Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine how psychological factors affect shareholders and investors, and see which gender differences there are in their investment decisions. Method: The survey was based on a quantitative method with elements of qualitative aspects in form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire were answered by investors and shareholders at various websites for stock investor. The survey consisted of a total of 13 questions with both open and closed answers. Theory: The survey focused on four elements within behavioral finance. These factors are overconfidence, herd behavior, anchoring and familiarity bias. The efficient market hypothesis suggests full rationality which is the opposite of what behavioral finance advocates. Conclusion: Psychological factors affect investors and shareholders in their investment decisions. More men than women considered themselves to be better than average which indicates that they have a stronger overconfidence. In terms of herd behavior the respondents did not show that they follow the group when they have their own information, however, the opposite appeared when they had imperfect information. Women were affected by herd behavior more than men were. Women were affected more than men regarding familiarity bias. Anchoring also proved that the factor had an influence on the respondents but it was not a major difference between men and women.

Svensk bostadsmarknad har länge präglats av en snedvriden konkurrens med en markant fördel till Sveriges kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag jämte de privata bostadsaktiebolagen. I syfte att utjämna existerande sektoriella diskrepanser och skapa en konkurrensneutral marknad med jämlika villkor för privata respektive kommunala bostadsaktiebolag, infördes per den 1:a januari år 2011, Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag. Lagen innebär för de kommunala bostadsaktiebolagen ett avsteg från den tidigare självkostnadsprincipen mot ett i högre grad affärsmässig agerande enligt vinstdrivande syfte. Denna studie avser utifrån sambandet mellan risk och avkastning inom svenska bostadsaktiebolag, undersöka huruvida svenska kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag efter införandet av lagen uppvisar ett mer affärsmässigt agerande i termer om risk och avkastning på totalt kapital. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter tar huvudsakligen ansats i prospektteorin samt den förväntade nyttoteorin, vilka utgör två välrenommerade modeller i syfte att förklara beslutstagande under risk. Den förväntade nyttoteorin antar att individer är rationella nyttomaximerare och därefter agerar antingen riskaversivt, risksökande eller riskneutralt. Prospektteorin hävdar i motsats till den förväntade nyttoteorin att individen kan vara en kombination av riskaversiv, risksökande och riskneutral. Varav individen således inte alltid antas agera rationellt. Författarna har funnit flertalet tidigare forskare vilka genom perspektivet av den strategiska företagsledningen, bevisat stöd för prospektteorin som förklarande modell av beslutstagande under risk på företagsnivå, inom och mellan olika branscher. Därmed ställer författarna följande frågeställning: Uppvisar Sveriges kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag ett i högre grad affärsmässigt riskbeteende efter införandet av Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag? Utifrån sekundärdata insamlad via databasen Retriever Business har ett kvantitativt metodangrepp tillämpats i syfte att besvara studiens framställda hypoteser. Insamlad data består av de svenska bostadsaktiebolagens årliga avkastning på totalt kapital för tidsperioden 2006-2010 samt 2011-2014. Det empiriska materialet har vidare analyserats genom korstabeller, rangkorrelationer samt deskriptiv statistik. Resultatet visade att prospektteorin utgör ett bra alternativ som deskriptiv modell av beslutstagande under risk inom svenska bostadsaktiebolag. Enligt prospektteorin påvisades att svenska bostadsaktiebolags riskbeteende varierar beroende på bolagets branschallokering i förhållande till branschens genomsnittliga prestation, varav den strategiska företagsledningen inom svenska bostadsaktiebolag kan antas vara en sammanslagning av både risksökande och riskaversiva. Därmed motsäger resultatet den förväntade nyttoteorins antaganden om att individen alltid agerar rationellt. Vidare påvisade jämförelse av de kommunala bostadsaktiebolagens riskbeteende före och efter reformen att de kommunala bostadsaktiebolagens riskbeteende inte påverkats i större utsträckning, varför indikationer ges att allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag inte agerar i högre grad affärsmässigt efter Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag.

