Priced Risk and Asymmetric Volatility in the Cross-Section of Skewness

We investigate the sources of skewness in aggregate risk-factors and the cross-section of stock returns. In an ICAPM setting with conditional volatility, we find theoretical time series predictions on the relationships among volatility, returns, and skewness for priced risk factors. Market returns resemble these predictions; however, size, bookto-market, and momentum factor returns show alternative behavior, leading us to conclude these factors are not priced risks. We link aggregate risk and skewness to individual stocks and find empirically that the risk aversion effect manifests in individual stock skewness. Additionally, we find several firm characteristics that explain stock skewness. Smaller firms, value firms, highly levered firms, and firms with poor credit ratings have more positive skewness. ∗Stern School of Business, New York University, [email protected] and [email protected].