Pearson=0.67; Spearman=-0.73) and earnings-to-price (Pearson=-0.79; Spearman=-0.76). We also find

19

that implied equity duration is positively correlated with sales growth (Pearson=0.20;
Spearman=0.19). Ceteris paribus, higher sales growth implies more near-term investment and
longer duration. It is also noteworthy that the correlations between book-to-market and earningsto-price (Pearson=0.57; Spearman=0.58) are lower than the respective correlations of each of
these variables with duration. In other words, duration synthesizes common variation in bookto-market and earnings-to-price. Book-to-market, earnings-to-price and sales growth have all
been proposed as empirical proxies for unidentified common risk factors in stock returns. The
correlations in Table 3 are consistent with implied equity duration representing the underlying
common factor represented by each of these variables.
[Table 3 here]
3.2.

Volatility Results
The first three predictions outlined in Section 1.3 concern the relation between implied

equity duration and stock return volatility. This section presents the results of tests of these
predictions. We begin in Table 4 by providing evidence on the association between implied
equity duration and historical stock return volatility. Table 5 then provides evidence on the
ability of duration to forecast future stock return volatility.
Panel A of Table 4 presents correlations between our estimates of implied equity duration
and estimates of the standard deviation of weekly stock returns. We also report correlations for
related financial variables. Consistent with our first prediction, P1, implied equity duration has a
strong positive correlation with stock return volatility (Pearson=0.19, Spearman=0.23). Book-tomarket, earnings-to-price, sales growth and market capitalization also have significant
correlations with stock return volatility. However, in the case of book-to-market, earnings-to-

20

price and sales growth, the correlations are much weaker than they are for implied duration.
Moreover, the sign of the correlations for these variables are the same as the sign of their
correlations with implied equity duration. The results for these variables are therefore consistent
with them serving as noisy proxies for duration.

For market capitalization, however, the

correlations with stock return volatility are negative and the Spearman correlation, is stronger
than the corresponding return for implied duration. The strong negative correlations for market
capitalization cannot be explained by a duration proxy story, and are probably attributable to the
greater cash flow volatility of smaller, less diversified firms.
Panels B and C of Table 4 look at the correlations between implied equity duration and
the systematic and firm-specific components of volatility respectively. Consistent with P2, there
is a strong positive correlation between relative duration and beta (Pearson=0.12;
Spearman=0.19). The correlations for book-to-market, earnings-to-price and sales growth are
somewhat weaker, and are of the same sign as their respective correlations with duration. The
results for these variables are again consistent with them serving as noisy proxies for duration.
In contrast, the sign of the correlations on market capitalization switches from negative to
positive from panel A to panel B. Small firms have higher total volatility, while large firms have
higher systematic volatility. This result is consistent with the higher return volatility of small
firms arising from higher firm-specific volatility in their underlying cash flows.
Finally, Panel C reports the correlations for the firm-specific component of stock return
volatility (f).

Consistent with P3, there is a strong positive correlation between implied

duration and f (Pearson=0.18; Spearman=0.22). Again, the correlations for book-to-market,

earnings-to-price and sales growth are somewhat weaker. Finally, the correlations for market

21

capitalization are large and negative, confirming the conjecture that the higher return volatility of
small firms arises from higher firm-specific cash flow volatility.
[Table 4 here]
Table 5 investigates the ability of implied equity duration to forecast future stock return
volatility. We use the same measures of stock return volatility as Table 4, but the measures are
now estimated using weekly stock returns in the two years following the computation of implied
equity duration. Instead of reporting correlations, we report regressions of our volatility metrics
on implied equity duration. This approach allows us to include lagged values of the volatility
metrics as competing explanatory variables. For our estimates of implied equity duration to be
useful from a forecasting perspective, they must have incremental explanatory power over
lagged values of the volatility metrics. Panel A of Table 5 provides evidence of the hypothesized
positive relation between implied equity duration and future stock return volatility. Panels B and
C confirm that the positive relation extends to both the systematic and firm-specific components
of return volatility. Finally, we find that the implied equity duration still loads with a significant
positive coefficient when we include lagged values of the respective volatility metrics in the
regressions. Thus, implied equity duration is incrementally useful in forecasting future stock
return volatility and its components.
[Table 5 here]
In summary, we provide three key findings concerning the relation between implied
equity duration and stock return volatility. First, we find strong evidence of the hypothesized
positive relation between implied equity duration and stock return volatility. Second, we show
that associations of book-to-market and earnings-to-price with stock return volatility is consistent

22

with these variables serving as noisy proxies for duration. Finally, we show that implied equity
duration is incrementally useful over past stock return volatility in forecasting future stock return
volatility.
3.3.

