This paper studies optimal financial policy in a world where the financial sector can become excessively optimistic. I decompose the welfare effects of bank capital regulation to demonstrate the effects of exuberance and its interaction with incentive problems in banking. The optimal policy...

The first Global Climate Strike on March 15, 2019 has represented a historical turn in climate activism. We investigate the cross-section of European stock price reactions to this event. Looking at a large sample of European firms, we find that the unanticipated success of this event caused a...

We show that the dynamics of Bitcoin (BTC) price are strongly influenced by the level of global geopolitical risk. Indeed, a number of well established stylized facts about BTC cease to be true when we condition the evolution of BTC returns on the GPR index. In particular, we find that when...

This paper investigates mean reversion properties of real effective exchange rates (REERs) using a semi-parametric quantile autoregression approach. This method accounts for non-normality and captures asymmetric and dynamic adjustments towards the REER's long run equilibrium, conditional on the...

Cross-country differences in homeownership rates are large and persistent over time, with homeownership rates ranging from 44% in Switzerland to 83% in Spain. This paper investigates whether cultures-defined as behavioral attitudes passed across generations-may value homeownership differently,...

Using a novel dataset, I show that hedge fund managers connected through shared employment histories hold and co-trade more of the same stocks than unconnected managers. Results are greater between fund pairs with stronger social connections and longer dated relationships, implying a socially...

Bitcoin is associated with different risks. We conduct an information experiment in the four largest European economies to analyze the effects of specific warnings and information on retail investors’ demand for Bitcoin. Our results indicate that the impact is strongest when warnings point to...

We study the effects of a direct high-speed rail (HSR) service between two cities on investors and firms in China. We find that, after an HSR introduction, investors make more cross-city searches and block purchases of firms in connected cities. An HSR introduction also leads to less co-movement...

We examine the impact of COVID-19 (C-19) pandemic on global equity markets by constructing novel infection indices. Our results show that the impact of prompt and large-scale policy interventions is ambiguous yet statistically significant. However, in this equivocality, the impact of global...

This study examines the behavior of sovereign bonds to COVID-19 related news in 24 countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study applies a continuous Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to analyze the regime shifting behavior of sovereign bonds to the news. The results show that the COVID-19...