Generics: Cannot convert from Collections.emptyList() to List<String>

Why

public List<String> getList(){
    if (isMyListOKReady())
        return myList;
    return Collections.emptyList();
}

compiles well, but for

public List<String> getList(){
    return isMyListReady() ? myList : Collections.emptyList();
}

Eclipse says "Type mismatch: cannot convert from List<Object> to List<String>"?