Common Factor Results

In our next set of tests, we examine whether duration represents a significant common

factor in stock returns. In section 1.3, we derived the following cross-sectional relation between
monthly holding period returns and duration (see equation 19):
hit = t + t

Dit
+ it
(1 + r )

The coefficient t from these monthly cross-sectional regressions provides an estimate of the
change in expected return (r) for month t. We predict that t, our estimate of (r), will be
negatively correlated with the excess monthly market return.

Empirical estimation of this

regression is subject to several specification issues. First, the relation is only approximate and
not valid for large values of r (the convexity property described in footnote 2). This should not
create a serious problem, since our estimation uses monthly data, and monthly changes in
expected return are unlikely to be large enough to create serious violations of the linearity
assumption. Second stock returns are also determined by cash flow shocks. This omitted
variable has the potential to bias our t estimates if cash flow shocks are correlated with expected
return shocks. Third, there is an errors-in-variables problem arising from our use of empirical
estimates for duration (D) and expected returns (r). This problem will cause the intercept in the
regression to be positive and the slope to be biased toward zero, thus understating the magnitude

23

of the estimated changes in expected returns. We have no a priori reasons to expect that any of
these specification issues will bias our empirical tests in favor of our predictions.
Panel A of Table 6 and Figure 1A report the distributional properties of our estimates of
change in expected return on equities (r). The r estimates range from a low of 0.82% to a
high of 1.51%. The low of 0.82% occurred in October of 1969, a month in which the market
rose by over 5%. The high of 1.51% occurred in June of 1970, a month when the market fell by
over 11%. During the best month for the market in our sample period (October 1974), the
market rose by over 16% and r was less than 0.5%. Conversely, during the worst month for
the market in our sample period (October 1987), the market fell by over 22% and r exceeded
0.5%. Thus, our analysis suggests that our lower bound estimates of r exhibit substantial
temporal variation.

Moreover, significant shocks to expected returns are associated with

significant shocks to holding period returns of the opposite sign, consistent with the predictions
of basic valuation theory.

Figure 1A indicates that the distribution of r is right-skewed

(skewness=0.54) and highly leptokurtic (kurtosis=5.04). It is well known that monthly market
returns are left skewed and leptokurtic. Our results suggest that these properties in returns can be
attributed, at least in part, to related properties in the distribution of shocks to expected returns.
[Table 6 and Figure 1 here]
P4 and P5 predict a negative correlation between r and both the market return and the
excess long bond return. Panel B of Table 6 reports these correlations. For the market return,
both the Pearson and Spearman correlations are strongly negative (-0.45 and 0.45 respectively)
and support P4. Visual confirmation of the negative correlation between our estimates of r and
the market return are provided in Figures 1B (monthly realizations) and 1C (12-month moving

24

averages).

For the long bond return, however, the correlations are negative but are not

statistically significant. This latter result is somewhat puzzling. One explanation for the result is
that shocks to the risk-free component of expected equity returns are extremely small relative to
shocks to the equity premium. However, the relatively strong correlation between the market
return and the long-bond return is difficult to reconcile with this explanation. Alternatively,
shocks to the risk-free rate may be correlated with shocks to short-term cash flows that are
greater for short duration equities and hence confound the reported correlations.
We next test predictions P6 and P7. For these tests we form a duration mimicking
portfolio (HDMLD) by taking the difference between the returns on stocks with high duration
and the returns on stocks with low duration each month in exactly the same manner as Fama and
French (1993) use to calculate their book-to-market mimicking portfolio (HML). We also create
a size factor (SMB) and a book-to-market factor (HML) using the exact procedures described in
Fama and French (1993).6
Panel B of Table 6 compares the correlation of HDMLD with the market return and the
excess bond return.

