This study tests whether investor belief differences affect the cross-sectional variation of risk-neutral skewness, using data on firm-level stock options traded on the CBOE from 2003 to 2006. Using well known proxies for heterogeneous beliefs, we find that stocks with greater belief differences...

The P/E ratio is often used as a metric to compare individual stocks and the market as whole relative to historical valuations. We examine the factors that affect changes in the inverse of the P/E ratio (E/P) over time in the broad market (Samp;P500 Index). We use a limited number of variables...

The usual advice given to the public by financial planners and the popular press is that less debt is better and in particular owning your own house outright is a desirable goal. We show that this advice is often wrong because mortgage debt acts as an inflation hedge. Mortgage debt also has a...

The paper examines if a country's financial disclosure system affects the likelihood of speculative bubbles. We compare stock returns of eight countries that differ in the quality of their disclosure systems as ranked by Saudagaran and Biddle (1992). We examine the hypothesis that stock prices...

This article presents an alternative system for selling real estate. It overcomes the well-known deficiencies of the percentage commission system. In our system, the agent purchases the property from the seller and simultaneously receives a put option. The put option gives the agent the right to...

Employing asset-pricing models over the period 2012 to 2017, this study examines whether a search attention index (SAI) explains the variation in the weekly excess return of stocks. The study finds that the estimated abnormal return of a portfolio based on search intensity is significantly high...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the practice of Islamic microfinance serves maqāsid al-shari'a (underlying intents of Islamic law) or not. The paper uses a qualitative methodology. Using the literature, five key factors of maqāsid al-shari'a pertaining to an Islamic economy and...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of the Islamic sovereign wealth funds (ISWFs) based on Islamic finance principles to modify the precarious image of SWFs from Muslim countries. The Shariah laws are the cardinal direction for this study. Design/methodology/approach The...