We examine whether superior understanding of technological innovation is a source of mutual fund managers’ ability to garner positive abnormal returns. Consistent with our hypothesis, the inter-quintile annual net Carhart alpha spread for mutual funds sorted on changes in the technological...

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 strikingly...

Consistent with the well-documented relation between political orientation and psychological traits, hedge funds' political orientations are related to their portfolio decisions. Relative to politically conservative hedge funds, politically liberal hedge funds exhibit a preference for smaller...

Aggregate demand by insiders predicts time-series variation in the value premium — between 1978 and 2004, a one standard deviation increase in aggregate insider demand in the previous six months forecasts a 53 basis point decline (6.54% annualized) in the expected value premium in the month...

We hypothesize that greater economic policy uncertainty (EPU) leads to increases in unhealthy behaviors by lowering individuals' impulse control. Based on 6.1 million interviews over 22 years, our analysis reveals a positive relation between EPU and the propensity to make poor lifestyle choices...

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...

A number of recent studies test whether institutional investors, as a group, engage in momentum trading. Given directly observable returns and changes in institutional ownership, it is surprising that these studies reach vastly different conclusions. I re-examine the relation between changes in...

Institutional investors' demand for a security this quarter is positively correlated with their demand for the security last quarter. These results are attributed to institutional investors following each other into and out of the same securities (quot;herdingquot;)and institutional investors...

This study clears up misunderstandings regarding the diversification of unsystematic risk. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is no evidence investors can, or have ever been able to, easily form portfolios containing negligible exposure to unsystematic returns. Because well-diversified...