What is the aggregate real rate of return in the economy? Is it higher than the growth rate of the economy and, if so, by how much? Is there a tendency for returns to fall in the long run? Which particular assets have the highest long-run returns? We answer these questions on the basis of a new and comprehensive data set for all major asset classes, including housing. The annual data on total returns for equity, housing, bonds, and bills cover 16 advanced economies from 1870 to 2015, and our new evidence reveals many new findings and puzzles.

errors are our own. The views expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Deutsche Bundesbank, or the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

This paper estimates the cost of sovereign default by using novel econometric methods-dynamic local projections applied to a sample that is re-randomised using inverse propensity score weights. We find that the impact of default on output is negative, significant and persistent-around 2.8% of GDP on impact and 4.8% at peak. The downturn is driven by sharp falls in investment, accompanied by a collapse in gross trade. The cost rises dramatically if the default is followed by a systemic banking crisis, peaking at 9.5% GDP. Our findings suggest that while autarky costs play an important role, sovereign-banking spillovers are central to the cost of default.

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