This paper provides the first empirical test of the diversification of opinions theory and the groupshift theory using real business data. Our data set covers management teams and single managersof US equity mutual funds. Our results reject the group shift theory and support thediversification...

We examine the role of hedge funds as primary lenders to corporate firms. We investigate boththe reasons and the implications of hedge funds’ activities in the primary loan market. Weexamine the characteristics of firms that borrow from hedge funds and find that borrowers areprimarily firms...

We examine overconfidence among equity mutual fund managers. While overconfidencehas been extensively documented among retail investors, evidence fromprofessional investors is scarce. Consistent with theories of overconfidence, we findthat fund managers trade more after good past performance....

In this paper, we identify and document the empirical characteristics of the key drivers ofconvertible arbitrage as a strategy and how they impact the performance of convertible arbitragehedge funds. We show that the returns of a buy-and-hedge strategy involving taking a longposition in...

We analyze the quality of macroeconomic survey forecasts. Recent findings indicate that theyare anchoring biased. This irrationality would challenge the results of a wide range ofempirical studies, e.g., in asset pricing, volatility clustering or market liquidity, which rely onsurvey data to...

We study the eect of the business cycle on optimal capital structure choice and thebenet to leverage. We propose a regime switching model with a state-dependentcash ow process to capture macroeconomic risk in a rm's cash ow. Our modelis parsimonious but still realistic and allows for a wide...

Standard equity valuation approaches (i.e., DDM, RIM, and DCF model) are derived under theassumption of ideal conditions, such as infinite payoffs and clean surplus accounting. Becausethese conditions are hardly ever met, we extend the standard approaches, based on thefundamental principle of...

In this paper we develop the rst estimator of the covariance matrix that relies solely onforward-looking information. This estimator only uses price information from a cross-sectionof plain-vanilla options. In an out-of-sample study for US blue-chip stocks we show that aminimum-variance strategy...

Using detailed holdings of exchange-traded options, we examine how mutual funds use optionsand how options affect portfolio performance and risk. Options users underperform nonusers bytwo to three percent per year. The underperformance is especially pronounced for funds that areheavy users of...

This paper introduces two measures to investigate potential window-dressing behavior amongmutual fund managers. We show that unskilled managers that perform poorly are more likely towindow dress by strategically purchasing winner stocks and selling loser stocks near quarterends. Further, funds...