Title: Discount rates
Description: "Discount rate variation is the central organizing question of current asset pricing research.  I survey facts, theories and applications.  We thought returns were uncorrelated over time, so variation in price-dividend ratios was due to variation in expected cashflows.  Now it seems all price-dividend variation corresponds to discount-rate variation.  We thought that the cross-section of expected returns came from the CAPM.  Now we have a zoo of new factors.  I categorize discount-rate theories based on central ingredients and data sources.  Discount-rate variation continues to change finance applications, including portfolio theory, accounting, cost of capital, capital structure, compensation, and macroeconomics"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.