The behaviour of the distribution of stock returns is of fundamental importance in financial economics, in view of its direct bearing on the descriptive validity of any theoretical model. We analysed the behaviour of Japanese stock return distributions using the Pearson system of frequency...

The existence of country-specific risk factors that could be mitigated by international investments is investigated. An innovative methodology for quantifying the benefits of international diversification is also proposed and tested. In order to overcome many of the problems that arise in the...

We employ the Pearson system of frequency curves to analyse the behaviour of unconditional daily return distributions for all the shares that constitute the STOXX Europe 600 index. Our results show that over finite time periods of analysis the distributions are adequately described as type IV....

This paper aims to empirically verify whether an individual European investor can enhance the diversification of his/her portfolio of financial assets by implementing an equity market neutral strategy. The analysis takes into consideration a typical European investor who has roughly diversified...

A long history of psychological studies has postulated that good (bad) weather induces a positive (negative) mood. Other studies have concluded that mood can influence humankind decision-making process under risk and uncertainty. Several behavioural finance studies have raised the question of...