The DSGE models are based on hypotheses that have the effect of excluding the possibility of severe financial and economic crises with the consequent policy implications going in the laissez-faire direction. The hypothesized unique and stable equilibrium in combination with rational expectations...

We examine the predictive effect of sentiment on the cross-section of stock returns across different economic states. The degree of mispricing and the subsequent price correction can be different between economic expansion and recession because of the limits of arbitrage and short sale...

We build a simple model of leveraged asset purchases with margin calls. Investment funds use what is perhaps the most basic financial strategy, called "value investing," i.e., systematically attempting to buy underpriced assets. When funds do not borrow, the price fluctuations of the asset are...

A principal-components analysis demonstrates that common earnings factors explain a substantial portion of rm-level earnings variation, implying earnings shocks have substantial systematic components and are not almost fully diversifiable as prior literature has concluded. Furthermore, the...

Employing a broad sample of US firms over the period 1962 to 2009, we provide evidence of a liquidity risk impact on the fundamental earnings-returns relation. Specifically, we document that current liquidity risk has a positive moderating effect on the relation between current returns and next...

A popular interpretation of the Rational Expectations/Efficient Markets hypothesis states that, if the hypothesis holds, then market valuations must follow a random walk. This postulate has frequently been criticized on the basis of empirical evidence. Yet the assertion itself incurs what we...

We examine the role of macroeconomic announcements in shaping the earnings forecasts of equity market analysts. We find that earnings forecasts strongly respond to macroeconomic releases signaling changes in overall business conditions after controlling for analysts' learning from firm- and...

We study the role of brand capital - a primary form of intangible capital - for firm valuation and risk in the cross-section of publicly traded firms. Using a novel empirical measure of brand capital stock constructed from firm level advertising expenditures data, we estimate that the value of...

We reexamine the time-series properties and determinants of the relation between aggregate earnings and returns (earnings response coefficient, ERC) employing return decompositions with longer historical data. We find that aggregate ERC is time-varying, above and beyond the evidence documented...

This paper investigates collective denial and willful blindness in groups, organizations and markets. Agents with anticipatory preferences, linked through an interaction structure, choose how to interpret and recall public signals about future prospects. Wishful thinking (denial of bad news) is...