I investigate whether mutual fund manager possess superior stock picking skills, by comparing the performance of stocks they hold in their portfolios versus that of stocks which they do not hold. In particular, I focus on a class of assets identified as "Lottery Stocks". These are stocks with...

Our paper analyzes the performance of different methods to adjust beta. Specifically, we compare the standard OLS regression method with the Blume and the t-distribution methods from the point of view of reference-day risk. Our results indicate that the t-distribution method minimizes the...

Based on a new dataset obtained from survey data, we study household debt default behavior in Chile. Previous research in this area suggests financial and personal variables that can help estimate individual and group probabilities of default. We study mortgage and consumer default separately,...

Between 1989 and 1993 a structural reform program was introduced in Colombia. If the reform package paled in comparison to those of other countries, it was remarkable given Colombia?s long-standing record of moving very cautiously in the reform front. The fact that the reform effort did not...

Using matching estimator techniques developed by Heckman, Ichimura, Smith and Todd (1998) and Heckman, Lalonde and Smith (1999), we explore the determinants of achievement rates in standardized tests of Colombian students attending public and private schools. This methodology allows us to...

I investigate the relationship between measures of skewness and expected stock returns. Forcing the data to fit a linear model, past research finds only a negative relationship between these variables. Using a novel methodology that endogenously estimates breakpoints in the relationship between...