This dissertation addresses issues in corporate finance. Part I examines the litigation environment of a firm and its impact on financial policy. Chapter 1 discusses prior research, including theory and empirical results, related to firm performance, financial policy, and litigation. It provides the background to support the empirical analyses of Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 2 examines the wealth effects of litigation events on the firms involved, as well as on their industry peers. I find that litigation events have a strong negative effect on both the firms sued, as well as their competitors. Chapter 3 examines whether managers use financial policy strategically when facing an increased risk of litigation claims. I find that greater litigation exposure leads firms to choose higher leverage. I show that this leverage increase is brought on by an active decision to repurchase shares. These repurchases appear to be financed with a combination of excess cash and short term debt as they coincide with a significant decrease in cash holdings and an increase in short term liabilities. These firms also increase their use of operating leases, which, due to their priority in bankruptcy, have similar characteristics as secured debt. Finally, the effects seem to be stronger for firms with a higher probability of bankruptcy. Part II asks whether there is a disposition effect in corporate investment decisions. Chapter 4 provides a summary of the existing literature related to the disposition effect and discusses both theoretical and empirical findings. In Chapter 5, I utilize the unique nature of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to test for the presence of the disposition effect in corporate investments. The results show strong statistical evidence that REIT managers tend to sell winners and hold losers, where winners and losers are defined using changes in properties’ prices since they were acquired. In addition, I find evidence that this behavior is consistent with the disposition effect. REIT managers are significantly less likely to sell properties that have a loss relative to a reference point based on inflation or historical average returns, controlling for the properties’ recent returns. / text

abstract: I examine the degree to which stockholders' aggregate gain/loss frame of reference in the equity of a given firm affects their response to the firm's quarterly earnings announcements. Contrary to predictions from rational expectations models of trade (Shackelford and Verrecchia 2002), I find that abnormal trading volume around earnings announcements is larger (smaller) when stockholders are in an aggregate unrealized capital gain (loss) position. This relation is stronger among seller-initiated trades and weaker in December, consistent with the cognitive bias referred to as the disposition effect (Shefrin and Statman 1985). Sensitivity analysis reveals that the relation is stronger among less sophisticated investors and for firms with weaker information environments, consistent with the behavioral explanation. I also present evidence on the consequences of this disposition effect. First, stockholders' aggregate unrealized capital gain position moderates the degree to which information-related determinants of trade (e.g. unexpected earnings, firm size, and forecast dispersion) affect abnormal announcement-window trading volume. Second, stockholders' aggregate unrealized capital gains position is associated with announcement-window abnormal returns, consistent with the disposition effect reducing the market's ability to efficiently incorporate earnings news into price. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Accountancy 2012

