This paper shows that households' mortgage refinancing decisions suboptimally depend on uninformative reference points, imposing a friction to the refinancing channel of monetary policy. I study refinancing behavior in the UK, where on pre-determined dates initial fixed rates reset and...

This paper illustrates the importance of density forecasting in portfolio decision making involving bonds of different maturities. The forecast performance of an atheoretic and a theory informed model of bond returns is evaluated. The decision making environment is fully described for an...

We propose a simplified approach to mean-variance portfolio problems by changing their parametrisation from trading strategies to final positions. This allows us to treat, under a very mild no-arbitrage-type assumption, a whole range of quadratic optimisation problems by simple mathematical...

This paper analyzes 12,596 wagering decisions of 6,064 contestants in the US game show Jeopardy!, focusing on the anchoring phenomenon in financial decision-making. We find that contestants anchor heavily on the initial dollar value of a clue in their wagering decision, even though there exists...

When a risky decision involves both skill and chance, success or failure is a signal of the decision maker's skill. Adopting standard models from the career concerns literature, we show that a rational desire to avoid looking unskilled may help explain several anomalies associated with prospect...

This paper reviews the classics of financial economics with the benefit of insight offered by the recent financial crisis. The failure of mainstream financial models to explain the observed behavior of markets is put in relation with Itzhak Gilboa's critique of the decisional model used for...

We show how the position of a limit order in the queue influences the decision of whether to cancel the order or let it rest. Using ultra high-frequency data from the Nasdaq exchange, we perform empirical analysis on various limit order book events and propose novel ways for modelling some of...

In this paper, I analyze re-pricing decisions for mutual fund management services. I derive measures of performance and price sensitivity and show that investors do not consider expense ratios simply as a negative component of expected returns: while performance sensitivity monotonically...

We provide the first tests to distinguish whether individual investors equally balance their overall portfolios (naïve portfolio diversification—NPD) or engage in naïve buying diversification (NBD)—equally balancing values in same-day purchases of multiple assets. We find NBD in purchases...

The chapter describes the various forms and emergence of ethical investing and discusses investor motives to engage in socially responsible investment (SRI). Ethical investing and SRI are derived from historical incidents, legislative compulsion, and stakeholder pressure in response to social,...