Annual Conference

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Investment Finance, Senior Fellows/Fellows

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May 2019

Molecular Genetics Risk Aversion Return Perceptions and Stock Market Participation

Laura STARKS, Richard SIAS, H. J. TURTLE
We show that molecular variation in DNA related to cognition, personality, health, and body shape, predicts an individual’s equity market participation and risk aversion. Moreover, the molecular genetic endowments predict individuals’ return perceptions, most of which we find to be strikingly bi...
Keywords: Molecular genetics, stock market participation, risk aversion, genetic endowments
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Annual Conference

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Investment Finance

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May 2019

Who Benefits from Robo-advising? Evidence from Machine Learning

Alberto G. ROSSI, Stephen UTKUS
We study the effects of a large U.S. hybrid robo-adviser on the portfolios of previously self- directed investors. Across all investors, robo-advising reduces investors’ holdings in money market mutual funds and increases bond holdings. It also reduces idiosyncratic risk by lowering the holdings o...
Keywords: FinTech, portfolio choice, Behavioral finance, Individual Investors, Financial Literacy, Technology Adoption, machine learning
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Annual Conference

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Investment Finance, Senior Fellows/Fellows

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May 2019

Private Company Valuations by Mutual Funds

Si CHENG, Allaudeen HAMEED, Ayako YASUDA, Brad BARBER, Vikas AGARWAL
Mutual fund families set and report values of their private startup holdings, which affect the fund net asset value (NAV) at which investors buy/sell fund shares. We test three hypotheses related to the valuation practice: (i) information cost/access, (ii) litigation risk, and (iii) strategic NAV ma...
Keywords: Mutual Funds, Venture Capital, Private valuation, Stale prices, Financial fragility
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Annual Conference

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Investment Finance

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May 2019

Financialization and Commodity Market Serial Dependence

Yubo TAO, Zhi DA, Ke TANG
Recent financialization in the commodity market makes it easier for institutional investors to trade a portfolio of commodities via various commodity index products. Using news-based sentiment measures, we find that such trading can propagate non-fundamental shocks from some commodities to others in...
Keywords: Zhi Da (University of Notre Dame), Yubo Tao (Singapore Management University), Ke Tang (Tsinghua University)
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Annual Conference

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Investment Finance

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May 2019

Credit Default Swaps Around the World

Jennifer CONRAD, Söhnke M. BARTRAM, Jongsub LEE, Marti G. SUBRAHMANYAM
We analyze the impact of the introduction of credit default swaps (CDS) on real decision making within the firm, taking into consideration differences in firms’ local economic and legal environments. We extend the model of Bolton and Oehmke (2011) to take into account uncertainty whether the actio...
Keywords: Credit default swaps, CDS, investment policy, financing policy, creditor rights, property rights, private credit, ownership concentration
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