Consistent with P6, HDMLD has a strong positive correlation with the

market return. This correlation is stronger than either HML or SMB. However, r has the
strongest correlation with the market return. This is consistent with r representing our most
efficient estimate of the common factor in returns related to duration. As would be expected, r
is highly negatively correlated with our mimicking portfolio for duration (Pearson=-0.73 and
Spearman=-0.72) and positively correlated with the mimicking portfolio for book-to-market
(Pearson=0.57, Spearman=0.57).

25

Panel C of table 6 provides tests of P7. Model 1 indicates that 14 percent of the variation
in excess monthly market returns is explained by the SMB and HML mimicking factors. In
models 2 and 3 we add duration-related factors (r and HDMLD). The results indicate that our
duration factors subsume the explanatory power of HML. Both r and HDMLD load with a
significant coefficient and the coefficient on HML falls close to zero and is no longer statistically
significant. This is consistent with P7. The R2 is highest (24 percent) when r is used as the
duration factor (Model 2). This result is comforting, because the r estimates are derived from
the underlying theoretical relation between duration and returns rather than an ad hoc mimicking
factor. Overall, these results are consistent with book-to-market and its associated HML factor
serving as noisy proxies for equity duration-related effects in stock returns. Our refined proxies
for duration lead to significant improvements in explanatory power.
4.

Conclusions

In this paper, we develop an expression for implied equity duration and provide a simple
algorithm for the its empirical estimation. We show that the standard empirical predictions and
results for bond duration hold for our measure of equity duration and that equity duration
represents an important common factor in stock returns.

We document that stock return

volatility and stock betas are both increasing in implied equity duration. We also show how
empirical estimates of equity duration can be used to impute the common shocks to the expected
equity returns.
Our results suggest that the book-to-market ratio provides a crude proxy for equity
duration, and that the Fama and French (1993) book-to-market factor can be interpreted as a
noisy duration factor. Fama and French 1995 present loose arguments to the effect that their

26

book-to-market factor captures a financial distress factor. We present a tighter set of arguments
and empirical results indicating that a duration-related factor represents a more natural
explanation. We also acknowledge that our cash flow forecasting model is crude. Improvements
in the forecasting model should lead to improved measures of equity duration and more refined
estimates of expected return shocks.
Finally, our measure of implied equity duration provides a natural and defensible ranking
of stocks style characteristics on the value/growth dimension that is popular among
practitioners. Currently, index providers such as Standard and Poors, Dow Jones and Russell
compete to provide the best indices of value and growth stocks.7 Yet their growth and value
classifications are based on ad hoc reasoning and data-motivated statistical procedures. By
combining information about expected growth, expected profitability and current stock price into
a single and rigorously developed measure, implied equity duration provides an attractive
alternative to the ad hoc measures of value and growth proposed by practitioners.

27

REFERENCES

Amihud, Y. and H. Mendelson, 1986. Asset Pricing and the Bid-Ask Spread, Journal of Financial
Economics. Vol 17, 223-260.
Campbell, J. and J. Mei, 1993. Where Do Beta Come From? Asset Price Dynamics and the Sources of
Systematic Risk, The Review of Financial Studies. Vol 6, 567-592.
Campbell, J. and R. Shiller, 1988. Stock Prices, Earnings and Expected Dividends, Journal of Finance,
Vol. 43, 661-677.
Cornell, B., 1999. Risk, Duration, and Capital Budgeting: New Evidence on Some Old Questions,
Journal of Business. Vol 72, 183-200.
Fama, E.F. and K.R. French, 1992. The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns, Journal of Finance
47, 427-465.
Fama, E.F. and K.R. French, 1993. Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds, Journal
of Finance 33, 3-55.
Fama, E.F. and K.R. French, 1995. Size and Book-to-Market Factors in Earnings and Returns, Journal
of Finance 50. 131-155.
Gould, J. B., and E. H. Sorensen, 1986. A Factor in Equity Pricing, Journal of Portfolio Management;
New York; Fall 1986.
Ibbotson Associates.Stocks, 1999. Bonds, Bills and Inflation Yearbook.
Nissim, D. and S. H. Penman, 2001. Ratio Analysis and Equity Valuation: From Research to Practice,
Review of Accounting Studies 6, 109-154.
Penman, S. H., 1991. An Evaluation of Accounting Rate-of-Return, Journal of Accounting, Auditing
and Finance, Vol 6. Spring 233-256.
Stigler, G.J.. 1963. Capital and Rates of Return in Manufacturing Industries, Princeton University
Press, Princeton, NJ.

