Consumption Risks in Option Returns

We offer evidence that exposures to consumption growth and consumption volatility are significantly priced in the cross-section of delta-hedged option returns. Consumption growth commands a positive risk premium, whereas consumption volatility commands a negative risk premium. Our results suggest that consumption risk exposures provide rational foundations for well-known relations between options moneyness or idiosyncratic underlying-stock volatility and the cross-section of delta-hedged option returns. Furthermore, those risk premiums can also price stocks. In a representative-agent economy with recursive preferences, our results suggest that investors prefer early resolution of uncertainty.