No description available.

The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change was used to assess change in investing behavior among Investing For Your Future home-study course participants. The goal of Investing For Your Future is to help people improve their personal finance behaviors leading to financial security in later life. On average, after course participation fourteen of the fifteen investing behaviors were identified in the desired stages of established behavior. The study was based on Prochaska's Transtheoretical Model of Change (1979), including five different stages of behavior. This study investigated at what stage of change course participants are in for certain investing behaviors since completing Investing For Your Future (O'Neill et al., 2000). The stages of behavior are: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. The desired stage was either the action or maintenance stage, which indicated that the investing behavior has been established. A person in the precontemplation stage is not thinking of future needs, not taking any actions to prepare for investing. Someone in the contemplation stage has set investing goals, but is not otherwise preparing to do the investing behavior. Someone in the preparation stage has both set goals and actively sought after information about the investing behavior. An individual in the action stage has not only done the preparatory actions, but has also engaged in the investing behavior. Finally, an individual in the maintenance stage has met the investing behavior action over an ongoing period of time. The quantitative survey design of this study was adapted from Dillman's Mail and Internet Surveys (2002). A survey questionnaire was created online using multiple choice and open-ended questions and was sent to the sample as a link in an email. The population consisted of Investing For Your Future (O'Neill et al., 2000) online course participants from April 1, 2001 through April 11, 2005. The initial sample consisted of 1,123, however at least 415 members of the sample never received the survey, reducing the sample to 708 people. Upon sending out the email, many error reports were received stating that the recipient did not receive the email. Response rates for the survey were very low, and can be attributed to multiple problems. / Master of Science

The unprecedented growth of the cryptocurrency market over the past decade has attracted significant interest from various stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and researchers. Cryptocurrencies, digital currencies that operate on blockchain technology, are revolutionary because they offer financial transactions without the need for traditional banking systems. This innovative approach to finance has reshaped the global economic landscape, presenting unique opportunities and substantial challenges. Cryptocurrency, spearheaded by the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, represents a significant shift from traditional fiat currencies to a decentralized digital economy. Bitcoin and its contemporaries rely on a peer-to-peer network, utilizing cryptographic techniques to ensure transaction security and user anonymity, a characteristic has fueled both adoption and controversy. As the market has grown, so have the complexities associated with its expansion, notably in regulation, security, and market dynamics. This dissertation explores these complexities through three distinct but interconnected essays, each focusing on a different aspect of the cryptocurrency environment.

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.

L’equity crowdfunding (ECF) est un mode d’investissement récent, accessible au grand public, qui a pour caractéristiques de se dérouler en ligne, au sein d’une communauté virtuelle, dans l’environnement d’une plateforme intermédiaire.Ce travail doctoral a pour objectif de mieux comprendre le comportement des investisseurs particuliers qui achètent des produits financiers en ECF, les crowdinvestors.En s’inscrivant dans le courant de la valeur de consommation, cette recherche contribue à définir les sources de valorisation d’investissement en ECF et en étudie spécifiquement la dimension participative et son influence sur la décision d’investissement.Une revue de littérature en finance entrepreneuriale sur le profil, les motivations, le comportement d’investissement et les facteurs d’influence de la décision d’investissement des crowdinvestors est proposée. Une enquête exploratoire reposant sur 13 entretiens et une étude empirique testant un modèle d’équations structurelles sur la base de 436 questionnaires, ont été menées auprès de membres de la plateforme d’ECF française WiSEED.L’analyse des données menée avec l’approche PLS montre que la valeur perçue de l’expérience de participation a une influence significative sur la valorisation de l’investissement, mais pas sur la décision d’investissement. Nous mettons en évidence le rôle central de l’expertise subjective du capital-amorçage des individus comme antécédent de la décision d’investissement, de la valorisation de l’expérience de participation et de l’engagement dans la communauté en ligne. Enfin, les résultats indiquent que le risque perçu n’est pas un modérateur du modèle tandis que la sophistication de l’investisseur en est un. / Equity crowdfunding is a recent investment mode, opening acces to venture capital to unsophisticated investors. ECF allows platform-based online investment within a virtual community.This research aims to improve understanding of indivual investors financial products consumption, in the ECF context, the so-called crowdinvestors.Building on consumption value theory, this research helps defining ECF-investment value sources for crowdinvestors. It focuses especially on the ‘participation in community’ dimension of ECF as a determinant of various investment behaviors.A litterature review in entrepreneurial finance is presented to define profiles, motivations, investment behaviors and quality signals influencing crowdinvestors’ investment decision.To answer three main research questions, an exploratory study was conducted on 13 members on french ECF platform WiSEED. We put in evidence the difference between the investment experience and the participation in community experienceThus, an empirical study based on a theoretical model is conducted and various PLS analysis are run on a set of 436 surveys answered by WiSEED members. Results show that perceived value of participation experience has a positive and significant influence on perceived value of investment but no influence at all on investment decision.Though, we highlight the central role of individuals’ venture capital expertise both on their investment (amount and number), their engagement within the platform community and their participation experience perceived value. inally, results indicate that perceived risk is not a moderator of the model whereas investor sophistication is.

