Cross-sectional asset pricing with heterogeneous preferences and beliefs

This paper provides the theoretical foundation for studying the cross-section of stock returns in a Lucas economy populated by investors with heterogeneous preferences and beliefs. The equilibrium quantities are either derived explicitly or characterized in terms of conditional expectations well-suited for Monte-Carlo simulations. The main advantage of the simulation approach lies in its straightforward extension to many assets, which makes it possible to analyze equilibrium in economies with many fundamental assets. A numerical example shows that the model is able to generate a low level of the risk-free rate with non-negligible volatility as well as reasonable equity premia and return volatilities when sufficiently many fundamental assets are present.