本研究旨在探討投資人情緒與月營收資訊是否能夠解釋台灣股票報酬，以及投資人情緒是否影響對於月營收資訊的解讀。實證結果發現，前期月營收資訊、前期投資人情緒以及兩者乘積對當期股票報酬有顯著的正向影響。表示月營收資訊的揭露能帶給投資人資訊，作為交易時的考量，而前期投資人情緒能夠部分解釋當期股票報酬。兩者乘積表示營收資訊和投資人情緒為同期時，投資人對於資訊的解讀會受到情緒影響，進而影響股票的報酬。進一步探討，當投資人面對月營收成長率高、月營收波動低時，對於其月營收資訊的解讀傾向伴隨著情緒。 / This study wants to discuss whether sales information and investor sentiment could explain Taiwan stock market and whether investor sentiment affects their interpretation on sales information. The empirical results show that the sales information last period, investor sentiment last period and the multiplication of these two are significantly positively correlated to current stock returns. It indicates that the sales disclosure is informative to investors as a consideration while trading and investor sentiment can partially explain the stock returns. The estimate of multiplication which is positive indicates that when sales information and investor sentiment are in the same period, investors’ interpretation on sales information would be affected by their sentiment, and further affecting the stock returns. We further find that when companies have the characteristics of high sales growth rate and low sales volatility, their sales information tends to be interpreted by investors emotionally.

Cette thèse est constituée de quatre articles. Le premier article avec Johan Hombert montre que lorsque les relations bancaires sont affectées, cela réduit le nombre d'entreprises innovantes et conduit également à une hausse de la mobilité géographique des inventeurs, qui quittent les états où les relations bancaires sont dégradées. Le second article est un travail avec Claire Célerier mettant en avant le rôle de l'offre dans le phénomène de non bancarisation des populations pauvres aux Etats-Unis. Le troisième article étudie les externalités d'innovation et montre que lorsque certaines entreprises innovent moins les autres entreprises locales innovent moins en réponse. Cet effet décroit rapidement avec la distance. Le quatrième article, en collaboration avec Olivier Dessaint, montre que les managers répondent systématiquement à des chocs de liquidité proches d'eux en augmentant temporairement leur trésorier. / This dissertation is made of four distinct chapters. The first chapter with Johan Hombert shows that when lending relationships are hurt, it reduces the number of innovative firms and foster inventor mobility who move out of geographical areas where lending relationships are hurt. The second chapter presents a work with Claire Célerier and shows that supply-side factors account for a large part of the unbanked household phenomenon in the US. The third chapter studies spillovers of innovation and shows that when some firms innovate less other firms in the same city innovate less in response and this effect declines sharply with distance. The fourth chapter with Olivier Dessaint presents evidence that managers systematically respond to near-miss liquidity shocks by temporarily increasing the amount of corporate cash holdings.

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo testar o efeito disposição, que é a tendência dos investidores em vender os investimentos ganhadores mais rapidamente que os investimentos perdedores, através da análise das carteiras de todos os fundos brasileiros de investimentos em Ações, no perí­odo compreendido entre novembro de 2003 e março de 2008. Embora a análise do número de transações revele que os fundos de investimento estão sujeitos ao efeito disposição, diferentemente do mercado acionário americano, quando são analisados os volumes transacionados, não é possível identificar o efeito disposição, especialmente em relação aos fundos de varejo, os que apresentaram a maior tendência de realização de perdas em detrimento dos ganhos. / [en] The goal of this study is to test the disposition effect, the tendency of investors to sell winning investments too soon and hold losing investments too long, by analyzing all the Brazilian Equity Funds portfolios from november 2003 to march 2008. Although the analysis based on the number of trades shows the Equity Funds are subject to the disposition effect, unlike the American stock market, when the analysis is based on the trading volume, the disposition effect is not identified, mainly in the funds open to non-qualified investors, that showed the stronger tendency to realize the loses instead the gains.

