Are Stocks Really Less Volatile in the Long Run?

56 Pages Posted: 26 May 2008 Last revised: 13 Dec 2011

See all articles by Lubos Pastor

Lubos Pastor

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

Robert F. Stambaugh

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 22, 2011

Abstract

According to conventional wisdom, annualized volatility of stock returns is lower over long horizons than over short horizons, due to mean reversion induced by return predictability. In contrast, we find that stocks are substantially more volatile over long horizons from an investor's perspective. This perspective recognizes that parameters are uncertain, even with two centuries of data, and that observable predictors imperfectly deliver the conditional expected return. Mean reversion contributes strongly to reducing long-horizon variance, but it is more than offset by various uncertainties faced by the investor, especially uncertainty about the expected return. The same uncertainties reduce desired stock allocations of long-horizon investors contemplating target-date funds.

Keywords: stock, volatility, target-date funds, Bayesian, predictive system, predictive variance

JEL Classification: G12

Suggested Citation

Pastor, Lubos and Stambaugh, Robert F., Are Stocks Really Less Volatile in the Long Run? (March 22, 2011). EFA 2009 Bergen Meetings Paper, AFA 2010 Atlanta Meetings Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1136847 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1136847

Lubos Pastor (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

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Robert F. Stambaugh

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School ( email )

The Wharton School, Finance Department
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United States
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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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