Corey A. Shank, Brice Dupoyet, Robert Durand and Fernando Patterson
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between psychopathy and its underlying traits and financial risk and time preferences.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between psychopathy and its underlying traits and financial risk and time preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors measure risk and time preferences using both the cumulative prospect theory and quasi-hyperbolic time discounting in a sample of business majors. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised test is then used to measure the global psychopathy and eight primary and two secondary traits of the sample of business majors. The measures of psychopathy are used as explanatory variables to model variation in subjects’ time and risk preferences.
Findings
The authors find that the overall score on the continuum of psychopathy is positively related to the linearity of the cumulative prospective utility function. A breakdown of psychopathy into its secondary and primary traits shows a more complex relation. For example, the secondary trait of self-centered impulsivity is statistically significant in models of financial risk preference determinants under the cumulative prospect theory. The authors find that the primary traits of self-centered impulsivity and stress immunity are related to a higher time preference discount rate under quasi-hyperbolic time preferences.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the literature on personality and financial decisions and highlights the importance of psychopathy in finance.
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Robert Durand, Rick Newby, Kevin Tant and Sirimon Trepongkaruna
The purpose of this paper is to systematically profile investors’ personality traits to examine if, and how, those traits are associated with phenomena observed in financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to systematically profile investors’ personality traits to examine if, and how, those traits are associated with phenomena observed in financial markets. In particular, the paper looks at overconfidence and overreaction in an experimental foreign exchange market.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper measures the personality of the subjects using the short form of the NEO-PIR instrument, the NEO-FFI developed by Costa and McRae (1992) which is based on Norman's (1963) “Big Five” personality constructs of negative emotion, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The paper measures psychological gender using questions developed by Bem (1994). Preference for innovation and risk-taking propensity are measured using instruments developed by Jackson (1976). The paper then examines the behavior of the subject who traded interactively in “real time” in an interactive-simulated foreign exchange market where “price discovery” was instantaneous and pricing decisions were made instantaneously as items of news, determined by the researchers, were released.
Findings
The paper demonstrates that personality traits are associated with overconfidence and overreaction in financial markets. The paper presents meta-analysis which facilitates the development of a posteriori theories of how particular traits affect investment; there are important roles for risk-taking propensity, negative emotion, extraversion, masculinity, preference for innovation and conscientiousness.
Originality/value
A typical behavioral finance paper might find an empirical regularity in prices and, on the basis of such patterns, infer the underlying psychology motivating the behavior of investors. The approach differs from this caricature of the “typical” behavioral finance paper. The paper does not infer the underlying psychology of investors from patterns in prices. Rather, the paper learns about investors by systematically profiling their personality traits. The paper then demonstrates how those traits are associated with the prices generated by the investors the authors study. In focussing on the role of individual personality, the paper refocusses behavioral finance on the individuals who set prices.
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Mikael Boisen, Robert B. Durand and John Gould
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate a unique sample of lottery-like stocks and contextualize their short-run price behavior with respect to behavioral principles.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate a unique sample of lottery-like stocks and contextualize their short-run price behavior with respect to behavioral principles.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a short-run event-study of the abnormal returns for stock market investments in Australian small-cap oil and gas (O & G) explorers centered on the drilling commencement (spudding) of 157 wildcat oil or gas wells drilled between January 2000 and June 2010.
Findings
Small-cap stock market investments associated with newly spudded wildcat O & G wells are negative NPV gambles rather than fair (zero NPV) investments. Once a wildcat well is spudded, the 30-day expected abnormal return is 6-8 percent: wealth-maximizing stockholders are advised to sell upon news of spudding, but gamblers may wish to hold on for the chance of a 10.6 percent 30-day average abnormal return (if the well is not plugged and abandoned). In the lead-up to each gamble the authors observe a significant pre-spudding stock price run-up on average, perhaps indicative of positively affected investors aroused by an easily imagined successful wildcat gusher as per evidence on the influence of image and affect on investors’ decisions (MacGregor et al., 2000; Loewenstein et al., 2001; Rottenstreich and Hsee, 2001; Peterson, 2002).
Originality/value
The wildcat drilling events considered in this paper are lottery-like by nature, and spudding represents the distinct moment when the gamble is unambiguously on, following shortly on from which investors either strike it lucky or strike out. The specifically small-cap wildcatters are typically heavily vested in one well at a time, therefore the sample stocks are uniquely lottery like. This differs from other studies which infer the lottery-like nature of their sample stocks from characteristics such as price and idiosyncratic volatility.
