Safe and liquid assets, such as Treasury bonds, are money-like instruments that command a convenience yield. We analyze this in a search model of two assets that differ in liquidity and safety. In contrast to the reduced-form approach, which puts the safe and liquid asset in utility function, we...

We examine the consequences of an intrusive debt-collection tactic that targets delinquent borrowers’ social circles. Our identification strategy relies on the fact that some of the delinquent loans are not worked on due to collection agents’ excessive workload. We show that this tactic...

Survey data are ubiquitous in the economics literature, ranging from unemployment rate and CPI to surveys of professional forecasts and consumer finances. However, their potential biases are rarely discussed. By randomizing the order of responses to the questions in an economic survey, we...

Does information asymmetry affect the cross-section of expected stock returns? We explore this question using representative portfolio holdings data from the Shanghai Stock Exchange. We show that institutional investors have a strong information advantage, and that past aggressiveness of...

This paper analyzes insider-trading regulations, focusing on two recent proposals: advance disclosure and ''cooling-off periods.'' The former requires an insider to disclose his trading plan at adoption, while the latter mandates a delay period before execution. Disclosure increases stock price...

We survey a large, representative sample of retail investors in China to elicit their memories of stock market investments and their return expectations. We merge this survey data with administrative transaction data to test a model in which investors selectively recall past experiences to form...