Characteristic-Sorted Portfolios and Macroeconomic Risks - An Orthogonal Decomposition
Journal of Empirical Finance, Vol. 65, 2022
Michael J. Brennan Irish Finance Working Paper Series Research Paper No. 22-2
77 Pages Posted: 17 Jul 2019 Last revised: 8 Feb 2022
Date Written: October 28, 2021
Abstract
We assess the relative importance of individual macroeconomic variables in explaining the time series variation of a broad range of characteristic-sorted portfolios. Employing an optimal orthogonalization approach, the explained variation in each characteristic-sorted portfolio is decomposed into components associated with individual macroeconomic variables. When examined unconditionally, the set of macroeconomic variables account for only limited explained variation. This low explained variation is partially resolved by allowing for dynamic and non-linear macroeconomic exposure. Finally, we highlight a degree of commonality in the explained macroeconomic variation associated with various characteristic-sorted portfolios, indicating that they proxy for particular macroeconomic characteristics simultaneously.
Keywords: characteristic factors, macroeconomic fundamentals, variance decomposition, quantile regression
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