This study tests whether investor belief differences affect the cross-sectional variation of risk-neutral skewness, using data on firm-level stock options traded on the CBOE from 2003 to 2006. Using well known proxies for heterogeneous beliefs, we find that stocks with greater belief differences...

This study investigates the role of security analysts in reducing noise in stock price fluctuations. Using a sample of analyst coverage initiations between 1984 and 2006, the study finds that (1) noise is significantly reduced in the year following the initiation and (2) the extent of the noise...