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Leverage Effects on the Swedish stock market

Lindström, Gustav (2007)
Department of Economics
Abstract
The leverage effect is one of two main hypotheses explaining the negative relationship between volatility of returns and return on equity. It states that a decrease in leverage, due for example to rising stock prices, increases the amount of equity which carries the firm volatility and thus decreases the volatility on rates of return. Using 51 companies that have been actively traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange for the 15 year period 1991-2005, this study examines the signs of a leverage effect on the Swedish market. Using returns, realized volatilities and debt levels the presence of the leverage effect, in competition with other models such as the volatility feedback effect, is examined. The study concludes that the effect on the... (More)
The leverage effect is one of two main hypotheses explaining the negative relationship between volatility of returns and return on equity. It states that a decrease in leverage, due for example to rising stock prices, increases the amount of equity which carries the firm volatility and thus decreases the volatility on rates of return. Using 51 companies that have been actively traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange for the 15 year period 1991-2005, this study examines the signs of a leverage effect on the Swedish market. Using returns, realized volatilities and debt levels the presence of the leverage effect, in competition with other models such as the volatility feedback effect, is examined. The study concludes that the effect on the Swedish market most likely is a combination of the leverage effect and some other effect, with the leverage effect being more predominant for small companies and less liquid assets. There are however some inconsistencies in the results, especially the lack of monthly observations of debt, which makes the conclusion open to speculation. (Less)
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author
Lindström, Gustav
supervisor
organization
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Stock market, volatility, leverage effect, Economics, econometrics, economic theory, economic systems, economic policy, Nationalekonomi, ekonometri, ekonomisk teori, ekonomiska system, ekonomisk politik
language
English
id
1338013
date added to LUP
2007-06-05 00:00:00
date last changed
2010-08-03 10:50:23
@misc{1338013,
  abstract     = {{The leverage effect is one of two main hypotheses explaining the negative relationship between volatility of returns and return on equity. It states that a decrease in leverage, due for example to rising stock prices, increases the amount of equity which carries the firm volatility and thus decreases the volatility on rates of return. Using 51 companies that have been actively traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange for the 15 year period 1991-2005, this study examines the signs of a leverage effect on the Swedish market. Using returns, realized volatilities and debt levels the presence of the leverage effect, in competition with other models such as the volatility feedback effect, is examined. The study concludes that the effect on the Swedish market most likely is a combination of the leverage effect and some other effect, with the leverage effect being more predominant for small companies and less liquid assets. There are however some inconsistencies in the results, especially the lack of monthly observations of debt, which makes the conclusion open to speculation.}},
  author       = {{Lindström, Gustav}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Leverage Effects on the Swedish stock market}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}