29

TABLE 1
Summary of Financial Variables and Forecasting Parameters Used in the Estimation of Implied Equity
Duration

Panel A: Financial Variables

Financial Variable
Book Value of Equity (BV)
Earnings (E)
Sales (S)
Market Capitalization

Compustat Definition
Data Item 60
Data Item 18 = Income before extraordinary items
Data Item 12
Data Item 199 x Data Item 25

Panel B. Forecasting Parameters

Forecasting Parameter
Autocorrelation Coefficient for Return on Equity
Cost of Equity Capital
Autocorrelation Coefficient for Growth in Sales/Book Value
Long-Run Growth Rate in Sales/Book Value

Value
0.57
0.12
0.24
0.06

The autocorrelation coefficients are based on pooled autoregressions for Return on Equity and Sales Growth
using a sample of 139,404, observations over Compustat years 1950 to 1999. The Cost of Equity Capital and
Long-Run Growth Rates are based on their long-run historical averages.

30

TABLE 2
Panel A: The Computation of Implied Equity Duration for Alaska Air Group and Amazon.com for 1999
Calculation of Implied Equity Duration for Alaska Air in 1999
Input data ($millions, except percentages)
Forecasting Parameters
685.90
Price (P0)
Autocorr. Coeff. for ROE

57%

Lagged Book Value (B-1)

789.50

Cost of equity capital (r)

12%

Book Value (B0)

930.70

Autocorr. Coeff. for Growth

24%

Growth rate (S0-S-1)/S-1

9.70%

Long-Run Growth Rate

Earnings (E0)

134.20

Forecast Model
Time Period (t)
Growth Rate

ROEt (Et/Bt-1)

6%

0
9.70%

1
6.89%

2
6.21%

3
6.05%

4
6.01%

5
6.00%

6
6.00%

7
6.00%

8
6.00%

9
6.00%

10
6.00%

17.00%

14.85%

13.62%

12.93%

12.53%

12.30%

12.17%

12.10%

12.06%

12.03%

12.02%

BVt

930.70

994.81 1,056.62 1,120.55 1,187.92 1,259.23 1,334.80 1,414.89 1,499.78 1,589.77 1,685.15

Et=Bt-1*ROEt

134.20

138.20

135.53

136.57

140.38

146.12

153.27

161.48

170.57

180.45

191.06

CFt=Bt-1+Et-BVt

74.09

73.72

72.64

73.01

74.81

77.70

81.39

85.68

90.46

95.67

PV(CFt)

66.15

58.77

51.70

46.40

42.45

39.37

36.82

34.60

32.62

30.80

t*PV(CFt)

66.15

117.54

155.10

185.59

212.25

236.20

257.72

276.84

293.60

308.04

(PV(CFt))
(t*PV(CFt))
10 Year Duration
10 Year Weight

Implied Equity Duration

Terminal PV

439.69

246.21

2,109.04
4.80
0.64

Terminal Duration
Terminal Weight

10.01 years

Earnings-to-Price Approximation

3.03

Years

Book-to-Market Approximation

5.76

Years
31

19.33
0.36

TABLE 2 - continued
Panel B: The Computation of Implied Equity Duration for Alaska Air Group and Amazon.com for 1999
Calculation of Implied Equity Duration for Amazon.com in 1999
Input data ($millions, except percentages)
8,905.00
Price (P0)

Forecasting Parameters
Autocorr. Coeff. for ROE

57%

Lagged Book Value (B-1)

138.75

Cost of equity capital (r)

12%

Book Value (B0)

266.28

Autocorr. Coeff. for Growth

24%

168.90%

Growth rate (S0-S-1)/S-1

6%

Long-Run Growth Rate

-719.97

Earnings (E0)
Forecast Model
Time Period (t)
Growth Rate

0
168.90%

2
15.38%

3
8.25%

4
6.54%

5
6.13%

6
6.03%

7
6.01%

8
6.00%

9
6.00%

10
6.00%

ROEt (Et/Bt-1)

