This paper shows that consumption-based asset pricing puzzles arise from using globally concave-shaped consumption utility. We empirically find that asset returns correlate negatively with many individuals' low-quantile consumption growth. This finding challenges most mainstream models and...

Using trading data from Finland and the US, I empirically show that investors tend to buy riskier stocks following realized losses. The measure of risk that the investors seem to pay attention to is the market beta of a stock. This behavior of buying higher beta stocks after a realized loss is...

We identify the S-Shaped consumption utility by reconciling consumption decisions with asset returns. Different from the concave-shaped utility, the S-shaped consumption utility predicts a possible negative correlation between low quantiles of consumption growth and asset returns, for which we...

Utilizing the asset pricing framework, we justify S-shaped consumption utility functions by reconciling realized consumption with asset returns. The S-shaped consumption utility predicts a possible negative correlation between asset returns and lower quantiles of consumption growth, for which we...

In an experimental setting in which investors can entrust their money to traders, we investigate how compensation schemes affect liquidity provision and asset prices. Investors face a trade-off between risk and return. At the benefit of a potentially higher return, they can entrust their money...

Using recent findings from brain sciences, we model the human brain as solving two optimization problems instead of one, which are (i) optimal resource allocation in the brain and (ii) mean-variance optimization. This changes the classical CAPM in only one way: an alpha appears which provides a...

This paper develops a behavioural asset pricing model in which traders are not fully rational as is commonly assumed in the literature. The model derived is underpinned by the notion that agents' preferences are affected by their degree of optimism or pessimism regarding future market states. It...

Given that categorization is the core of cognition, we argue that investors do not view firms in isolation. Rather, they view them within a framework of categories that represent prior knowledge. This involves sorting a given firm into a category and using categorization-induced inferences to...

Recent microeconomic evidence suggests that risk aversion is largely determined by the changes in the state of the economy and mostly insensitive to the fluctuations in idiosyncratic wealth. I propose a consumption-based asset pricing model that is consistent with this evidence and capable of...

Given that categorization is the core of cognition, we argue that investors do not view firms in isolation. Rather, they view them within a framework of categories that represent prior knowledge. This involves sorting a given firm into a category and using categorization-induced inferences to...