This dissertation is made of four distinct chapters. In the first chapter, I consider an exogenous restriction on the ability of French trucking firms to extend payment terms to their clients. I find that they provide trade credit at the cost of lower investment, lower return on assets, and higher default risk. In the second chapter, I show that private equity funds with a longer horizon select younger companies at an earlier stage of their development. Companies which receive funding from funds with a longer horizon increase their patent stock significantly more than companies which receive funding from investors with a shorter horizon. The third chapter presents a joint work with Ron Kaniel and David Sraer. We use detailed brokerage account data to provide a quantitative exploration of the behavior of retail investors during the financial crisis of 2008. We show that investors who appear more sophisticated on these dimensions in the pre-crisis period were, in the post-crisis period, less likely to flee to safety, more likely to engage in liquidity provisions and to earn higher returns. In the fourth chapter, I develop the idea that households have an imprecise knowledge of their portfolio's exposure to systematic risk and that this leads them to make investment mistakes. This idea is tested in the context of the decision to actively trade rather than passively invest in the stock market

Abstract This dissertation contributes to the understanding of investor behavior by using personality traits to help explain investor decision-making. The work is novel, as personality traits have not been used much in finance research. The data used in this dissertation is also new to the field, consisting of observations on personality traits and socioeconomic variables combined with official records of investors’ stockholdings. The first essay provides evidence that personality traits significantly affect the stock market participation decision. The essay shows that subscales of traits (i.e., lower-level traits or facets) can provide a better model of behavior, with some subscales of a single higher-level trait having opposite effects on behavior. The novelty seeking subscales exploratory excitability and extravagance have positive and negative effects, respectively, and the reward dependence subscales dependence and sentimentality have positive and negative effects, respectively. The magnitudes of the effects are large, with marginal effects on the probability of being a stock market participant of up to four percentage points. The second essay explores the relationship between personality traits and risk aversion. We estimate risk aversion from equity holdings and from survey measures. The traits display a distinctive pattern of correlations with the estimates of risk aversion. Some traits are significantly related to observed portfolio characteristics such as portfolio volatility, number of stocks held, and trading frequency. The pattern of the traits’ relationships with the various measures of risk aversion indicates that personality traits should not be considered as merely drivers of risk aversion but as preference parameters distinct from risk aversion. The third essay shows that personality traits are related to an investor’s preferences for value versus growth stocks and for small capitalization stocks versus large capitalization stocks. We find more extravagant individuals favor large capitalization growth stocks; more impulsive people favor small capitalization growth stocks; more sentimental investors prefer small capitalization value stocks; and more social investors prefer small capitalization stocks with a tilt towards value. / Tiivistelmä Tämä tutkimus auttaa ymmärtämään sijoituskäyttäytymistä selittämällä sijoittajien päätöksentekoa heidän luonteenpiirteillään. Tutkimustuloksilla on uutuusarvoa, sillä luonteenpiirteiden merkitystä ei ole juurikaan tutkittu rahoitustutkimuksessa. Tutkimusaineisto on sekin luonteeltaan tavanomaisesta poikkeava, koostuen yksityishenkilöiden luonteenpiirteitä ja sosioekonomista asemaa kuvaavista muuttujista sekä heidän osakeomistustaan koskevista virallisista rekisteritiedoista. Tutkimuksen ensimmäinen essee osoittaa, että luonteenpiirteillä on merkittävä vaikutus yksityishenkilön päätökseen toimia osakemarkkinoilla. Tutkimustulosten mukaan osallistumispäätöstä kyetään ennustamaan paremmin käyttämällä luonteenpiirteiden pääluokkia mittaavien muuttujien sijasta luonteenpiirteiden alaluokkia mittaavia muuttujia. Tämä selittyy sillä, että alaluokkia mittaavilla muuttujilla on eräissä tapauksissa vastakkaismerkkisiä, pääluokkaa mittaavassa muuttujassa toisensa peittäviä, yhteyksiä osallistumispäätökseen. Tämä voidaan havaita muun muassa pääluokkaan ”elämyshakuisuus” kuuluvien ”kokeilunhalun” (+) ja ”tuhlaavaisuuden” (-) kohdalla, samoin kuin pääluokkaan ”palkkioriippuvuus” kuuvilla ”riippuvuudella” (+) ja ”sentimentaalisuudella” (-). Kaiken kaikkiaan luonteenpirteitä mittaavien muuttujien vaikutuksen suurusluokka on korkea, vastaten yksittäisen muuttujan kohdalla jopa neljän prosentin marginaalivaikutusta osakemarkkinoille osallistumisen todennäköisyyteen. Toinen essee tarkastelee luonteenpiirteiden ja riskinkarttamisen asteen välistä yhteyttä. Tutkimuksessa mitataan yksityishenkilön riskinkarttamisen astetta toisaalta hänen osakeomistuksensa rakenteen perusteella ja toisaalta kyselytutkimuksen avulla. Sijoittajien luonteenpiirteiden ja muodostettujen riskinkarttamisen astetta mittaavien muuttujien väliset korrelaatiot muodostavat selkeän rakenteen. Eräät luonteenpiirteet ovat merkitsevässä riippuvuussuhteessa muun muassa sijoittajan osakesalkun volatiliteettiin, salkkuun sisällytettyjen osakesarjojen määrään ja sijoittajan kaupankäyntiaktiivisuuteen. Luonteenpiirteitä kuvaavien muuttujien ja riskinkarttamisastetta kuvaavien muuttujien välisen yhteyden perusteella luonteenpiirteitä tulisi tarkastella enneminkin erillisinä sijoittajien preferenssejä kuvaavina muuttujina kuin riskinkarttamisasteen taustalla olevina perustekijöinä. Kolmas essee osoittaa, että luonteenpiirteet ovat yhteydessä siihen, suosiiko sijoittaja arvo- vs. kasvuosakkeita ja/tai alhaisen markkina-arvon vs. korkean markkina-arvon yhtiöiden osakkeita. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että ”tuhlaavammat” sijoittajat suosivat korkean markkina-arvon omaavia kasvuosakkeita, kun taas ”impulsiivisemmat” sijoittajat suosivat alhaisen markkina-arvon omaavia kasvuosakkeita. Vastaavasti ”sentimentaalisemmat” sijoittajat suosivat ylipäätään alhaisen markkina-arvon omaavia arvo-osakkeita, ”sosiaalisten” sijoittajien suosiessa heidänkin alhaista markkina-arvoa, suunnaten kiinnostustaan samalla arvo-osakkeisiin.

