Molecular genetic endowments related to cognition, personality, health, and body shape, established at least half a century prior, predict an individual's risk aversion, beliefs regarding the distribution of expected equity returns, and equity market participation. We estimate that approximately...

We show that molecular variation in DNA related to cognition, personality, health, and body shape, predicts an individual’s equity market participation and risk aversion. Moreover, the molecular genetic endowments predict individuals’ return perceptions, most of which we find to be...

We hypothesize that the well-documented negativity bias, the psychological tendency to asymmetrically emphasize negative over positive aspects, can help explain several financial market phenomena: why most individuals hold strongly bearish views of both short- and long-term equity return...

Recent models and the popular press suggest that large groups of hedge funds follow similar strategies resulting in crowded equity positions that destabilize markets. Inconsistent with this assertion, we find that hedge fund equity portfolios are remarkably independent. Moreover, when hedge...

We model an environment with overlapping generations of labor to show that policies restricting labor mobility increase a firm's monopsony power and labor turnover costs. Subsequently, firms increase capital expenditure, altering their optimal capital-labor ratio. We confirm this by exploiting...

We examine the ability of one- and two-factor regime switching models to describe U.S., developed, and emerging market mutual fund returns. We find that a two-factor fixed transition probability model adequately describes the multivariate series of mutual fund returns without the need to model...

We document the increasing role leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs) play in institutional portfolios over time. A subset of independent investment advisors, quasi-indexers, and transient portfolio managers all make substantive use of these tools. Leveraged ETFs can be used for diversification...

We examine the role of fundamental accounting information in shaping portfolio performance. Using a conditional performance approach, we address the concern that the positive relationship between Piotroski's F Score and ex post returns is due to risk compensation. Our results show that...

We develop conditional alpha performance measures that are consistent with conditional mean-variance analysis and the magnitude and sign of the implied true conditional time-varying alphas. The sequence of conditional alphas and betas is estimable from surprisingly simple unconditional...