We use a spatial Probit model to study the effect of contagion between banking systems of different countries. Applied to the late 1990s banking crisis in Asia we show that the phenomena of contagion is better seized using a spatial than a traditional Probit model. Unlike the latter, the spatial...

The potential manager-investor conflict of interests in mutual funds is a classic agency problem. Using a database from Portugal, we show that mutual funds tend to overweight the stocks issued by their parent and underweigh the stocks of competitors. This cannot be explained by performance,...

The absence of investor reaction to the poor performance of mutual funds is a widely reported phenomenon. This article investigates the role of load costs as an explanation for the phenomenon and concludes that back-end load fees are an obstacle to reaction. We found evidence consistent with the...

In this paper we aim at studying efficiency, productivity and technological change in Portuguese banking during 1990-95, using information on the vast majority of banks operating in Portugal during that period. We use a translog variable cost function and a stochastic frontier model to estimate...

This paper investigates the dynamics of individuals' investments leading up to their decision to make the first investment abroad. We show that investors first invest in domestic securities and only some time later they invest abroad in foreign securities. We also show that investors who trade...

We investigate how the strength of the positive association between frequency of trading and information acquisition is dependent on the sources of information used by investors and on investors’ overconfidence. We add to the existing literature by investigating if the positive relationship...

We use a survey of individual investors disclosed by the Portuguese Securities Commission (CMVM) in May 2005 to study the impact of investors' levels of financial literacy on portfolio diversification. We consider distinct aspects of financial literacy, and control for socioeconomic and...