[pt] Desde o trabalho seminal conduzido por Schumpeter (1934), vários pesquisadores estudaram a relação entre os gastos com Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento & Inovação (P, D e I) e o desempenho das empresas, obtendo evidências contraditórias entre setores, tamanhos das empresas, geografia e graus de desenvolvimento dos mercados. Esta tese tem como objetivo propor, por meio de três ensaios, a criação de um índice que capture um conjunto de ações de empresas listadas na Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3) que investem e declaram investir em P, D e I, bem como produtos financeiros, notadamente Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs), que, atrelados a este índice, possam contribuir para aumentar o volume de negócios das referidas ações, e assim encorajar mais empresas a se envolverem em atividades de P, D e I, bem como, para as que já o fazem, se comprometerem a divulgar essas ações ao mercado. Os resultados indicam ser possível formar uma carteira de empresas que declaram investimento em P, D e I de tal sorte que o desempenho dessas supere o principal benchmark do mercado brasileiro. Para o caso de produtos atrelados a essa carteira teórica, as evidências apontam para a necessidade de se observar o comportamento dos investidores nestes ativos em mercados emergentes como o brasileiro, bem como desenvolver mecanismos que garantam a aderência do produto ao índice, minimizando erros de precificação. / [en] Since the seminal work conducted by Schumpeter (1934), several researchers have studied the relationship between Research, Development and Innovation (R, D and I) expenditures and firms performance, with mixed outputs among sectors, firms sizes, geography, and markets degrees of development. This thesis aims to propose, through three essays, the creation of an index that captures a set of shares of companies listed in Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3) that invest and declare to invest in R, D and I, as well as financial products, notably Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which, linked to this index, can contribute to increase the volume of transactions of said shares, and thus contribute to more companies engaging in R, D and I activities, as well as, for those that already do, that commit themselves to divulge these actions to the market. The results indicate that it is possible to form a portfolio of companies that declare investment in R, D and I in such a way that their performance exceeds the main benchmark of the Brazilian market. For products linked to this theoretical portfolio, the evidence points to the need to observe the behavior of investors in these assets in emerging markets such as Brazil, as well as to develop mechanisms that guarantee the adherence of the product to the index, minimizing tracking errors.