This thesis is an attempt to bridge some research gaps in the area of behavioural finance and investment through adopting the three essays scheme of PhD dissertations. There is a widespread belief that the traditional finance theory failed to provide a sufficient and plausible explanation for (1) what motivates individual investors to trade, (2) the pattern of their trading and the formation of their portfolios, (3) the determinants of cross section of expected returns other than risk. Behavioural Finance, however, offers more realistic assumptions based on two building blocks; behavioural biases of irrational investors and the limits of arbitrage that prevent the arbitrageurs from correcting mispricing and pushing prices back to fundamental values. This dissertation is structured as follows: In the first essay, the disposition effect is defined as the propensity of investors to realize gains too early while being loath to realize losses. Capital gains overhang is a measure of unrealized capital gains and losses that is associated with the disposition effect and the trading activities of behaviourally biased investors. We discover that firm characteristics can play a role in explaining variations in the capital gains overhang that is consistent with the activities of behaviourally biased and disposition investors. Specifically, we find that capital gains overhang is increasing in firm attributes that attract behaviourally biased investors, namely, earnings per share, leverage, growth and size. Capital gains overhang is also declining in market liquidity, possibly because liquidity allows behaviourally biased investors to excessively trade shares and beta and corporate earnings, probably because when high risk and inefficient firms experience losses, disposition investors experience capital losses that they are reluctant to realize. In the second essay, quantile regressions are employed to analyse the relationship between the unrealized capital gains overhang and expected returns. The ability of the disposition effect to generate momentum is also considered for the extreme expected return regions (0.05th) and (0.95th) quantiles. To do so, 450,617 observations belonging to 5176 US firms are employed, covering a time span from January 1998 to June 2015. Following the methodology of Grinblatt and Han (2005), the findings show significant differences across various quantiles in terms of signs and magnitudes. These findings indicate a nonlinear relationship between capital gains overhang and expected returns since the impact of capital gains overhang as a proxy for disposition effect on expected returns vary across the expected return distribution. More precisely, the coefficients of capital gains overhang are significantly positive and decline as the expected returns quantiles increase from the lowest to the median expected return quantiles. However, they become significantly negative and rise with the increase in expected returns quantiles above median expected returns quantiles. The findings also suggest that the disposition effect is not a good noisy proxy for momentum at the lowest expected return quantile (0.05th). However, interestingly it seems to generate contrarian in returns at the highest expected returns quantile (0.95th). In the third essays, we try to discover systematic disagreements in momentum, asymmetric volatility and the idiosyncratic risk momentum return relationship between high-tech stocks and low-tech stocks. We develop several hypotheses that suggest greater momentum profits, fainter asymmetric volatility and weaker idiosyncratic risk-momentum return relation in the high-tech stocks relative to the low tech stocks. To this end, we divide 5795 stocks that are listed in the Russell 3000 index from January 1995 to December 2015 into two samples SIC code and analysed them using the Fama French with GJR-GARCH-M term. The results show that the high-tech stocks provide greater momentum profits especially for portfolios that have holding and ranking periods of less than 12 months. In most cases momentum returns in the high-tech stocks explain a symmetric response to good and bad news while the momentum returns in the low-tech stocks show an asymmetric response. Finally, the idiosyncratic risk-momentum return relation is insignificant for high-tech stocks while it is significant and negative for low-tech stocks. That is, as idiosyncratic risk increases, momentum decreases for low-tech stocks. These findings are robust to different momentum strategies and to different breakpoints.

O efeito disposição, originalmente proposto por Shefrin e Statman (1985), preconiza que os investidores tendem a vender ações com lucro em um curto período de tempo e manter ações com prejuízo por um longo período de tempo. A despeito da ampla gama de evidências sobre o assunto, as razões que levariam os investidores a manifestar esse viés comportamental ainda é motivo de uma controvérsia importante entre motivações racionais e comportamentais. Neste trabalho, o objetivo foi testar duas motivações comportamentais concorrentes para explicar o efeito disposição: a teoria perspectiva e o viés da reversão à média. Para cumprir esse objetivo, foi feita uma análise das transações mensais de compra e venda de uma amostra de 51 fundos de investimento em ações brasileiros, no período de 2002 a 2008. A análise envolveu a estimação de dois modelos de regressão de variável dependente qualitativa. O primeiro consistiu em um modelo logit binário cujo propósito foi determinar a probabilidade de um gestor realizar um ganho ou uma perda de capital em razão de variáveis de retorno das ações. O segundo foi um modelo logit ordenado cujo objetivo foi verificar a existência de uma relação entre as variáveis de retorno e o volume monetário vendido das ações. Em ambos os modelos, os parâmetros estimados para as variáveis de retorno das ações foram interpretados como um coeficiente de disposição, sendo que a proposição desse coeficiente consistiu na principal contribuição da pesquisa. Os resultados dos modelos estimados trouxeram evidências de que a teoria perspectiva parece permear o processo decisório dos gestores dos fundos analisados. Já no caso da hipótese de que o efeito disposição é decorrente do viés da reversão à média, não foi possível corroborá-la com base nos resultados aqui relatados. / The disposition effect, originally proposed by Shefrin and Statman (1985), predicts that investors tend to sell winning stocks too soon and ride losing stocks too long. Despite the wide range of research evidence about this issue, the reasons that lead investors to act this way is still subject to much controversy between rational and behavioral explanations. In this thesis, the main goal was to test two competing behavioral motivations to justify the disposition effect: prospect theory and mean reversion bias. To achieve this goal, an analysis of monthly transactions for a sample of 51 Brazilian stock funds from 2002 to 2008 was conducted. The analysis involved the estimation of two regression models with qualitative dependent variable. The first one consisted of a binary logit model whose purpose was to set the probability of a manager to realize a capital gain or loss as a function of the stock return. The second one was an ordered logit model whose objective was to verify the existence of a relationship between stock returns and the monetary volume sold. In both models, the estimated parameters for the stock return variables were interpreted as a disposition coefficient and the proposition of this coefficient was the main contribution of the research. The results of the estimated models brought evidence that prospect theory seems to guide the decision making process of the managers of the analyzed funds. The hypothesis that the disposition effect is due to mean reversion bias could not be confirmed based on the results reported here.

