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Firm Characteristics, Unanticipated Inflation, and Stock Returns
Author(s) -
PEARCE DOUGLAS K.,
ROLEY V. VANCE
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1988.tb02615.x
Subject(s) - economics , stock (firearms) , monetary economics , inflation (cosmology) , equity (law) , real interest rate , econometrics , monetary policy , mechanical engineering , physics , theoretical physics , political science , law , engineering
This paper re‐examines the effects of nominal contracts on the relationship between unanticipated inflation and an individual stock's rate of return. This study differs in three main ways from previous research. First, announced inflation data are used to examine the effects of unanticipated inflation. Second, a different specification is used to obtain more efficient estimates. Third, additional nominal contracts are considered. The empirical results indicate that time‐varying firm characteristics related to inflation predominately determine the effect of unanticipated inflation on a stock's rate of return. A firm's debt‐equity ratio appears to be particularly important in determining the response.