Cette thèse est constituée de quatre chapitres distincts. Dans le premier chapitre, j'utilise une restriction exogène de la capacité des entreprises de transport routier à consentir des délais de paiement à leurs clients. Je montre que certaines entreprises prêtent à leurs clients au détriment de leurs investissements, de leur rentabilité et en s'exposant au risque de défaillance. Dans le second chapitre, je montre que les fonds d'investissement dont l'horizon est long choisissent des entreprises plus jeunes, à un stade moins avancé de leur développement. Les entreprises investies par des fonds dont l'horizon est plus long accroissent leur stock de brevets plus rapidement que celles qui sont investies par des fonds dont l'horizon est plus court. Le troisième chapitre est le résultat d'une collaboration avec Ron Kaniel et David Sraer. Nous utilisons des données détaillées de courtier et entreprenons une exploration quantitative du comportement des investisseurs individuels pendant la crise financière de 2008. Nous montrons que les investisseurs qui ont l'air les plus sophistiqués dans la période antérieure à la crise ont une propension moins grande à fuir vers les actifs sans risque, et une propension plus grande à être apporteurs de liquidité et à obtenir des rendements élevés pendant la crise. Dans le quatrième chapitre, j'explore l'idée selon laquelle les ménages ont une connaissance limitée de l'exposition de leur portefeuille aux facteurs de risque systématique, ce qui les conduit à faire des erreurs. Cette idée est appliquée à la décision des investisseurs individuels d'intervenir activement plutôt que d'investir passivement sur les marchés d'actions. / This dissertation is made of four distinct chapters. In the first chapter, I consider an exogenous restriction on the ability of French trucking firms to extend payment terms to their clients. I find that they provide trade credit at the cost of lower investment, lower return on assets, and higher default risk. In the second chapter, I show that private equity funds with a longer horizon select younger companies at an earlier stage of their development. Companies which receive funding from funds with a longer horizon increase their patent stock significantly more than companies which receive funding from investors with a shorter horizon. The third chapter presents a joint work with Ron Kaniel and David Sraer. We use detailed brokerage account data to provide a quantitative exploration of the behavior of retail investors during the financial crisis of 2008. We show that investors who appear more sophisticated on these dimensions in the pre-crisis period were, in the post-crisis period, less likely to flee to safety, more likely to engage in liquidity provisions and to earn higher returns. In the fourth chapter, I develop the idea that households have an imprecise knowledge of their portfolio's exposure to systematic risk and that this leads them to make investment mistakes. This idea is tested in the context of the decision to actively trade rather than passively invest in the stock market

Cette thèse est constituée de quatre chapitres distincts. Le premier chapitre présente un travail écrit en collaboration avec Christophe Spaenjers. Nous montrons que les individus avec une espérance de vie subjective qui est plus longue, ont une fraction d'actions conditionnelles qui est augmentée.L'effet d'une espérance de vie qui diminue est atténué par des motifs de légation.Dans le deuxième chapitre, j'étudie l'importance de la séquence de naissance pour les décisions financières.Je montre que les aînés diffèrent de leurs frères et soeurs par leurs décisions.Les résultats accentuent l'importance des expériences familiales pour les choix des agents. Dans le troisième chapitre, je montre que la présence d'un entourage diminue la probabilité d'une réponse, et augmente la propension d'une auto-évaluation exagérée des aptitudes. Cette observation implique une sous-estimation de l'importance de l'aplomb pour le comportement des individus. Le quatrième chapitre est le résultat d'une collaboration avec Thomas Bourveau et François Brochet.Nous identifions les plaintes dont les plaignants allèguent que l'entreprise ait caché une mauvaise performance liée à une acquisition. Utilisant la proclamation des plaintes comme un traitement de l'industrie, nous trouvons des résultats cohérents avec un effet disciplinant le comportement d'investir des autres dirigeants de l'industrie / This dissertation consists of four distinct chapters.The first chapter presents the joint work with Christophe Spaenjers.We find that individuals with longer subjective life horizons hold higher conditional equity shares, and the effect of a shortening life horizon on portolio choice is offset by bequest motives. In the second chapter,I examine the explanatory power of birth order to financial household decisions. I show that firstborns differ in their financial decision-making from later born siblings. The results highlight the importance of personal family experiences for household choices. In the third chapter,I document that, in surveys, the presence of companions decreases the probability of respondents replying, and increases the probability of respondents overreporting their self-assessed abilities. The overreporting leads to a downward bias in the estimates of the importance of overconfidence for individuals' behavior. The fourth chapter presents joint work with Thomas Bourveau and François Brochet. We identify M&A lawsuits, where plaintiffs allege that the firm hid poor performance related to prior acquisition. Using the filing of a lawsuit as an industry shock, we show findings consistent with a disciplining effect from the lawsuit for the investment behavior of peer firms' managers