-518.90% -290.61% -160.49%

-86.32%

-44.04%

-19.94%

-6.21%

1.62%

6.08%

8.63%

10.08%

BVt
Et=Bt-1*ROEt

1
45.10%

266.28

386.36

445.80

482.58

514.15

545.66

578.57

613.33

650.14

689.15

730.50

(719.97)

(773.84)

(620.07)

(384.80)

(212.54)

(102.54)

(33.87)

9.38

37.32

56.09

69.45

CFt=Bt-1+Et-BVt

(893.92)

(679.50)

(421.59)

(244.10)

(134.06)

(66.78)

(25.38)

0.51

17.08

28.10

PV(CFt)

(798.14)

(541.69)

(300.08)

(155.13)

(76.07)

(33.83)

(11.48)

0.20

6.16

9.05

t*PV(CFt)

(798.14) 1,083.39)

(900.24)

(620.52)

(380.33)

(203.01)

(80.35)

1.63

55.44

90.48

(PV(CFt))
(t*PV(CFt))
10 Year Duration
10 Year Weight

Implied Equity Duration

Earnings-to-Price Approximation
Book-to-Market Approximation

-1,901.00

Terminal PV

10,806

Terminal Duration
Terminal Weight

19.33
1.21

-3,918.42
2.06
(0.21)

23.02 years
26.07 years
19.03 years

32

TABLE 3
Descriptive Statistics for Estimates of Implied Equity Duration (Duration) and Other Related
Equity Security Characteristics

Panel A: Univariate Statistics

Duration
Book-to-Market
Earnings-to-Price
Sales Growth
Market Cap.

Obs

Mean

126870
126870
102083
126870
126870

15.13
0.86
0.09
0.17
749.35

Std.
Dev.
4.09
0.73
0.07
0.30
3192.00

Min.
-16.75
0.02
0.00
-0.69
0.65

Lower Median Upper

Max.
Quartile
Quartile
13.30 15.63 17.36
31.97
0.38
0.67
1.11
7.58
0.05
0.08
0.12
0.66
0.01
0.12
0.26
1.00
16.52 65.41 308.89 64261.30

Panel B: Correlations (Pearson above the diagonal, Spearman below the diagonal)

Duration

Book-toMarket

-0.67

-0.79

0.20

0.08

Book-to-Market

-0.73

0.57

-0.22

-0.13

Earnings-to-Price

-0.76

0.58

-0.07

-0.11

Sales Growth

0.19

-0.27

-0.07

-0.01

Market Cap.

0.16

-0.37

-0.21

0.10

Duration

Earnings-to- Sales Growth

Price

Market
Cap.

See Table 2 for the calculation of duration for fiscal year t. Book-to-Market is calculated as book value of equity
divided by the market value of equity measured at the end of fiscal-year t. Earnings-to-Price is earnings divided
by the market value of equity measured at the end of fiscal-year t. Sales Growth is calculated as (Salest Salest-1)
/Salest-1, where t is the current fiscal year. Market Capitalization (Market Cap.) is the market value of equity
measured at the end of fiscal-year t.

33

TABLE 4
Correlation Between Equity Volatility and Implied Equity Duration, Book-to-Market, Earningsto-Price, Sales Growth and Size.

Panel A: Volatility is the Standard Deviation of Weekly Stock Returns []

Book-tomarket

Duration
Pearson Corr of with
Spearman Corr of with
Observations

0.19
0.23
102,684

-0.03
-0.09
102,684

Earningsto-Price

Sales
Growth

Market Cap.

-0.04
-0.12
83,155

0.08
0.04
102,684

-0.16
-0.49
102,684

Earningsto-Price
-0.06
-0.09
83,155

Sales
Growth
0.07
0.08
102,684

Market Cap.