På aktiemarknaden finns det stora mängder kapital och en ansenlig del av detta kapital förvaltas aktivt av professionella fondförvaltare. Att psykologiska aspekter kan påverka beslut gällande investeringar är känt genom tidigare forskning, men huruvida professionella investerare påverkas av det vid investeringsbeslut är mindre känt. Studien syftar till att undersöka vilken påverkan de psykologiska fallgroparna disposition effect och herding har på förvaltare på svenska fondbolag. I undersökningen har åtta institutionella fondförvaltare deltagit och genom semistrukturerade intervjuer har ett antal teman fångats upp för att sedan analyseras. Utifrån den insamlade datan och efterföljande analys uppvisade förvaltarna tendenser till att falla för vissa aspekter av de psykologiska fallgroparna. Den fallgrop som studien fann starkast stöd för hos förvaltarna var benägenhet att falla i disposition effect, de tenderar att hålla sina förlorare för länge medans de släpper sina vinnare för tidigt.

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In this dissertation, we examine whether the disposition effect, the tendency to sell winners and hold losers, exists among U.S. equity mutual funds and how the disposition effect influences fund performance and particularly flows. We find that a significant fraction (32%) of all funds exhibit some degree of disposition behavior. These funds underperform funds that are not disposition prone by 4-6% per year. Moreover, we find that the disposition effect has a significant impact on future fund flows. Without controlling for performance, disposition-prone funds experience 2-3% less flows each quarter than other funds. The difference in flows is probably due to poor performance of such funds. However, even after controlling for performance and other factors that potentially influence flows, funds with a high disposition effect experience 0.7-2% less flows than funds without such behavior. Past research has found that funds with low tax overhang garner larger inflows. Though disposition-prone funds are likely to have a lower tax overhang because they sell their winners quickly, we find that fund flows to disposition-prone funds are smaller than flows to non-disposition oriented funds after controlling for tax overhang. These results suggest that performance and tax efficiency as well as tax overhang are all important to mutual fund investors. / Ph. D.

Can the HEXACO personality dimensions and facets be used to explain the principal-agent problem and the disposition effect? The proposed research is designed to address the relationship between personality dimensions and individuals’ propensity to engage in self-interested behavior (agency effect) and irrational investment decisions (disposition effect). This paper proposes a correlational study that will be one of the first to apply Ashton and Lee’s (2009) HEXACO framework of personality to examine the association between the six personality dimensions and measurements of the agency and disposition effect. The HEXACO model of personality dimension includes Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Openness to Experience, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. Total participants in both experiments will be 480 undergraduate college students. Participating students will complete the HEXACO-60 self-report inventory and take part in a stock simulation where measurements of interests are recorded. Higher scores along the Honesty-Humility and Emotionality dimensions are expected to have a strong negative relationship with the agency effect measurement, while Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion will have a weak to moderate positive association. Higher scores along the Emotionality dimensions are expected to have a strong negative association with the disposition effect measurement, while lower scores of Conscientiousness are expected to have a positive relationship.

