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 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....

This paper investigates whether investor sentiment can explain stock returns on theGerman stock market. Based on a principal component analysis, we construct a senti-ment indicator that condenses information of several well-known sentiment proxies. Weshow that this indicator explains the return...

This paper investigates politically connected rms in Germany. With the in-troduction of a new transparency law in 2007, information on additional incomesources for all members of the German parliament became publicly available.We nd that members of the conservative party (CDU/CSU) and the...