We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of qualitatively and quantitatively explaining: (i) the higher saving rates of the rich, (ii) the...

The central role of the media for people's minds and for capital markets has been analyzed by a broad range of literature, nourished from several strands of academic research. Applying a vector autoregression on a unique set of TV news, consumer sentiment and excess flows of mutual funds, I find...

We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of qualitatively and quantitatively explaining: (i) the higher saving rates of the rich, (ii) the...

This paper examines customer momentum, defined as a positive relationship between a firm's returns and past returns of its customers. I confirm previous evidence (Cohen and Frazzini 2008) that customer momentum is both statistically and economically significant. Long-short equally-weighted...

This paper explores the optimal consumption and investment behavior of an individual who derives utility from the ratio between his consumption and an endogenous habit. We obtain closed-form policies under general utility functionals and stochastic investment opportunities, by developing a...

Financial innovations have resulted in an explosion in the number of so-called structured products being offered in the retail marketplace. To explain the complex structure of these hybrid debt securities, their prospectuses frequently employ numerical examples to illustrate the investment's...

We investigate, using the 2002 US Health and Retirement Study, the factors influencing individuals' insecurity and expectations about terrorism, and study the effects these last have on households' portfolio choices and spending patterns. We find that females, the religiously devout, those...

It has been widely studied that investors suffer from the tendency to realize gains too quickly, while carrying losses too long --- also known as the disposition effect. Previous research on the phenomenon finds that there is a substantial heterogeneity with regards to the magnitude of...

In this paper, we disentangle investor sentiment into two components: mood and household attitudes towards the economy. We apply acoustical analysis to the daily top ten of music downloads in iTunes for Germany to derive a novel and direct measure for mood. We match this novel mood index with...

This paper studies why investors buy dividend-paying assets and how they time their consumption accordingly. We combine administrative bank data linking customers' consumption transactions and income to detailed portfolio data and survey responses on financial behavior. We find that private...