The study shows critical roles of firm-specific information on herd behavior, which is underexplored in prior literature, albeit an increasing impact of firm-specific information on asset pricing. The main finding demonstrates that three of four selected measures of firm-specific information...

Since the 2008 crisis, the economics literature has shown a renewed interest in Keynes's "beauty contest" (BC) as a fundamental aspect of the functioning of financial markets. We argue that to understand the importance of the BC, psychological and informational factors are of small importance,...

In this paper, we investigate non-linear linkages between Bitcoin and the unconventional monetary policies of the European Central Bank (ECB). In particular, we examine whether a low-interest rate environment resulting from QE indirectly encourages investors to move towards Bitcoin. Using a...

Kirman’s “ant model” has been used to characterize the expectation formation of financial investors who are prone to herding. The model’s original version suffers from the problem of N-dependence: its ability to replicate the statistical features of financial returns vanishes once the...

This paper explores the behavior of emerging market mutual funds using anovel database covering the holdings of individual funds over the periodJanuary 1996 to March 1999. An examination of individual crises shows that,on average, funds withdrew money one month prior to the events. Thedegree of...