This paper examines the cross-sectional properties of stock return forecasts based on Fama-MacBeth regressions using all firms contained in the STOXX Europe 600 index during the September 1999-December 2018 period. Our estimation approach is strictly out-of-sample, mimicking an investor who...

Using a comprehensive dataset of firms from 34 countries, we study the effect of institutional investors' investment horizons on firm valuation around the world. We find a positive relation between institutional ownership and firm value that is driven by short-horizon institutional investors....

We examine whether CAT bonds can serve as a hedge or a safe haven for global stock, bond, real estate, commodity, private equity, and infrastructure markets. Our results indicate that CAT bonds are a poor hedge, but they act as an effective diversifier against all asset classes under...

Embracing the concept of factor investing, we design a flexible framework for building out different factor completion strategies for traditional multi-asset allocations. Our notion of factor completion comprises a maximally diversified reference portfolio anchored in a multi-asset multi-factor...

Using a comprehensive international dataset of institutional investor holdings, we study social trust as a source of institutional investment biases. Our findings indicate that national trust-levels affect the investment allocation of institutional investors between domestic and foreign equity...

Recent empirical work shows that a better legal environment leads to lower expected rates of return in an international cross-section of countries. This paper investigates whether differences in firm-specific corporate governance also help to explain expected returns in a cross-section of firms...

This paper examines the impact of takeover law enforcement on corporate acquisitions. We use the European Takeover Directive as a natural experiment, which harmonizes takeover law across countries, while leaving its enforcement to the discretion of individual countries. We exploit this...