Structural Change in the Price-Dividend Ratio and Implications on Stock Return Prediction Regression

The price-dividend ratio is one of the most frequently used financial variables to predict long-horizon stock return. However, the persistency of the price-dividend ratio is found to cause the spuriousness of the stock return prediction regression. The stable relationship between the stock price and the dividend, however, seems to weaken after World War II and to experience structural break. In this paper, we identify a structural change in the cointegrating relationship between the log of the stock price and the log of the dividend. Confirming a structural break in 1962, we subdivide the sample and apply the fully modified estimator to correct for the nonstationarity of the regressor. With the subdivided sample, we exercise the nonparametric bootstrap procedure to derive the empirical distribution of the test statistics and fail to find return predictability in each subsample period.