TY - BOOK AU - Docherty,Paul AU - Chan,Howard AU - Easton,Steve TI - Asset tangibility, industry representation and the cross section of equity returns SN - 03128962 AV - HD31 AUS PY - 2011/// CY - Los Angeles PB - Sage KW - Asset pricing KW - Cross-section KW - Tangibility of assets N2 - Recent theory relates expected returns and covariant risk to the investment decisions of a firm across certain stages of the business cycle. Using the Australian accounting environment that provides a wider scope for the capitalisation of intangible assets compared with the United States, this paper tests the relationship between asset tangibility and returns within the Fama and MacBeth (1973) framework. A relationship is found to exist between asset tangibility and the cross-section of equity returns. This relationship is most evident in the materials industry, which is characterised by irreversible, firm-specific assets. These results persist after controlling for firm characteristics that Fama and French (1992) show are related to returns, although the effect is largely driven by microcap stocks UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/0312896211399200 ER -