This paper employs numerical simulations of the Park and Sabourian (2011) herd model to derive new theory-based predictions for how information risk and market stress influence aggregate herding intensity. We test these predictions empirically using a comprehensive data set of highfrequency and...

We examine the ability of three groups of informed market participants to anticipate the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Institutional investors and financial analysts exhibit some awareness of the impending crisis in their preference for non-financial stocks over financial stocks. In contrast,...

This paper examines the relation between firm-level implied volatility skew and the likelihood of extreme negative events, or crash risk. I show that volatility skew identifies which firms are likely to experience crashes, but only in short-window earnings announcement periods. The predictive...

Do rating agencies increase or decrease financial market stability? This paper analyzes whether credit rating agencies may help to avoid inefficient self-fulfilling credit defaults. If investors follow risk-dominant strategies, we show that rating announcements and investors' private information...

This paper examines the relationship between the stock crash risk of REITs and different types of institutional investors. First, when we classify REIT institutional investors by their legal type, we find that the ownership of pension funds (bank trusts) is negatively (positively) related to...

We use a heterogeneous agent model to explain market crashes resulting from an unanticipated deleveraging shock. In a market with short sale constraints, when the opinions of investors diverge substantially, the market price is set by the demand schedule of optimistic investors while pessimistic...

Despite momentum's strong historical performance, its returns have large negative skewness and occasionally experiences persistent strings of sharp negative returns, referred as "momentum crashes" in the recent literature. I argue that momentum crashes are due to crowded trades which push prices...

This paper examines how the implementation of a new dark order - Midpoint Extended Life Order on NASDAQ - impacts financial markets stability in terms of occurrences of mini-flash crashes in individual securities. We use high-frequency order book data and apply panel regression analysis to...

Market reactions to the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) provide new insights into how real shocks and financial policies drive firm value. Initially, internationally oriented firms, especially those more exposed to trade with China, underperformed. As the virus spread to Europe and the...

We use firm-year observations of Chinese firms between 2003 and 2013 and empirically investigate the association between investor sentiment and stock crash risk with respect to short-sales constraint conditions. In addition, we also evaluate the incremental effect of financial reporting quality...