I describe household behavior in boom and bust economic cycles with a particular focus on the recent financial crisis. The behaviors are motivated by cognitive limitations and psychological bias. In addition, household behavior exacerbates the boom/bust economic cycle. In boom times, households'...

We estimate positive and significant wealth transfers from individuals to institutions following a share repurchase. It appears that institutional investors are informed shareholders that use share repurchases as an opportunity to magnify the effect of their informational advantage over...

When determining a stock to buy, Strahilevitz et al. (2011) demonstrate that individual investors often repurchase a stock previously traded for a profit as a learning process. When evaluating a decision, people use the most available information that comes to mind. We posit that the most...

Compared to conventional mutual funds, socially responsible mutual funds outperform during periods of market crisis. This dampening of downside risk comes at the cost of under performing during non-crisis periods. Investors with Prospect Theory utility functions would value the skewness of these...

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- 1. Biology and Psychology in Finance -- Nature versus Nurture -- What Can We Learn from the Financial Decisions of Twins? -- Investment of Adoptees and the Human Genome -- Do Men...

This paper examines the geographic herding behavior of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We find a comovement between local firms' CSR scores operating in the same industry after controlling for known regional determinants. Furthermore, our results are most robust for firms headquartered in...

In response to Morningstar's release of carbon risk (CR) scores in May 2018, (environmentally) sustainable mutual funds in the U.S. showed a greater reduction in their portfolio CR relative to conventional funds. The observed causal impact of this third-party disclosure is consistent with the...

We test the predictability of eighteen stock return predictors, including classic factors such as firm size, book-to-market, and momentum, along with other proposed predictors from firm-specific, corporate investment, financing, and stock characteristic anomalies. These predictors have power to...