English

Adaptive Testing for Alphas in High-dimensional Factor Pricing Models

Methodology 2023-05-23 v2

Abstract

This paper proposes a new procedure to validate the multi-factor pricing theory by testing the presence of alpha in linear factor pricing models with a large number of assets. Because the market's inefficient pricing is likely to occur to a small fraction of exceptional assets, we develop a testing procedure that is particularly powerful against sparse signals. Based on the high-dimensional Gaussian approximation theory, we propose a simulation-based approach to approximate the limiting null distribution of the test. Our numerical studies show that the new procedure can deliver a reasonable size and achieve substantial power improvement compared to the existing tests under sparse alternatives, and especially for weak signals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.06585,
  title  = {Adaptive Testing for Alphas in High-dimensional Factor Pricing Models},
  author = {Qiang Xia and Xianyang Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.06585},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T10:04:48.272Z