As a result of a 2003 SEC regulation intended to increase the transparency of firms' off-balance sheet obligations, tabular data on purchase obligations became available in the MD&A section of firms' 10-Ks. We develop a program to read the text of these disclosures and we create a database to...

Self-attribution bias is a long-standing concept in psychology research and refers to individuals' tendency to attribute successes to personal skills and failures to factors beyond their control. Recently, this bias is also being studied in household finance research and is considered to...

We separate downloads on the SEC EDGAR database into human and machine actions by the intensity of information retrieval (Ryans, 2017). The split shows that the extent of machine downloads has risen 35 times since 2004, accounting for over 96% of total downloads as of 2016. We formally...

The predictions of the S&P 500 returns made in 2007 have been tested and the underlying models amended. The period between 2003 and 2008 should be described by the dependence of the S&P 500 stock market index on real GDP because the population pyramid was highly inaccurate. The 2008 trough and...

Weakening bargaining power of unions and the increasing integration of the world economy may affect the volatility of capital and labor incomes. This paper documents and explains changes in income volatility. Using a theoretical framework which builds distribution risk into a real business cycle...

We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature - despite important implications for modern-day...

We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature - despite important implications for modern-day...