Modelling the cross-sectional variation of e/p ratios: Implications for the e/p anomaly

This paper models the cross-sectional variation of earnings-price (E/P) ratios using Finnish data. Although E/P ratios are very commonly used in practical investment decisions, the cross-sectional determinants of E/P ratios have reached only limited attention so far. In this paper it is shown that a substantial part of the cross-sectional variation of Finnish E/P ratios can be devoted to differences in securities systematic risk estimated by instrumental accounting variables, such as accounting betas, financial leverage, operating leverage and growth. After controlling the E/P ratios for the effects of these instrumental risk variables, the E/P anomaly becomes insignificant in the Finnish stock market. This finding suggests that the E/P anomaly generally observed in major financial markets may be largely due to the serious empirical problems in risk estimation.