IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jfinqa/v52y2017i02p427-463_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Best Practice for Cost-of-Capital Estimates

Author

Listed:
  • Levi, Yaron
  • Welch, Ivo

Abstract

Cost-of-capital assessments with factor models require quantitative forward-looking estimates. We recommend estimating Vasicek-shrunk betas with 1–4 years of daily stock returns and then shrinking betas a second time (and more for smaller stocks and longer-term projects), because the underlying betas are themselves time-varying. Such estimators also work well in other developed countries and for small-minus-big (SMB) and high-minus-low (HML) exposures. If own historical stock returns are not available, peer betas based on market cap should be used. Historical industry averages have almost no predictive power and should never be used.

Suggested Citation

  • Levi, Yaron & Welch, Ivo, 2017. "Best Practice for Cost-of-Capital Estimates," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 427-463, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:52:y:2017:i:02:p:427-463_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022109017000114/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hollstein, Fabian, 2020. "Estimating beta: The international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    2. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2022. "External carbon costs and internal carbon pricing," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Altavilla, Carlo & Bochmann, Paul & De Ryck, Jeroen & Dumitru, Ana-Maria & Grodzicki, Maciej & Kick, Heinrich & Fernandes, Cecilia Melo & Mosthaf, Jonas & O’Donnell, Charles & Palligkinis, Spyros, 2021. "Measuring the cost of equity of euro area banks," Occasional Paper Series 254, European Central Bank.
    4. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Miguel Martin-Valmayor, 2021. "Persistence in the market risk premium: evidence across countries," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 45(3), pages 413-427, July.
    5. Hollstein, Fabian & Prokopczuk, Marcel & Wese Simen, Chardin, 2020. "Beta uncertainty," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Hollstein, Fabian & Prokopczuk, Marcel, 2022. "Testing Factor Models in the Cross-Section," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    7. Boons, Martijn & Duarte, Fernando & de Roon, Frans & Szymanowska, Marta, 2020. "Time-varying inflation risk and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 444-470.
    8. Keloharju, Matti & Linnainmaa, Juhani T. & Nyberg, Peter, 2021. "Long-term discount rates do not vary across firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(3), pages 946-967.
    9. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2020. "An Efficiency Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    10. Cujean, Julien & Andrei, Daniel & Wilson, Mungo, 2018. "The Lost Capital Asset Pricing Model," CEPR Discussion Papers 12607, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Kayo, Eduardo K. & Martelanc, Roy & Brunaldi, Eduardo O. & da Silva, Walter E., 2020. "Capital asset pricing model, beta stability, and the pricing puzzle of electricity transmission in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    12. Matti Keloharju & Juhani T. Linnainmaa & Peter Nyberg, 2019. "Long-Term Discount Rates Do Not Vary Across Firms," NBER Working Papers 25579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Becker, Janis & Hollstein, Fabian & Prokopczuk, Marcel & Sibbertsen, Philipp, 2019. "The Memory of Beta Factors," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-661, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    14. Hollstein, Fabian & Prokopczuk, Marcel & Wese Simen, Chardin, 2019. "Estimating beta: Forecast adjustments and the impact of stock characteristics for a broad cross-section," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 91-118.
    15. Mehmet Balcilar & Riza Demirer & Festus V. Bekun, 2021. "Flexible Time-Varying Betas in a Novel Mixture Innovation Factor Model with Latent Threshold," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-20, April.
    16. Olivier Dessaint & Jacques Olivier & Clemens A Otto & David Thesmar, 2021. "CAPM-Based Company (Mis)valuations [Credit lines as monitored liquidity insurance: Theory and evidence]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(1), pages 1-66.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:52:y:2017:i:02:p:427-463_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jfq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.