The asset allocation of university endowments has recently shifted dramatically towards alternative investments. In this paper we examine the role played by strategic competition in motivating this shift. Using a metric capturing competition for undergraduate applications, we test whether...

Individuals and asset managers trade aggressively, resulting in high volume in asset markets, even when such trading results in high risk and low net returns. Asset prices display patterns of predictability that are difficult to reconcile with rational expectations–based theories of price...

We relate the degree of investor portfolio focus to the broader urban economic context of the household. Using a detailed panel of investors in Sweden over the period 1995 to 2000, we find that the level of investor diversification, as measured by number of stocks in the portfolio and by the...

We propose a dynamic heterogeneous agents model which generates testable hypotheses about the formation, timing and bursting of asset price bubbles in the presence of short-sale constraints, given a calibration that is consistent with momentum and reversal effects for unconstrained assets....

We study the impact of monetary policy on investors' portfolio choices and asset prices. Using data on individual portfolio holdings and on mutual fund flows, we find that a low-interest-rate monetary policy increases investors' demand for high-dividend stocks and drives up their prices. The...

Historical data suggest that the base rate for a severe, single-day stock market crash is relatively low. Surveys of individual and institutional investors, conducted regularly over a 26-year period in the United States, show that they assess the probability to be much higher. We examine factors...

We propose a theoretically-motivated factor model based on investor psychology and assess its ability to explain the cross-section of U.S. equity returns. Our factor model augments the market factor with two factors which capture long- and short-horizon mispricing. The long-horizon factor...

In this paper, we estimate the behavioral component of the Grinblatt and Han (2002) model and derive several testable implications about the expected relationship between the preponderance of disposition-prone investors in a market and volume, volatility and stock returns. To do this, we use a...

Despite their strong positive average returns across numerous asset classes, momentum strategies can experience infrequent and persistent strings of negative returns. These momentum crashes are partly forecastable. They occur in "panic" states - following market declines and when market...