[pt] O presente estudo tem como objetivo testar a possibilidade de obtenção de retornos anormais de capital entre jan/2003 e dez/2012 para o mercado acionário brasileiro no curtíssimo prazo. Investigou-se, para tanto, a hipótese de reversão à média de curto prazo associada a uma seleção de ativos (ações) com base no critério de ordenamento decrescente do múltiplo P/VPA. Os ativos integrantes das carteiras vigentes do IBrX-100 foram ordenados de forma decrescente e em seguida estratégias contrárias com carteiras compradas em ações perdedoras e vendidas em ganhadoras foram montadas e testadas nos períodos subseqüentes. Evidências empíricas foram encontradas a favor da combinação de estratégias de valor e momento e, consequentemente, a favor da possibilidade de retornos anormais. Entretanto, o teste estatístico realizado felha em rejeitar a hipótese da significância dos resultados. Por fim, o trabalho investigou a existência de retornos residuais, expressos pelos Coeficientes de Jensen. Contudo, novamente o teste estatístico realizado não foi capaz de confirmar a significância dos resultados. / [en] The goal of this study is to test the possibility of obtaining abnormal capital returns between Jan/2003 and Dec/2012 for the Brazilian stock market in the very short run. We investigated, therefore, the hypothesis of mean reversion of returns associated with a selection of assets (shares) based on the criteria of descending order of P/BV ratio. Assets present in IBrX – 100 existing portfolios were ranked in decreasing order of P/BV ratio and then contrarian strategies were used with portfolios built by winner and loser stocks to test the abnormal returns in subsequent periods. Empirical evidences were found for the combination of Value and Momentum strategies and therefore for the possibility of abnormal returns. However, the statistical test performed fail to reject the hypothesis of significance of the results. Finally, the study investigated the existence of residua returns, expressed by Jensen Coeficients. However, once again the statistical test performed was not able to confirm the significance of the results.

Momentum is one of the most robust anomalies in financial markets, there are two main recent explanations for this phenomenon, a behavioral-based explanation through disposition-effect (i.e., the willingness to sell \"winners\" too quickly and to hold \"losers\" for a long time) and a fund-flow based explanation. The disposition-effect explanation is centered in the convergence of the spread between the fundamental value and the observed market price (disposition-effect causes an underreaction to news that generates this spread), and the fund flows-based explanation is due to the persistence of the performance of mutual-funds (which usually keep buying winning positions and selling the losses). This master thesis compares those theories using Brazilian data (which is suitable for the strong presence of momentum). Our empirical analysis was done using Fama-MacBeth regressions with results pointing the disposition-effect explanation as the most significant, with our robustness analysis contributing positively to the main findings. / Uma das anomalias mais robustas presente nos mercados financeiros é a existência de momentum nos preços de ações, existem duas principais explicações recentes para este fenômeno: explicação comportamental através do efeito-disposição (i.e. disposição de vender ativos \"vencedores\" rapidamente e de segurar ativos \"perdedores\" por muito tempo) e explicações de fluxos de fundos de investimento. A explicação através do efeito-disposição é centrada na convergência do spread entre o valor fundamental de um ativo e o preço de mercado observado (o efeito-disposição causa uma reação branda a notícias que gera esse spread), e a explicação baseada em fluxos de fundos que se deve pela persistência da performance de fundos (que usualmente continuam comprando posições vencedoras e vendendo as perdedoras). O objetivo desta dissertação é comparar essas teorias utilizando dados brasileiros (que é adequado pela forte presença de momentum). Nossa análise empírica foi feita através de regressões de Fama-MacBeth com resultados apontando a explicação centrada no efeito-disposição como a mais significativa, com nossa análise de robustez contribuindo positivamente para nossos resultados principais.

