Is illiquidity priced in an international factor pricing model? A dynamic panel data application with robust IV

In the setting of a dynamic panel data framework, we investigate the international five-factor Fama–French (2017) model augmented with traditional illiquidity factors (Amihud, Journal of Financial Markets, 2002, 5, 31–56; Amihud, Critical Finance Review, 2019, 8, 203–221; Pástor and Stambaugh, Journal of Political Economy, 2003, 111, 642–685; Pástor and Stambaugh, Critical Finance Review, 2019, 8, 277–299) to determine if any of these factors are priced. Since illiquidity measures are endogenous, we propose an algorithm that generates robust instruments which are combined with a GMM estimator to cope with both the endogeneity issues surrounding illiquidity and other eventual specification errors. In this dynamic framework, we generally find that the most significant factors correspond to market and size but illiquidity may matter depending on the level of the beta. We find that illiquidity has more impact on returns in expansion than in recession. However, the bid-ask spread seems to behave differently from the other illiquidity measures.