Panel B: Volatility is the Stock Return Beta []

Pearson Corr of with

Spearman Corr of with
Observations

Relative Book-toDuration
market
0.12
-0.10
0.19
-0.15
102,684
102,684

0.06
0.18
102,684

Panel C: Volatility is the Standard Deviation of Firm-Specific Weekly Stock Returns [f]

Pearson Corr of f with

Spearman Corr of f with
Observations

Book-toDuration
market
0.18
-0.02
0.22
-0.07
102,684
102,684

Earningsto-Price
-0.03
-0.12
83,155

Sales
Growth
0.07
0.03
102,684

Market Cap.
-0.16
-0.54
102,684

Relative Duration for firm i in year t is calculated as Durationit/(Market Durationt). Market Duration is the
value-weighted average of all firms with a measure of duration in fiscal year t. See Table 2 for the calculation of
duration for firm i in fiscal year t. Book-to-Market is calculated as book value of equity divided by the market
value of equity measured at the end of fiscal-year t. Earnings-to-Price is earnings divided by the market value of
equity measured at the end of fiscal-year t. Sales Growth is calculated as (Salest Salest-1) /Salest-1, where t is the
current fiscal year. Market Capitalization (Market Cap.) is the market value of equity measured at the end of
fiscal-year t.
for firm i for fiscal year t is estimated via a market model regression. The regression is run using weekly
returns for a period of two years ending at the end of the fiscal year from which we obtain the data to compute
each of the financial ratios. The standard deviation of stock returns [] is the standard deviation of the weekly
returns calculated over the same two-year period. The standard deviation of firm-specific stock returns [f] is
the standard deviation of the residuals from the market model regression.
All correlations are significant at the 0.0001 level.

34

TABLE 5
Forecasting Ability of Implied Equity Duration with Respect to Equity Security
Volatility
Model 1: Volatility(t+1) = + Duration(t)
Model 2: Volatility(t+1) = + Duration(t) + Volatility(t)

Panel A: Volatility is Standard Deviation of Stock Returns []

Volatility(t)

Adj. R2

Intercept

Duration

Model 1
Coefficient
Standard Error
t-statistic

0.039
0.000
95.39

0.002
0.000
60.15

Model 2
Coefficient
Standard Error
t-statistic

0.009
0.000
26.91

0.001
0.000
34.08

0.662
0.003
236.85

0.46

Intercept

Relative
Duration

Volatility(t)

Adj. R2

Model 1
Coefficient
Standard Error
t-statistic

0.580
0.008
71.76

0.3177
0.008
40.35

Model 2
Coefficient
Standard Error
t-statistic

0.329
0.008
41.21

0.197
0.008
25.85

0.04

Panel B: Volatility is Stock Return Beta []

0.02

0.39
0.00
120.80

0.19

Panel C: Volatility is Standard Deviation of Firm-Specific Stock Returns [f]

Intercept

Duration

Model 1
Coefficient
Standard Error
t-statistic

0.036
0.000
80.18

0.002
0.000
54.91

Model 2
Coefficient
Standard Error
t-statistic

0.009
0.000
23.12

0.001
0.000
30.82
35

Volatility(t)

Adj. R2

0.04

0.649
0.003
215.28

0.41

The number of observations in the Model 1 regressions is 83,785 and in Model 2 regression is 71,491.
Relative Duration for firm i in year t is calculated as Durationit/(Market Durationt). Market Duration is the
value-weighted average of all firms with a measure of duration in fiscal year t. See Table 2 for the calculation of
duration for firm i in fiscal year t.
for firm i for fiscal year t is estimated via a market model regression. The regression is run using weekly
returns for a period of two years starting following the year from which we obtain the data to compute each of
the financial ratios. The standard deviation of stock returns [] is the standard deviation of the weekly returns
calculated over the same two-year period. The standard deviation of firm-specific stock returns [f] is the
standard deviation of the residuals from the market model regression.
All correlations are significant at the 0.0001 level.

36

TABLE 6
Relation between estimated changes in expected returns (r), market returns and other common
factors in stock returns.
Panel A: Univariate Statistics

Excess Market
Return
(RM-RF)
Excess Long
Bond Return
(TERM)
Change in
Expected
Return (r)
Duration Factor
(HDMLD)
Size Factor
(SMB)
Book-to-market
Factor (HML)

Obs.

Mean

Std.
Dev.