O objetivo do presente trabalho é estabelecer a relação entre o nível de tolerância ao risco financeiro de investidores (e investidores potenciais), suas características demográficas, seus traços de personalidade, vieses comportamentais e nível de educação financeira. A literatura consultada subsidiou os conceitos dos traços de personalidade bem como os conceitos de finanças comportamentais, educação financeira e tolerância ao risco. A metodologia utilizada foi descritiva, com método quantitativo, tendo sido utilizadas as técnicas estatísticas de análise fatorial exploratória e regressão múltipla hierárquica para tratamento dos dados. Foi aplicada uma survey em amostra não probabilística, selecionada por conveniência, constituída por indivíduos maiores de 18 anos, oriundos de vários estados brasileiros. Os resultados mostraram que, na amostra estudada, os homens são mais tolerantes ao risco do que as mulheres, a faixa etária tem uma relação inversa com a variável independente, indicando que os mais jovens seriam mais propensos ao risco. Além disso, os achados indicam que os traços de personalidade não foram importantes para explicar a tolerância ao risco uma vez que, no modelo final da análise de regressão hierárquica, nenhuma das variáveis que compõem os traços de personalidade foram significantes. Quanto aos vieses comportamentais abordados neste trabalho, o viés do autocontrole, foi considerado significante para explicar a tolerância ao risco, indicando que as pessoas com mais autocontrole têm maior tolerância ao risco. A educação financeira também foi uma variável significante para explicar a tolerância ao risco, sendo positivamente relacionada com a mesma. Dessa forma, os resultados aqui obtidos indicaram que a tolerância ao risco é influenciada por características comportamentais e cognitivas. / The aim of the present study is to establish the relationship between the level of financial risk tolerance of investors (and potential investors), demographic characteristics, personality traits, behavioral biases and level of financial education. The literature consulted supported the concepts of personality traits as well as the concepts of behavioral finance, financial education and risk tolerance. The methodology adopted was descriptive and quantitative. The statistical techniques used was the factorial analysis and hierarchical multiple regression. The sample was non probabilistic, selected by convenience and consisted of individuals over 18 years of age, from several Brazilian states. The results showed that, in the sample studied, men are more risk tolerant than women, the age has an inverse relationship with the independent variable, indicating that the younger ones would be more risk-prone. Furthermore, the findings indicate that personality traits were not important in explaining risk tolerance since, in the final model of hierarchical regression analysis, none of the traits were significant. Regarding the behavioral biases addressed in this study, the self-control bias was considered significant in explaining risk tolerance, indicating that people with more self-control have greater risk tolerance. Financial education was also a significant variable to explain risk tolerance and was positively related to it. Thus, the results achieved indicate that risk tolerance is influenced by behavioral and cognitive characteristics.

Background: The traditional neoclassical model of finance has assumed that all individuals act rationally and that they update their beliefs according to the information they have obtained to maximise their utility. This concept has been challenged by behavioural finance which has over the past decades become a new approach to better understand certain behaviours. Behavioural finance is a broad area which can be divided into different areas. One of them is investor behaviour, which will be the focus of this thesis. Research has shown that investors do not act rationally when deciding how much risk to take when considering an investment. Instead, it has been found that there are other factors that influence risk-taking in an investment, for instance gender, income, marital status and age. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to better understand if a selected group of demographic factors can affect the risk attitude investors in Sweden have with regard to their investments and to determine how well these factors explain the level of risk. The chosen demographic factors are gender, age, marital status and income. Method: This study is conducted using a deductive approach and employing a quantitative research method. A multinomial logistic regression was performed in the statistical program R. The data used is secondary data collected from financial counselling meetings of 111,265 clients during the period of 2018-01-03 to 2019-04-04. It is gathered from one of Sweden’s largest bank who measures customers’ risk tolerance by using a risk assessment tool that categorises risk tolerance into five levels where one is the lowest and five is the highest. Conclusion: Statistically significant results confirm that that the selected demographic factors have an effect on the risk level an investor takes. Males have higher risk tolerance than women, the older an individual is, the less risk the person wants to take, married people have higher risk tolerance than those that are not, and risk tolerance increases slightly with income.

Partindo dos conceitos estabelecidos pela Hipótese dos Mercados Eficientes (HME), a qual questiona a validade da Análise Gráfica, e considerando as críticas feitas à HME pelos defensores das assim chamadas Finanças Comportamentais, e outros, este estudo procurou detectar a existência de uma relação entre os sinais gráficos observados no dia-a-dia do mercado de ações brasileiro e as tendências que lhes sucedem, durante um período de 8 anos, para um número de papéis. Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho evidenciam a existência de tal relação, sugerindo a validade da utilização da Análise Gráfica como instrumento para a previsão de preços no mercado de ações brasileiro, no período considerado. / Based on the principles established by the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), which argues that the Technical Analysis is of no value in order to predict future prices of securities, and considering the criticism to the EMH by the advocates of the so called Behavioral Finance, and others, this work tried to detect the existence of a relationship between the graphic signals observed day by day in the Brazilian stock market and the trends which happen after these signals, within a period of 8 years, for a number of securities. The results obtained from this study offer evidence of the existence of such relationship, suggesting the validity of the Technical Analysis as an instrument to predict security prices in the Brazilian stock market within that period.