Using new data for the universe of firms covered in Amadeus, we reconstruct the portfolios of shareholders who hold equity stakes in private and publicly-traded European firms. We find great heterogeneity in the degree of portfolio diversification across large shareholders. Exploiting this...

In this paper we present a two period model, where the agent's preferences are described by prospect theory as proposed by Kahneman and Tversky. We solve for the agent's portfolio decision. Our findings are that the changes in portfolio weights depend crucially on the reference point and the...

Ackert and Deaves (2010) said that most people have tendency to being risk averse, but with appropriate amount of compensation, people may take more risk. Understanding those circumstances, this research trying to figure risk involved in a Mean-Variance Model. This model has taken consideration...

Using data on the portfolio holdings and income of millions of U.S. retirement investors, I find that positive and persistent shocks to income lead to a significant increase in the equity share of investor portfolios, while increases in financial wealth due to realized returns lead to a small...

This paper compares different graphical representation of investment returns in terms of their potential to induce a wrong perception of the risk-reward potential of an investment. Additionally, the paper analyzes which representation format is most likely to encourage investment risk taking...

This paper studies optimal equity portfolios with long-term horizon under heterogeneous risk aversion levels. We focus on European stocks and empirically show that contemporaneous excess returns of semi-active strategies are negatively associated with market conditions and sentiment. Consistent...

The crisis of 2008 and 2009 exposed not only the shortcomings of our financial system but also the shortcomings of the tools used by financial advisors to assess and guide investors. These include risk questionnaires. Many investors who were assessed as risk tolerant in 2007 and assigned...

The literature on risk tolerance overwhelmingly justifies the use of questionnaires based on validity and reliability or psychometric testing, but there has been little research examining the relation between questions and actual investor portfolio behavior. This study examines risk tolerance...

We show that household heads with a strong internal economic locus of control are more likely to hold equity and hold a larger share of equity in their investment portfolio. This relation holds when we control for economic preferences and possible confounders such as financial literacy,...

We study the impact of gender on asset allocation recommendations. Graduate business students and professional wealth managers are randomly assigned a male or female client. Participants recommend an allocation and choose an allocation for themselves. Male students choose a riskier allocation...