This research consists of two essays. The first essay entitled” Stock Return Forecasting with Sum-of-the-Parts Methodology: Evidence from Around the World”, examines forecasting ability of stock returns by employing the sum-of-the-parts (SOP) modeling technique introduced by Ferreira and Santa-Clara (2011).This approach decomposes return into three components of growth in price-earnings ratio, earnings growth, and dividend-price ratio. Each component is forecasted separately and fitted values are used in forecast model to predict stock return. We conduct a series of one-step ahead recursive forecasts for a wide range of developed and emerging markets over the period February 1995 through November 2014. Decomposed return components are forecasted separately using a list of financial variables and the fitted values from the best estimators are used according to out-of-sample performance. Our findings show that the SOP method with financial variables outperforms the historical sample mean for the majority of countries. Second essay entitled,” Equity Premium Predictability under Regime Shifts: International Evidence”, utilizes the modified version of the dividend-price ratio that alleviates some econometric concerns in the literature regarding the non-stationary and persistent predictor when forecasting international equity premium across different regimes. We employ Markov switching technique to address the issue of non-linearity between the equity premium and the predictor. The results show different patterns of equity premium predictability over the regimes across countries by the modified ratio as predictor. In addition, transition probability analysis show the adverse effect of financial crisis on regime transition probabilities by increasing the probability of switching between regimes post-crisis 2007 implying higher risk perceived by investors as a result of uncertainty inherent in regime transitions.

Submitted by Bruno Pereira Pinto (brunopereira.p@petrobras.com.br) on 2017-08-16T21:46:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dividend Yield e os Retornos das Ações Brasileiras.pdf: 337408 bytes, checksum: db0110b730ea5d14f64c7c6cb1ba9c1a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by GILSON ROCHA MIRANDA (gilson.miranda@fgv.br) on 2017-08-25T13:38:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dividend Yield e os Retornos das Ações Brasileiras.pdf: 337408 bytes, checksum: db0110b730ea5d14f64c7c6cb1ba9c1a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-31T13:19:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dividend Yield e os Retornos das Ações Brasileiras.pdf: 337408 bytes, checksum: db0110b730ea5d14f64c7c6cb1ba9c1a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-19 / This paper checks for the predictability of stocks negotiated in Sao Paulo Stock Exchange index from aggregate dividend yield. It examined a multiple regression of the excess return (Risk Premium) and return in relation to the dividend yields of prior periods and changes in dividends for the preceding year. The results show the predictive capacity of the dividend yield, especially for a one year lag. In this case, the coefficient with respect to the dividend yield is statistically and economically significant. However, this is gradually reduced over time until it became null. / Este trabalho verifica a previsibilidade dos retornos das ações cotadas na BM&FBovespa a partir do dividend yield. Foi elaborada uma regressão dos excessos de retorno (prêmios de risco) e retornos com relação ao dividend yield de períodos anteriores e das variações nos dividendos do ano imediatamente anterior. Os resultados evidenciam a capacidade preditiva do dividend yield, sobretudo para um ano de defasagem. Neste caso, o coeficiente com relação ao dividend yield é estatisticamente e economicamente significativo. No entanto, de maneira oposta ao obtido em estudos análogos realizados em outros países, a capacidade preditiva é gradativamente reduzida ao longo do tempo até se tornar nula.