We find that a significant proportion of the cross-sectional variation in the choice to own or rent is attributable to a genetic factor, while parental influence is not found to affect this choice. We also find evidence of gene-environment interactions: The environment moderates genetic effects...

We introduce a new, market-based and forward looking measure of political risk derived from the yield spread between a country's U.S. dollar debt and an equivalent U.S. Treasury bond. We explain the variation in these sovereign spreads with four factors: global economic conditions,...

We propose an exogenous measure of a country's growth opportunities by interacting the country's local industry mix with global price to earnings ("PE") ratios. We find that these exogenous growth opportunities predict future changes in real GDP and investment in a large panel of countries. This...

We propose a new, valuation-based measure of world equity market segmentation. While we observe decreased levels of segmentation in many countries, the level of segmentation remains significant in emerging markets. We characterize the factors that account for variation in market segmentation...

Although it is well known that appearance-based impressions affect labor market and election outcomes, little is known about the role appearance plays in financial transactions. We address this question using photographs of potential borrowers from a peer-to-peer lending site. Consistent with...

What are the origins of individual savings behavior? Using data on identical and fraternal twins matched with data on their savings behavior, we find that an individual's savings propensity is governed by both genetic predispositions, social transmission from parents to their children, and...

Using data on identical and fraternal twins' complete financial portfolios, we decompose the crosssectional variation in investor behavior. We find that a genetic factor explains about one third of the variance in stock market participation and asset allocation. Family environment has an effect...

We measure a country's growth opportunities by investigating how its industry mix is priced in global capital markets, using price earnings ratios of global industry portfolios. We derive three sets of empirical results. First, these exogenous growth opportunities strongly predict future changes...

We propose a new, valuation-based measure of world equity market segmentation. While we observe decreased levels of segmentation in many developing countries, the level of segmentation is still significant. In contrast to previous research, we characterize the factors that account for variation...

We use industry valuation differentials across European countries to study the impact of membership in the European Union as well as the Eurozone on both economic and financial integration. In integrated markets, discount rates and expected growth opportunities should be similar within one...