Min

Low

420

.53

4.30

-22.82

-1.95

.72

3.28

16.00

420

.11

3.02

-8.69

-1.63

-.02

1.82

12.02

420

.05

.23

-.82

-.06

.05

.18

1.51

420

-.50

2.61

-8.69

-2.01

-.56

1.01

9.96

420

.27

2.81

-10.01

-1.42

.09

1.98

9.06

420

.41

3.17

-14.22

-.58

1.34

16.50

Median Upper

-2.39

Max

Panel B: Correlations (Pearson above the diagonal, Spearman below the diagonal)

RM-RF

TERM

HDMLD

SMB

HML

RM-RF

0.33
(0.0001)

-0.45
(0.0001)

0.35
(0.0001)

0.31
(0.0001)

-0.24
(0.0001)

TERM

0.36
(0.0001)

-0.08
(0.1155)

0.01
(0.7888)

-0.12
(0.0119)

-0.02
(0.6531)

-0.45
(0.0001)

-0.06
(0.2000)

-0.73
(0.0001)

-0.28
(0.0001)

0.57
(0.0001)

HDMLD

0.33
(0.0001)

0.01
(0.9428)

-0.72
(0.0001)

0.17
(0.0001)

-0.77
(0.0004)

SMB

0.25
(0.0001)

-0.10
(0.0177)

-0.25
(0.0001)

0.18
(0.0001)

-0.05
(0.0001)

HML

-0.26
(0.0001)

-0.06
(0.2019)

0.57
(0.0001)

-0.76
(0.0001)

-0.12
(0.0137)

37

Panel C: Regressions of the excess market return (RM-RF) on common factors

SMB

HML

Adj. R2

0.003
0.002

0.456
0.069

-0.306
0.061

0.142

1.46

6.57

-4.98

Intercept

HDMLD

Model 1
Coefficient
Standard
Error
T-statistic

Model 2
Coefficient
Standard
Error
T-statistic

0.009
0.002

-7.409
1.019

0.299
0.068

-0.008
0.071

4.53

-7.27

4.34

-0.11

0.237

Model 3
Coefficient
Standard
Error
T-statistic

0.007
0.002

0.545
0.118

0.387
0.069

0.038
0.096

3.42

4.63

5.58

0.40

0.182

The common factors are the market return, long-term bond return, change in expected return, duration, size, and
book-to-market. In Panel B Pearson Correlation Coefficients are reported in the upper right diagonals and
Spearman Correlation Coefficients in the lower left diagonal (p-values in parentheses). The time period is from
July 1964 to December 1999 and consists of 420 months. The excess long-bond return (TERM) is computed as
the difference between the long-run government bond return and the one-month Treasury bill return. The excess
market return (RM-RF) is computes as the difference between the CRSP value-weighted index monthly return
and the one-month Treasury bill return. The change in the expected return (r) is the estimate of from cross
sectional regressions of the form: hit = t + t

Dit
+ it .
(1 + r )

SMB (small minus big), the return on the mimicking portfolio for the common size factor in stock returns, is the
difference each month between the simple average of the percent returns on the three small-stock portfolios (S/L,
S/M, and S/H) and the simple average of the returns on the three big-stock portfolios (B/L, B/M, and B/H). HML
(high minus low), the return on the mimicking portfolio for the common book-to-market equity factor in returns,
is the difference each month between the simple average of the returns on the two high-BE/ME portfolios (S/H
and B/H) and the average of the returns on the two low-BE/ME portfolios (S/L and B/L). HDMLD (high minus
low), the return on the mimicking portfolio for the duration factor in returns, is the difference each month
between the simple average of the returns on the two high-duration portfolios (S/HD and B/HD) and the average
of the returns on the two low-duration portfolios (S/LD and B/LD).

38

100
90
80

Frequency

70
60
50
40
30
20
10

1.
4

1.
1

0.
8

0.
5

0.
2

-0
.1

-0
.4

-0
.7

-1

-1
.3

-1
.6

Change in Expected Return

Figure 1A - Histogram of Monthly Estimates of Change in Expected Return. The Figure

is a graphical Illustration of Monthly Estimates of the Change in Expected Return (r) where
Dit
the change in expected return is the coefficient from the regression: hit = t + t
+ it .
(1 + r )

39

1.65
15.00

Market Return %

-5.00

0.65

-15.00
0.15
-25.00

Estimated Change in r (%)

1.15

5.00

Market Return %

Estimated
Change in r (%)

-0.35

-35.00

Jul-97

Jul-95

Jul-93

Jul-91

Jul-89

Jul-87

Jul-85

Jul-83

Jul-81

Jul-79

Jul-77

Jul-75

Jul-73

Jul-71

Jul-69

Jul-67

Jul-65

-0.85
Jul-63

-45.00

Date

Figure 1B - Monthly Data for the Market Return and the Estimated Change in Expected Return.

