University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Finance Papers Wharton Faculty Research 1987 Expected Stock Returns and Volatility Kenneth R. French G. William Schwert Robert F. Stambaugh University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/fnce_papers Part of the Finance Commons, and the Finance and Financial Management Commons Recommended Citation French, K. R., Schwert, G., & Stambaugh, R. F. (1987). Expected Stock Returns and Volatility. Journal of Financial Economics, 19 (1), 3-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(87)90026-2 At the time of publication, author Robert F. Stambaugh was affiliated with the University of Chicago. Currently, he is a faculty member at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/fnce_papers/363 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Expected Stock Returns and Volatility Abstract This paper examines the relation between stock returns and stock market volatility. We find ve idence that the expected market risk premium (the expected return on a stock portfolio minus the Treasury bill yield) is positively related to the predictable volatility of stock returns. There is also evidence that unexpected stock market returns are negatively related to the unexpected change in the volatility of stock returns. This negative relation provides indirect evidence of a positive relation between expected risk premiums and volatility. Disciplines Finance | Finance and Financial Management Comments At the time of publication, author Robert F. Stambaugh was affiliated with the University of Chicago. Currently, he is a faculty member at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.