Bad Beta, Good Beta

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2004
Volume: 94
Issue: 5
Pages: 1249-1275

Authors (2)

John Y. Campbell (Harvard University) Tuomo Vuolteenaho (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper explains the size and value "anomalies" in stock returns using an economically motivated two-beta model. We break the beta of a stock with the market portfolio into two components, one reflecting news about the market's future cash flows and one reflecting news about the market's discount rates. Intertemporal asset pricing theory suggests that the former should have a higher price of risk; thus beta, like cholesterol, comes in "bad" and "good" varieties. Empirically, we find that value stocks and small stocks have considerably higher cash-flow betas than growth stocks and large stocks, and this can explain their higher average returns. The poor performance of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) since 1963 is explained by the fact that growth stocks and high-past-beta stocks have predominantly good betas with low risk prices.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:94:y:2004:i:5:p:1249-1275
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25