0.45
0.35

Market Return %

1
-1

0.25

-3
0.15

-5
-7

0.05

-9

Estimated Change in r (%)

Market Return %

Estimated
Change in r (%)

-0.05

-11

Jul-97

Jul-95

Jul-93

Jul-91

Jul-89

Jul-87

Jul-85

Jul-83

Jul-81

Jul-79

Jul-77

Jul-75

Jul-73

Jul-71

Jul-69

Jul-67

Jul-65

-0.15
Jul-63

-13

Date

Figure 1C - Twelve Month Moving Average Monthly Data for the Market Return and the Estimated Change in
Expected Return
40

Endnotes:
1

Cornell (1999) recognizes the role of duration as a measure of equity risk and provides some preliminary
evidence of its importance by documenting a negative relation between dividend yields and betas. Gould and
Sorensen (1986) also argue that duration is an important source of risk in high earnings growth firms.
2

This linear relation is an approximation based on a one-term Taylor series expansion of a bonds price as a
function of its yield, divided by its price. The Taylor series can be used to approximate the bond price to any
level of accuracy. The two-term series expansion incorporates convexity (the second derivative, 2P/ r2).
3

This identity requires the clean surplus assumption: the book value of equity only increases with earnings and
equity issuances and decreases through payment of dividends or repurchases of stock. In practice, there are
some minor violations of this relation such as foreign currency translation adjustments and unrealized gains and
losses on marketable securities. These violations are not expected to introduce any systematic biases.

Sales growth rates for US equities have averaged around 10% over the past 40 years [see Nissim and Penman
2001]. This period, however, has been one of unprecedented growth for US equity markets, and the long-run
macroeconomic growth rate provides a more plausible ex ante estimate of long-run sales growth.

We also replicated our results using a cost of equity capital ranging from 8% to 18%. A lower (higher) cost of
capital increases (decreases) the average duration of the entire sample, but has little impact on the relative
rankings of duration across securities. As a result, all of our key results are robust with respect to changing the
cost of equity.
6

Our timing conventions for computing portfolio returns follow those in Fama and French (1993). If we are
computing returns for portfolios formed on financial data from year t-1, then we compute monthly holding
period returns from July of year t through June of year t + 1. We compute excess returns for each of our stock
portfolios by subtracting the one-month Treasury bill rate, measured at the beginning of the month. Six
portfolios are formed from sorts on size and book-to-market. Two size groupings (S and B) are formed around
the NYSE median and three book-to-market groupings (L, M and H) are formed around the NYSE 30th and 70th
percentiles. Six value-weighted portfolios are constructed from the intersection of these groupings (S/L, S/M,
S/H, B/L, B/M, B/H). The mimicking factor for size (SMB) is constructed by taking the difference, each month,
between the simple average of the returns on the three small-stock portfolios and the three big-stock portfolios.
Similarly, the mimicking factor for book-to-market (HML) is the difference, each month, between the simple
average of the returns on the two high-book-to-market portfolios and the two low-book-to-market portfolios.
For HDMLD we form three duration groupings (LD, MD and HD) are formed around the NYSE 30th and 70th
percentiles. Six value-weighted portfolios are constructed from the intersection of two size groups and the three
duration groups (S/LD, S/MD, S/HD, B/LD, B/MD, B/HD). The mimicking factor for duration (HDMLD) is
the difference, each month, between the simple average of the returns on the two high duration portfolios and the
two low duration portfolios.
7

Standard and Poors uses the BARRA classification of value versus growth, which is based on book-to-market.
Dow Jones and Russell use more complex measures that combine more than one indicator of value and growth.
A comparison of the alternative approaches is provided at http://208.198.167.32/dj_style/index.html.

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