Research

Selected publications

• Investor sentiment and employment, with Remco Zwinkels (VU Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute)
  Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Volume 55, Issue 5, August 2020, pp. 1581-1618.

Higher sentiment among U.S. investors leads to higher employment growth around the world.

• Does the U.S. president affect the stock market?

Journal of Financial Markets, Volume 61, November 2022, 100704.

Unpopular U.S. presidents create undue pessimism in the equity market and depress stock returns.

• Wage gap and stock returns: Do investors dislike pay inequality?, with Ingolf Dittmann (U Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute) and Yuhao Zhu (U Rotterdam)
  Journal of Corporate Finance, Volume 78, February 2023, 102322.
  European Corporate Governance Institute – Finance Working Paper No. 727/2021.

Many investors shun companies that exhibit high pay inequality between managers and workers.

• Political uncertainty and institutional herding, with Costas Gavriilidis (U Stirling) and Bill Kallinterakis (Durham U)

Journal of Corporate Finance, Volume 88, October 2024, 102627.
During politically uncertain times, institutional investors herd and (mostly) improve market efficiency.

Other publications

• Optimal pricing in the online betting market
  Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Volume 186, June 2021, Pages 344-363.

Online bookmakers are less similar and less risk-averse than previously thought.

• Company name fluency and stock returns, with Martijn van den Assem (VU Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute) and Remco Zwinkels (VU Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute)

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 39, September 2023, 100819.
Small companies of superior quality tend to have clever names.

• Beta, value, and growth: Do dichotomous risk-preferences explain stock returns?

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 39, September 2023, 100834.
The value premium partly reflects a speculative component in investor demand.

• Managerial sentiment and employment, with Yuhao Zhu (U Rotterdam) and Remco Zwinkels (VU Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute)

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Volume 43, September 2024, 100961.
Optimistic managers hire too much and decrease labor productivity.

New working papers

• Sentiment, productivity, and economic growth, with George Constantinides (U Chicago), Valerio Potì (UC Dublin), and Stella Spilioti (U Athens)
  NBER Working Paper w31031; Becker Friedman Institute Working Paper No. 2023-40; Michael J. Brennan Research Paper No. 22-8.

Sentiment can create economic booms but only in smaller or less advanced economies.

• Technological greenness and long-run performance, with Stefano Battiston (U Zurich, U Venice, CEPR) and Irene Monasterolo (U Utrecht, CEPR)

CEPR Discussion Paper No. 19337.

Firms that invest in green technologies are better firms all round.

Other working papers

• Friend or foe? Bilateral political relations and the portfolio allocation of foreign institutional investors, with Stefano Lugo (U Utrecht)

Distant political relations make foreign investors retrench from the host country.

• Optimal COVID restrictions, with Valerio Potì (UC Dublin)

Governments may not act as optimizing agents under high levels of uncertainty.

• Risk, return, and sentiment in a virtual asset market, with Remco Zwinkels (VU Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute)

A quasi-natural experiment shows that equity spreads reflect a large behavioral component.

• The prospect CAPM: Theory and empirics, with Xiang Gao (SBS), Kees Koedijk (U Utrecht, CEPR), and Zhan Wang (SBS)
  CEPR Discussion Paper No. 17935.

Prospect preferences create equity spreads in their own right.