Can Asset Pricing Models Price Idiosyncratic Risk in U.K. Stock Returns?

I examine how well different linear factor models and consumption-based asset pricing models price idiosyncratic risk in U.K. stock returns. Correctly pricing idiosyncratic risk is a significant challenge for many of the models I consider. For some consumption-based models, there is a clear tradeoff in the performance of the models between correctly pricing systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk. Linear factor models do a better job in most cases in pricing systematic risk than consumption-based models but the reverse is true for idiosyncratic risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]