(2) Excess returns on two government bond portfolios from CRSP covering maturities from (1‐5 year) and (6‐10 year), and five corporate bond portfolios from Moody’s rating groups, Aaa, Aa, A, Baa and LG (low‐grade, that is below Baa). Empirical Models (1) Effects of bond‐market returns on the average stock returns and bond returns R (t ) RF (t ) a mTERM (t ) dDEF (t ) e(t ) Table 3 Significant positive effects were estimated from both input factors. The explaining power for average stock returns is relatively low , with R 2 between 6% to 21%. For average bond returns, these models explain much higher variation with R 2 between 79% to 98%. Bond factors explain bond returns well. (2) Effect of excess stock market returns on the average returns of stock and bonds R (t ) RF (t ) a b[ RM (t ) RF (t )] e(t ) Table 4 A reverse result is found than the previous model, the market factor explains the stock returns much better than the bond returns. (3) Effects of mimicking returns for the size and book‐to‐market equity to the average returns of stocks and bonds R (t ) RF (t ) a sSMB (t ) hHML (t ) e(t ) Table 5 The size and book‐to‐value factors explain the returns of small stocks better. SMB has positive effect and HML exhibits negative effects for stock returns. No clear patterns are found for the bond returns. (4) Effects of excess market returns and mimicking returns for the size and book‐to‐market equity to