We test and offer support to Merton's (1987) theory that difference in a stock's investor recognition affects its cost of capital. In the U.S. market, using the breadth of ownership among retail investors as a proxy for investor recognition, we show that a long-short portfolio based on the...

We hypothesize that earnings downside risk, capturing the expectation for future downward operating performance, contains distinct information about firm risk and varies with cost of capital in the cross section of firms. Consistent with the validity of the earnings downside risk measure, we...

We show that the moving averages (MAs) of stock market indices act as psychological barriers and affect investors' trading. Market indices do not move continuously near their MAs, especially in markets dominated by unsophisticated investors. Utilizing international markets data, we show that the...

Using local linear regressions based on Russell index reconstitution, we examine how option price efficiency is affected by stock market indexing. We find that put-call parity deviation, a proxy for options price efficiency, is significantly smaller if a stock is at the top of the Russell 2000...