Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Three Essays On Empirical Asset Pricing, Ming Zeng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This thesis consists of three chapters. In Chapter1, I show that returns to currency carry and momentum strategies are compensations for the risk of US monetary policy uncertainty (MPU), with risk exposures explaining 96% of their cross-sectional return variations. The findings are consistent with an intermediary-based exchange rate model. Higher MPU triggers position unwinding by the intermediary, which decreases there turns of currency with high-interest rate or appreciation, while that with low-interest rate or depreciation earns positive returns. Different responses stem from the long and short behavior of the intermediary. The explanatory power of US MPU risk is robust and …