Prior literature demonstrates that an increased trading activity of a fi rm's stock is associated with abnormal future stock returns (the high-volume return premium) and interprets this phenomenon as evidence that increased visibility generates reductions in cost of capital. Motivated by this...

The fact that human economic behaviour has a significant irrational element - one that is simultaneously hard-to-explain and highly predictable - has fascinated economists for decades from Fechner, 1860 to Shiller, 2005 and beyond. In this dissertation, I investigate the field from various...