台灣投資人在股票市場的投資行為有明顯的短線進出現象，且在股票有獲利時就急著把手上的獲利實現，若是股票呈現虧損，則一直不肯實現損失，此行為即是行為財務學中所探討的「處分效果」。個人在投信公司任職期間發現，基金投資人的投資行為也出現相同的現象，為了驗證處分效果是否亦存在於基金投資人身上，個人以匯豐中華投信系列基金之投資人為研究對象，並選定發行日期在2000年以前並存續至今的七檔基金為研究的目標基金，欲驗證處分效果是否存在於基金投資人的投資行為中。 在以整體投資人為研究對象下發現，台灣的共同基金投資人存在處分效果，且當持有期間以月份為單位時的處分效果比以半年為單位時的處分效果強烈。若將基金投資人依屬性分類為自然人與法人，分別探討其處分效果發現，自然人與法人均存在處分效果。 一般認為，法人比自然人有更專業的投資評斷與投資理性，處分行為應該比自然人輕微，但實證結果發現，自然人的處分效果只有在持有間以月份為單位時達到顯著；持有期間以半年為單位時則沒有觀察到處分現象。法人則不論持有期間的單位為月份或是半年，均存在處分效果。原因可能是法人在季底或是月底，有將會計帳上的壓力，導致法人所表現出的處分效果高於自然人的處分效果。 市場行情可能也會影響處分效果，本研究依據台灣經濟新報資料庫的台灣大盤加權指數資料，將2000年至2003年6月定義為空頭，2003年7月至2006年底定義為多頭，進行處分效果的驗證。研究結果顯示，基金投資人在多頭時期的處分效果比空頭時期的處分效果顯著，推究其原因可能是投資人在空頭時對獲利的基金會想立即實現獲利，把賺到的前穩當的放到口袋。在多頭時則因為心裡預期手中虧損的基金一定會有獲利的一天，而不願損失將兌現。 投資人應該對自己的投資組合設定停損與停利點，以減少因為心理因素驅動的投資行為減少投資獲利。

Abstract   Background: The dividend ex-day effect is the tendency of the stock price drop on the ex-day to be less than the dividend per share. This inclination is contrary to established theory of rational investor behaviour and is, thus, considered an anomaly in capital markets. The phenomenon was first observed more than half a century ago and has puzzled researchers ever since, resulting a myriad of theories trying to explain its cause. Nevertheless, the dividend ex-day effect still stands without a conclusive explanation. In Sweden, few studies have been conducted and none succeeds in explaining the phenomenon. In a recent addition to the many explanatory theories, Efthymiou and Leledakis (2014) propose the disposition effect as the driving factor behind the dividend ex-day effect. Compelling evidence for this notion is provided in an empirical study of the US market, warranting the consideration of a similar investigation in the Swedish market.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the dividend ex-day effect and the disposition effect in the Swedish stock market. Method: This study is conducted using a deductive approach and a quantitative research strategy. Secondary data of OMXS stocks during the 2013-2017 period is gathered from Thomson Reuters Datastream. To fulfil the purpose, one sample t-tests and regression analyses are performed. Conclusion: Statistically significant results confirm that there is a pervasive dividend ex-day effect on the OMXS market. From here, it is found that there is a substantial difference in the price drop between stocks based on their performance: winning stocks display a higher price drop on the ex-day compared to losing stocks. Regression analyses indicate a positive relationship between the dividend ex-day effect and the disposition effect. Some evidence, although not statistically significant, suggest that for a specific stock, the price drop will be greater in times when the stock has had positive returns compared to when it has had negative returns. A remarkable finding in this study is that all tests indicate that the positive relationship between the dividend ex-day effect and the disposition effect appears to be fading out as the holding period of stocks gets longer.