Despite positive and significant earnings announcement premia, we find that institutional investors reduce their exposure to stocks before earnings announcements. A novel result on the sensitivity of flows to individual stock returns provides a potential explanation. We show that extreme...

We study the impact of global volatility on equity portfolio flows of institutional investors worldwide. We find that their equity allocations decrease in times of high volatility; retail investors are net buyers. The effect is present in developed and emerging markets, is economically stronger...

This paper explores how speculators can destabilize financial markets by amplifying negative shocks. During periods of turmoil created by an uncertainty shock, speculators react to declining asset prices by liquidating their holdings in hopes of buying them back later at a gain, despite the...

The paper studies institutional trading ahead of scheduled information releases, notably earnings announcements. While scheduled news are known to be preceded by sizeable stock returns, we find that institutional investors on average forego part of these premia as they decrease their exposure to...

Using new employer-employee matched data, this paper investigates the impact of uncertainty, as measured by idiosyncratic stock market volatility, on individual outcomes. We find that firms provide at best partial insurance to their workers. An increase in firm-level uncertainty is associated...