Stefano Cassella

My focus is on the impact of behavioral biases in financial markets. I am also interested in the role of institutional investors, teams, and regulation for asset prices and corporations.

CV

Cassella, S. and H. Gulen. 2018. Extrapolation bias and the predictability of stock returns by price-scaled variables. The Review of Financial Studies. Winner of the Jack Treynor Prize – Q Group, 2016 

Cassella, S., B. Golez, H. Gulen, and P. Kelly. 2023. Horizon Bias and the Term Structure of Equity Returns.  The Review of Financial Studies.

Atmaz, A., S. Cassella, H. Gulen, and F.Ruan. 2023.  Contrarians, Extrapolators, and Stock Market Momentum and Reversal. Management Science.

Cassella, S. and A.E. Rizzo. 2023. The Equity Value Impications of Court Ideology: Evidence from Federal Judge Turnover. Journal of Corporate Finance.Presentations: AFA, SFS Cavalcade North America, 27th Finance Forum, NFA Conference PhD Session, Asian FA Conference Doctoral Consortium, FMA Europe Doctoral Consortium, CEPR 2nd Annual Symposium in Financial Economics Poster Session.  

Awards: Winner of the 27th Finance Forum Best Paper Award; Winner of the 2017 AsianFa Conference Best Dissertation Award.  Media coverage: Columbia Law School's Blog.    

Cassella, S., T. Chen, H. Gulen, and Y.Liu . 2024. Extracting Extrapolative Beliefs From Market Prices: an Augmented Present-Value Approach. Journal of Financial Economics. 

Cassella, S., C. Dim, and T.Karimli. 2024. Optimism Shifting. 

Presentations: 2024 NBER Summer Institute 2024, Chicago Booth, Midwest Finance Annual Conference, University of Pisa, 2024 ESADE Spring Workshop, Bocconi Asset Pricing Conference, Bayes Business School (scheduled), Foundations of Utility and Risk  (scheduled), SGF conference.

Cassella, S., Z. Chen, H. Gulen, and R. Petkova. 2022. Extrapolators at the Gate: Market-wide Misvaluation and the Value Premium.

Cassella, S., P. Kelly, B. Golez, and H. Gulen. 2023. Motivated Beliefs in Macroeconomic Expectations. Presentations: Miami Behavioral Presentations: Miami Behavioral, Finance, NBER Behavioral Finance, Tilburg University, and Texas Christian University                       

Barahona R., S. Cassella, K. Jansen, and V.Pezone . 2025. Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Overreaction in Beliefs?

Presentations: NBER Behavioral Finance, SFS Cavalcade North America, AFA, CFR Research Seminar, USC Social and Behavioral Finance Conference, Research in Behavioral Finance Conference, 10th Research Workshop Banco de Espana-CEMFI, FMA conference, Tilburg University, Stockholm School of Economics, CUHK (scheduled), NUS (scheduled), HKU (scheduled). 

Non-technical 5-minutes presentation: USC Tommy Talk     

Cassella, S., A.E. Rizzo, and O.G. Spalt. 2024. Does Regulation Distort Asset Prices? Evidence from a Reform of Trust Investment Law. Coming soon             

Cassella, S. and H. Gulen. 2018. Belief-Based Equity Market Sentiment. 

July 2023: ''Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Cognitive Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds"

January 2023: "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Cognitive Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds" , 2023 AFA Conference.

December 2022: "Motivated Beliefs in Macroeconomic Expectations", 2022 Miami Behavioral Conference.

October 2022: "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Cognitive Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds", USC FBE Social Behavioral Finance Conference 2022. 

September  2022: "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds" , Research in Behavioral Finance Conference.

May  2022: "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds" , SFS Cavalcade North America.

March  4,  2022: "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds" , Swedish House of Finance .

November 2021: "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Extrapolation in Mutual Funds", Fall 2021 NBER Behavioral Finance .

August 2021: "Horizon Bias and the Term Structure of Equity Returns", 2021 EFA.

April 2021: "Horizon Bias in Expectations Formation" is presented at the NBER Behavioral Finance.

January 2021: "Do Shareholders Gain from Their Right to Sue? Evidence from Federal Judge Turnover", 2021 AFA.

May 2020: "Do Shareholders Gain from Their Right to Sue? Evidence from Federal Judge Turnover",  2020 SFS Cavalcade North America.

February 2020: "Horizon Bias and the Term Structure of Equity Returns", ASU Sonoran Winter Finance Conference.

December 2019: "Horizon Bias and the Term Structure of Equity Returns", Colorado Finance Summit.

December 2019: "Horizon Bias and the Term Structure of Equity Returns" Tau Finance Conference.

June 2019: "Belief-Based Equity Market Sentiment",  2019  WFA.

August 2018: "Belief-Based Equity Market Sentiment", 2018 EFA.

August 2016: "Extrapolation bias and the predictability of stock returns by price-scaled variables", 2016 EFA.