Using firm-level ESG news indices, we examine whether active mutual fund managers skillfully integrate material ESG information into their portfolio decisions. We find firm-level ESG news affects mutual fund holdings. Fund managers incorporate material ESG news to cater to investor demand and...

This paper examines the relation between equity portfolio diversification choices of individual investors and stock returns. Using a six-year panel (1991-96) of individual investors, I find that stocks with less diversified individual investor clientele earn higher returns. A zero cost portfolio...

This study examines the stock market entry and exit decisions of U.S. households. We find that around 25% of households enter or exit from their non-retirement investment accounts biennially. Cross-sectional and time-series tests indicate that income risk affects equity ownership turnover. A...

We examine the impact of culture on portfolio decisions and asset returns, focusing on the large and growing Hispanic population in the United States. We find that both retail and institutional investors in high Hispanic neighborhoods overweight local, lottery-type, and high-momentum stocks and...

We demonstrate that fund investors employ a heuristic benchmark model to estimate alphas and allocate capital. This can result in observational equivalence to CAPM driven investment decisions. The benchmark estimator trades off bias against precision, accommodating finite sample constraints. The...

We propose a theoretical measure of income hedging demand and show that it affects asset prices. We focus on the value factor and first demonstrate that our demand estimates are correlated with the actual demands of retail and mutual fund investors. Then, we show that the aggregate HML demand...

We show that geographical variation in the level of investor sophistication influences local asset prices. Investors in less sophisticated regions exhibit stronger trading correlations, and correspondingly, the returns of firms headquartered in less sophisticated areas are more strongly...

Motivated by the observation that elderly liquidate their mutual fund holdings regularly, we examine whether mortality patterns have a predictable impact on aggregate mutual fund flows and asset prices. Our key conjecture is that periods with high mortality rates would be associated with higher...

This paper shows that shifts in investor preferences for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) attributes affect asset prices. Using Internet search volume to capture ESG sentiment shifts, we propose a novel firm-level measure of return sensitivity to ESG sentiment (i.e., ESG beta). We...

This paper examines whether political activism increases people's propensity to participate in the stock market. Our key conjecture is that politically active people follow political news more actively, which increases their chance of being exposed to financial news. Consequently, their...