This paper empirically explores the short-and long-run effects of fiscal and monetary policies on US stock returns and tests the validity of market efficiency. The results support the presence of a strong long-run (equilibrium) relation binding stock prices with fiscal (but not monetary) policy. Further tests assign a dominant role to fiscal policy as a main force driving the overall equilibrium relation with the stock market. Estimates from error-correction models corroborate the existence of robust long-run relation and further suggest that past fiscal (but not monetary) policy actions exert significant short-run effects on current stock returns. A similar verdict emerged from alternative estimates in which fiscal policy actions anticipated from an ex ante equation continue to support a significant lagged relation with current stock returns. These results provide consistent evidence that important effects of fiscal policy are transmitted to the real economy through the stock market. Moreover, the results for fiscal policy appear at variance with market efficiency. However, transaction costs and other well-known modeling caveats may impede implications for profitable investment strategies.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the overlooked relationship between politics and the performance of anomaly-based investment strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Monthly long-short portfolios are formed based on relative mispricing scores according to the Stambaugh et al. (2012, 2015) relative mispricing measure. Portfolio performance is examined throughout various presidential terms. The design also introduces economic policy uncertainty (EPU) as a possible explanatory variable for portfolio performance.
Findings
The analysis reveals that anomaly-based returns are higher under Republican administrations than they are under Democratic administrations. Moreover, the results show that the impact of EPU on the relationship between the political party affiliation of the president and future anomaly-based returns are driven by the election and post-election years.
Practical implications
The examination of returns on a long-short portfolio may be of particular value to investment companies, such as hedge funds, who regularly employ this type of strategy.
Originality/value
While the impact of presidential terms on raw equity returns has been well examined, the paper is the first to examine the impact of presidential terms on the return of an anomaly-based investment strategy. EPU is also introduced as an important contributing factor.
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