Asset Pricing and the Volume Effect

Previous literature in financial economics documents the existence of a liquidity premium in expected returns, measured by the bid-ask spread. This study provides a more comprehensive test of the egect of liquidity on common stock returns by including trading volume as an additional liquidity measure. we find that trading volume is a relevant measure of liquidity, and affects expected returns even aher controlling for the effects of systematic risk, firm size, and the relative bid-ask spread. We also find that trading volume complements the bid-ask spread as a liquidity measure, and provides additional information about the liquidity premium. The liquidity effect emerges in non-January months as a volume effect, in addition to the spread effect in January documented by Eleswarapu and Reinganum(1993).