Working Papers

Bitcoin Investors' Style, Skill, Sentiment, Seasonal Trading, and Anchoring Bias

I examine the style and skill of Bitcoin traders in a U.S. based exchange, Coinbase. Bitcoin traders are contrarian. Their order flow displays daily and weekly seasonality and some evidence of market timing skills, especially among large and medium size traders. The positive returns to contrarian trades are consistent with liquidity provision. Additionally, large Bitcoin traders anchor to the 30-, 90-, and 120-day highs. Investor sentiment and attention intensify buying among smaller and selling among larger traders, but these trades are unprofitable. Analysis of trades from an alternative exchange shows that the order flow of traders in Asia positively correlates with concurrent Bitcoin returns, and do not reveal market timing skills.

Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Emissions of Air Pollutants

In this study, I examine the impact of board diversity from two different standpoints --demographic and cognitive--on firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. I show that ethnic diversity of board members along with presence of members who serve as academic professors or as board members of other firms, enhances firms’ sustainable conduct by reducing emission of air pollutants. Furthermore, exploiting exogenous variation in firms’ access to non-local diverse board members, I indicate that the discovered relation is causal. Moreover, I demonstrate that board diversity facilitates firms to emit less air pollutants by providing financial flexibility and investing in research and development (R&D).