An extensive literature documents time-varying risk preferences and time-varying risk premiums. We hypothesize that
earnings dispersion is associated with variation in risk premiums over time through two mechanisms. First, aggregate
uncertainty may manifest itself in higher earnings dispersion. Second, dispersion in performance may result in higher
unemployment shocks. Our empirical findings support these hypothesized links between earnings dispersion and both
unemployment and aggregate uncertainty. Consistent with this, we provide evidence that aggregate stock returns are
negatively related to the future cross-sectional dispersion in earnings changes. The association between contemporaneous
aggregate stock returns and cross-sectional dispersion in earnings is weak but positive. Our findings are robust to
including different macroeconomic indicators that prior studies show to be related to aggregate stock returns.