What Determines Expected International Asset Returns?

55 Pages Posted: 28 Dec 2000 Last revised: 26 Sep 2022

See all articles by Campbell R. Harvey

Campbell R. Harvey

Duke University - Fuqua School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Guofu Zhou

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School

Bruno Solnik

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) - Department of Finance ; HEC Paris - Departement Finance et Economie

Date Written: February 1994

Abstract

This paper characterizes the forces that determine time-variation in expected international asset returns. We offer a number of innovations. By using the latent factor technique, we do not have to prespecify the sources of risk. We solve for the latent premiums and characterize their time-variation. We find evidence that the first factor premium resembles the expected return on the world market portfolio. However, the inclusion of this premium alone is not sufficient to explain the conditional variation in the returns. We find evidence of a second factor premium which is related to foreign exchange risk. Our sample includes new data on both international industry portfolios and international fixed income portfolios. We find that the two latent factor model performs better in explaining the conditional variation in asset returns than a prespecified two factor model. Finally, we show that differences in the risk loadings are important in accounting for the cross-sectional variation in the international returns.

Suggested Citation

Harvey, Campbell R. and Zhou, Guofu and Solnik, Bruno, What Determines Expected International Asset Returns? (February 1994). NBER Working Paper No. w4660, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=254541

Campbell R. Harvey (Contact Author)

Duke University - Fuqua School of Business ( email )

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Guofu Zhou

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School ( email )

Washington University
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Bruno Solnik

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) - Department of Finance ( email )

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Hong Kong

HEC Paris - Departement Finance et Economie ( email )

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