The Time-Varying Coefficient Fama - French Five Factor Model: A Case Study in the Return of Japan Portfolios

In this paper, we have developed a Fama - French five factor model (FF5 model) from Fama & French (2015) by using concept of timevarying coefficient. For a data set, we have used monthly data form Kenneth R. French home page, it include Japan portfolios (classified by using size and book-to-market) and 5 factors from July 1990 to April 2020. The first analysis, we used Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF test) for the stationary test, from the result, all Japan portfolios and 5 factors are stationary. Next analysis, we estimated a coefficient of Fama - French five factor model by using a generalized additive model with a thin-plate spline to create the time-varying coefficient Fama - French five factor model (TV-FF5 model). The benefit of this study is TV-FF5 model which can capture a different effect at different times of 5 factors but the traditional FF5 model can’t do it. From the result, we can show a time-varying coefficient in all factors and in all portfolios, for time-varying coefficients of Rm-Rf, SMB, and HML are significant for all Japan portfolios, time-varying coefficients of RMW are positively significant for SM, and SH portfolio and time-varying coefficients of CMA are significant for SM, SH, and BM portfolio.