We analyze whether the results of the 1980 to 2008 U.S. presidential elections influence the stock market performance of eight industries and we examine factors that are expected to affect firms' stock returns around these elections. Our empirical analysis reflects firms' exposure to government...

We analyze whether differences in market-wide levels of investor personality influence experimental asset market outcomes in terms of price bubbles and levels. We employ a questionnaire to determine investor personality and combine the survey data with data from experimental asset markets. We...

Social trading is characterized by the idea that individual investors, so-called signal providers, make their investment decisions available to a group of investors who follow these decisions. The performance of social trading, however, has hardly been in the focus of empirical studies so far....

We analyze the impact of individuals' degree of extraversion and neuroticism on their decision making in an experimental asset market. To establish this link between research on experimental asset markets and social psychology we use a unique approach that combines a questionnaire designed to...

Investors who only invest in their domestic market are typically referred to as being home-biased. We refer to firm-level internationalization and call into question whether investing in domestic stock indices actually leads to home bias. We use three measures of firm-level internationalization...

The German tax system allows tax deductibility of costs of studying either as special expenses or as work-related tax deductions. However, filing tax returns and utilizing tax deductibility of costs of studying are hampered if benefits are not obvious, if costs are not automatically accounted...

Debt capital represents one of the most important means with which German companies finance their business. Yet, despite its importance, academics and practitioners alike typically analyze debt capital separately from other components of a firm's capital structure components. One important...

Herding behavior, i.e. the adjustment of a decision maker's behavior, opinion, or expectations due to real or illusionary (social) pressures, can be explained by numerous behavioral finance models, such as the cascade model or contagion. However, unambiguous empirical results are rare, mainly...