Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion

In this paper, we explore the relations between liquidity, stock returns, and investor risk aversion as captured by the variance risk premium (VRP). This is motivated by theoretical and empirical evidence in the literature which suggests that investor risk aversion negatively correlates with asset l...

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Main Authors: Zhang, Qingjing, Choudhry, Taufiq, Kuo, Jing-Ming, Liu, Xiaoquan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65412/
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author Zhang, Qingjing
Choudhry, Taufiq
Kuo, Jing-Ming
Liu, Xiaoquan
author_facet Zhang, Qingjing
Choudhry, Taufiq
Kuo, Jing-Ming
Liu, Xiaoquan
author_sort Zhang, Qingjing
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In this paper, we explore the relations between liquidity, stock returns, and investor risk aversion as captured by the variance risk premium (VRP). This is motivated by theoretical and empirical evidence in the literature which suggests that investor risk aversion negatively correlates with asset liquidity, and ample empirical evidence documenting liquidity risk premium. We use monthly US data from January 1999 to December 2018 and show that innovations in the VRP Granger-cause stock returns, which in turn drive liquidity. Our findings are consistent with predictions of prior theories and highlight the predictability of the VRP. They also contribute to the on-going debate on the causal relation between stock returns and liquidity. Finally, we explore the channels through which the VRP impacts liquidity and find that the VRP influences market and momentum factors, and that movements in these factors lead to changes in liquidity. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
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spelling nottingham-654122021-06-04T07:09:36Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65412/ Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion Zhang, Qingjing Choudhry, Taufiq Kuo, Jing-Ming Liu, Xiaoquan In this paper, we explore the relations between liquidity, stock returns, and investor risk aversion as captured by the variance risk premium (VRP). This is motivated by theoretical and empirical evidence in the literature which suggests that investor risk aversion negatively correlates with asset liquidity, and ample empirical evidence documenting liquidity risk premium. We use monthly US data from January 1999 to December 2018 and show that innovations in the VRP Granger-cause stock returns, which in turn drive liquidity. Our findings are consistent with predictions of prior theories and highlight the predictability of the VRP. They also contribute to the on-going debate on the causal relation between stock returns and liquidity. Finally, we explore the channels through which the VRP impacts liquidity and find that the VRP influences market and momentum factors, and that movements in these factors lead to changes in liquidity. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. 2021-03-06 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65412/1/Combine5.pdf Zhang, Qingjing, Choudhry, Taufiq, Kuo, Jing-Ming and Liu, Xiaoquan (2021) Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting . ISSN 0924-865X Investor risk aversion; Liquidity; Systematic factors; Toda-Yamamoto Granger non-causality test http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11156-021-00966-5 doi:10.1007/s11156-021-00966-5 doi:10.1007/s11156-021-00966-5
spellingShingle Investor risk aversion; Liquidity; Systematic factors; Toda-Yamamoto Granger non-causality test
Zhang, Qingjing
Choudhry, Taufiq
Kuo, Jing-Ming
Liu, Xiaoquan
Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
title Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
title_full Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
title_fullStr Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
title_full_unstemmed Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
title_short Does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
title_sort does liquidity drive stock market returns? the role of investor risk aversion
topic Investor risk aversion; Liquidity; Systematic factors; Toda-Yamamoto Granger non-causality test
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65412/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65412/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/65412/