We investigate corporate bond returns for the period 1838-1939 by using a unique new sample from the Brussels Stock Exchange. The value-weighted annualized total rate of return, net of defaults and taxes, is 4.33% in nominal terms and 2.81% in real terms. Estimates of average returns show that...

With two news-based measures on war, I document that managers mitigated war risk through dividend cuts, arguably to establish a war chest. Moreover, I find that companies postponed their initial public offerings and that foreign companies were more likely to delist after the onset of wars....

This paper studies the effect of investor sentiment on the London stock market on a daily basis over the period 1899 to 2010. We use a broad mix of reporting from the Financial Times as our proxy for investor sentiment. The main contribution of this paper is threefold. First, newspaper...

La volatilité des actions françaises montre une forte instabilité depuis 150 ans. Très faible avant la Première Guerre mondiale, elle augmente de façon continue durant l'entre-deux-guerres. Malgré la paix et la stabilité économique, la volatilité n'a jamais retrouvé ses niveaux...

Using a novel dataset where all traders are identifiable, we examine trading in the shares of a major company on the London Stock Exchange before 1920. Our main finding is that bid-ask spreads increased in the presence of informed trades. However, we also find that spreads narrowed during...

Using a hand-collected dataset, we examine share trading activity over the period 1882 to 1920 for the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company, one of the largest UK companies of the time. Our main finding is that the steady flow of rentiers into the shareholding constituency of this...

This chapter presents historical evidence about Swedish stock prices, dividends, and yields on government fixed-interest securities. Monthly returns are presented since 1901 for stocks, since 1874 for government long-term bonds and since 1856 for short-term Treasury bills or central bank...

This chapter presents historical evidence about Swedish stock prices, dividends, and yields on government fixed-interest securities. Monthly returns are presented since 1901 for stocks, since 1874 for government long-term bonds and since 1856 for short-term Treasury bills or central bank...

For almost a century, we document a significant January effect on the French equity market. We find strong evidences in favor of the tax-loss selling explanation for this phenomenon. Indeed, the January effect was insignificant before the introduction of a “confiscatory tax” on capital gains...

This chapter presents historical evidence about Swedish stock prices, dividends, and yields on government fixed-interest securities. Monthly returns are presented since 1901 for stocks, since 1874 for government long-term bonds and since 1856 for short-term Treasury bills or central bank...