This study investigates whether retail and institutional investors concentrate their trading among certain stock categories (i.e., habitats) and whether their trading activities generate return comovements among stocks within those habitats. Our results indicate that both retail and...

This study shows that correlated trading by gambling-motivated investors generates excess return comovement among stocks with lottery features. Lottery-like stocks comove strongly with one another and this return comovement is strongest among lottery stocks located in regions where investors...

We use religious background as a proxy for gambling propensity and investigate whether geographical variation in religion-induced gambling norms affects aggregate market outcomes. We examine four economic settings in which the recent literature has suggested a role for gambling and speculation....

This paper examines whether the trading activities of retail and institutional investors cause comovements in stock returns. Using stock splits and headquarters changes events and a variety of trading-based measures, we show directly that retail investors generate excess comovements in stock...

This paper shows that local institutional investors are effective monitors of corporate behavior. Firms with high local ownership have better internal governance and are more profitable. These firms are also less likely to manage their earnings aggressively or backdate options and are less...

This paper shows that equity analysts exhibit in-group favoritism and have less-favorable views about firms headed by out-of-group CEOs. Using gender to identify group, we find that, compared with female analysts, male analysts have lower earnings forecasts and worse stock recommendations for...

We examine whether corporate bankruptcies influence bank loan characteristics of geographically proximate firms. Controlling for industry contagion and local economic conditions, firms headquartered near a bankruptcy event experience a seven basis point increase in loan spreads. The effect is...

In the standard regression of bidder announcement returns (ACARs) on bidder size in US data from 1981-2014, the coefficient on bidder size is positive and significant (0.5, t = 3.9) when the target is a public firm, where the average ACAR is negative (−1.4%); but it is negative and significant...

Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) can explain the variance premium puzzle. We solve a simple equilibrium model with CPT investors and find that probability weighting plays a key role in generating a substantial variance premium, while loss aversion captures the equity premium. Using GMM on a...

This paper analyzes takeover announcements for public US targets from 1987 to 2008. Consistent with the hypothesis that gambling attitudes matter for takeover decisions, both acquiror announcement returns and expected synergies are lower in acquisitions where the target's stock has...