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Jean‐Guy Degos and Richard Mattessich
This paper offers a general survey of accounting literature in the French language area of the first half of the 20th century: After a general Introduction, referring mainly to…
Abstract
This paper offers a general survey of accounting literature in the French language area of the first half of the 20th century: After a general Introduction, referring mainly to renowned French authors of past centuries, it deals first with historical accounting research (Dupont, de Roover, Gomberg, Vlaemminck, etc). Then come publications in financial accounting theory and its application (Faure, Dumarchey, Delaporte, Penglaou, de Fages de Latour, etc.), followed by a section on cost accounting and managerial control (Julhiet, de Fage de Latour, Detoeuf, Satet, Bournisien, Brunei, Sauvegrai, etc.). Alarger Section is devoted to inflationary problems (Delavelle, Raffegeau and Lacout, Bayard, Léger, Faure, Thomas, Bisson, Dumarchey, Durand, Beaupère, Ratier, etc.). Another large section refers to charts of accounts and public supervision (Otlet, Faure, Blairon, Detoeuf, Caujolle, Fourastié, Gabriel, Chardonnet, Gamier, etc.). The paper closes with a concise general conclusion about this period of transition from a mainly traditional agricultural to an industrial society with its costing problems, its organizational control, and its greater service orientation.
Philip Gharghori, Howard Chan and Robert Faff
Daniel and Titman (1997) contend that the Fama‐French three‐factor model’s ability to explain cross‐sectional variation in expected returns is a result of characteristics that…
Abstract
Daniel and Titman (1997) contend that the Fama‐French three‐factor model’s ability to explain cross‐sectional variation in expected returns is a result of characteristics that firms have in common rather than any risk‐based explanation. The primary aim of the current paper is to provide out‐of‐sample tests of the characteristics versus risk factor argument. The main focus of our tests is to examine the intercept terms in Fama‐French regressions, wherein test portfolios are formed by a three‐way sorting procedure on book‐to‐market, size and factor loadings. Our main test focuses on ‘characteristic‐balanced’ portfolio returns of high minus low factor loading portfolios, for different size and book‐to‐market groups. The Fama‐French model predicts that these regression intercepts should be zero while the characteristics model predicts that they should be negative. Generally, despite the short sample period employed, our findings support a risk‐factor interpretation as opposed to a characteristics interpretation. This is particularly so for the HML loading‐based test portfolios. More specifically, we find that: the majority of test portfolios tend to reveal higher returns for higher loadings (while controlling for book‐to‐market and size characteristics); the majority of the Fama‐French regression intercepts are statistically insignificant; for the characteristic‐balanced portfolios, very few of the Fama‐French regression intercepts are significant.
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This article explores how the commentary of intermediaries – third-party entities that do not have direct economic stakes in the sales of goods – can contribute to the creation of…
Abstract
This article explores how the commentary of intermediaries – third-party entities that do not have direct economic stakes in the sales of goods – can contribute to the creation of new market categories comprising preexisting but neglected and undervalued goods. Specifically, I study how the Sundance Institute facilitated the creation of a market for independent cinema in the United States, suggesting that intermediaries create market categories by defining boundaries, generating criteria of evaluation, and setting standards for measuring and establishing hierarchies of quality, which help audiences understand and value the category. The study, thus, adds nuance to our understanding of markets and categories.
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Mostafa Monzur Hasan and Adrian (Wai Kong) Cheung
This paper aims to investigate how organization capital influences different forms of corporate risk. It also explores how the relationship between organization capital and risks…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how organization capital influences different forms of corporate risk. It also explores how the relationship between organization capital and risks varies in the cross-section of firms.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypothesis, this study employs the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model using a large sample of the United States (US) data over the 1981–2019 period. It also uses an instrumental variable approach and an errors-in-variables panel regression approach to mitigate endogeneity problems.
Findings
The empirical results show that organization capital is positively related to both idiosyncratic risk and total risk but negatively related to systematic risk. The cross-sectional analysis shows that the positive relationship between organization capital and idiosyncratic risk is significantly more pronounced for the subsample of firms with high information asymmetry and human capital. Moreover, the negative relationship between organization capital and systematic risk is significantly more pronounced for firms with greater efficiency and firms facing higher industry- and economy-wide risks.
Practical implications
The findings have important implications for investors and policymakers. For example, since organization capital increases idiosyncratic risk and total risk but reduces systematic risk, investors should take organization capital into account in portfolio formation and risk management. Moreover, the findings lend support to the argument on the recognition of intangible assets in financial statements. In particular, the study suggests that standard-setting bodies should consider corporate reporting frameworks to incorporate the disclosure of intangible assets into financial statements, particularly given the recent surge of corporate intangible assets and their critical impact on corporate risks.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to adopt a large sample to provide systematic evidence on the relationship between organization capital and a wide range of risks at the firm level. The authors show that the effect of organization capital on firm risks differs remarkably depending on the kind of firm risk a particular risk measure captures. This study thus makes an original contribution to resolving competing views on the effect of organization capital on firm risks.