What can studying the creation of knowledge tell us about how new technical fields emerge and develop? This paper shows how a knowledge community may be necessary to support the legitimacy of new products that undergo performance evaluation before purchase. Using historical and ethnographic data...

We review the long-term investment performance of three important categories of emotional assets — stamps, art, and musical instruments. The long-run returns on these collectibles have been superior to the total return from government bonds and Treasury bills (and gold), at least before taking...

We investigate the differences in economic attitudes and financial decisions between religious and non-religious households. Using Dutch survey data, we find that religious households consider themselves more trusting, and have a stronger bequest motive and a longer planning horizon....

We dissect the performance of private equity (PE) investors in commercial real estate. We observe acquisitions, dispositions, and granular performance data for several thousand U.S. hotels. Investments by PEs specializing in the hospitality industry lead to more substantial operating efficiency...

We hypothesize the existence of a slow-moving fad component in art prices. Using unique panel survey data on art market participants' confidence levels in the outlook for a set of artists, we find that sentiment indeed predicts short-term returns

Using data from a U.S. household survey, we examine the empirical relation between subjective life horizon (i.e., the self-reported expectation of remaining life span) and portfolio choice. We find that equity portfolio shares are higher for investors with longer horizons, controlling for...