This dissertation studies topics in Passive Investing and Asset Pricing. The first chapter, "When do flows matter for asset prices: Evidence from adoption of ETF creation in Israel," focuses on the effect of capital allocation to passive investments on asset prices. We study a 2012 reform in Israel where all exchange traded products listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) adopted the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) creation mechanism wherein designated market makers arbitrage between the index price and the net asset value of its benchmark. The reform greatly decreased the cost of this arbitrage activity and translated into a significant increase in demand for passive investments. The effect was stronger for illiquid indices containing smaller stocks. We show that the price effects of the reform were dramatically higher for stocks located at the top of indices composed of smaller stocks relative to stocks at the bottom of indices composed of bigger stocks. A 1 p.p. increase in passive ownership as a percent of market capitalization leads to an 11.7% increase in the price of stocks. Our findings provide new evidence on how passive inflows can change the distribution of capital across indices, and in turn impact price efficiency. In the second chapter, "Passive Investing and Algorithmic Trading," I examine the trading behavior of market participants against the growing demand for passive investing. I show that the growth of passive investing and algorithmic trading is complementary and mutually reinforcing. Algorithmic traders respond to a spike in demand for passive investments listed on the TASE following a major reform in the Israeli index market in 2012 by front-running the index inflows. Algorithmic traders accumulate stocks when index inflows are low and sell stocks when they are high. Based on this strategy, algorithmic traders earn a 12.7% annualized return in realized gains over passive strategies in the same period. Instead, Mutual Funds load on the index when inflows are high.

Early-stage investors increasingly impact the surging video game industry. Thus, understanding their thought processes provides vital insight for entrepreneurs. This thesis explores how early-stage investors assess investment opportunities in the Swedish game industry by presenting semistructured interviews with three prominent angel investors. Thematic analysis was performed on the interview data to extract significant themes regarding investors’ thought processes. Themes were then contrasted with previous research on investor decision-making to establish emergent patterns in the game industry. Results indicate that investors regard the composition and reliability of the team and pursue long-term involvement in companies. It is particularly important for teams to inspire trust. If investors can connect to teams personally, it facilitates successful long-term collaboration. Future research should focus on interviewing investors in other flourishing game markets, such as the U.S. or Chinese. Congruent results may lay the foundation for a framework to aid developers with acquiring funds in the broader game industry.

L'étude est effectuée sur la base d'un échantillon de 13.000 clients d'un courtier en ligne et 1,3M de mouvements d'achats et de vente de valeurs mobilières durant le période Janvier 2006 - Juin 2008. Nous démontrons 1/ Grâce à des régressions linéaires, que les investisseurs individuels français présentent un comportement contrarian par rapport aux évolutions de l'indice domestique. Ils achètent quand le marché baisse et vendent quand le marché monte. Ce résultat est cohérent avec la littérature sur les "noise traders" et la liquidité du marché.2/ sous la forme de régressions logistiques, que la sophistication (approximée par l'utilisation du SRD) est un facteur d'accroissement de la décision d'achat.Ces résultats ouvrent des perspectives pour l'industrie financière et le développement de l'Education financière dans notre pays. / This dissertation draws from a sample of 13 000 clients of an online broker and 1.3M movements of buys and sells from January 2006 to June 2008. The results show that:1/ By regressing the buys and sells to the returns of the domestic index (CAC 40), the french individual investors have a contrarian behavior. This result is in line with the existing literature on "noise traders" and the market liquidity.2/ Through logistic regression of the purchase decision, we show that sophistication (that we proxy with the use of the SRD), is a strong factor explaining the purchase decision.These results can bring insights to the financial industry and help to the development of the financial litteracy.

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European banks have as a result of the latest financial crisis and regulations such as Basel III started to decrease their liquidity to commercial real estate in an attempt to decrease the commercial real estate related assets in their books. The decreased lending in combination with an estimated need of refinancing of approximately €500 billion among the European commercial real estate actors in the upcoming years have forced the European commercial real estate lending market to undergo some structural changes to cope with the emerged funding gap. As a result of the decreased bank lending European real estate debt funds are starting to emerge as fund managers tries to capitalize on the present state of the lending market. The main focus of this thesis is the present state of the European real estate debt fund market and the Nordic institutional investors’ attitude towards the asset class. The research is primarily based on data collection regarding the European real estate debt funds currently in the market and a survey sent to the Nordic institutional investors regarding their attitude towards the new asset class. The research found that the European real estate debt fund market is a new asset class that has experienced extensive growth since the beginning in 2007 and currently consists of 47 funds employing senior debt, junior/mezzanine debt and whole loan debt strategies. The present attitude among the Nordic institutional investors is rather positive with a majority expecting the asset class to grow further in the future. Some of the institutional investors have as of today undertaken investments in European real estate debt funds and many are expecting their own future allocation to the asset class to increase. Although the general attitude towards the asset class is positive there are some obstacles to overcome in order for the asset class to secure its growth in the future. The most evident issue is the definition problem among the Nordic institutional investors. However as the information and interest for the asset class increases the obstacles are most likely to decrease and path the way for further growth for the European real estate debt funds. / Europeiska banker har i efterdyningarna av den senaste finanskrisen, och på grund av nytillkomna reglementen som Basel III, minskat sin exponering mot den kommersiella fastighetssektorn i ett försök att reducera de fastighetsrelaterade tillgångarna i sina balansräkningar. Den minskade utlåningen till sektorn har i kombination med ett uppskattat omfinansieringsbehov på ca €500 miljarder bland de Europeiska fastighetsinvesterarna tvingat den Europeiska fastighetskreditmarknaden att undergå strukturella förändringar för att hantera den uppkomna finansieringsbryggan. Tillföljd av den minskade bankutlåningen mot sektorn har fondförvaltare i ett försök att kapitalisera på situationen startat fonder som inriktar sig på att investera i fastighetskrediter/utlåning till kommersiella fastighetsinvesterare. Huvudfokuset för detta examensarbete är att upplysa om den rådande situationen på den Europeiska marknaden för fastighetskreditfonder samt de nordiska institutionella investerarnas inställning till den nya tillgångsklassen. Examensarbetet är primärt baserat på datainsamling rörande de nu existerande Europeiska fastighetskreditfonderna samt en enkät besvarad av Nordiska institutionella investerare gällande deras inställning till tillgångsslaget. Undersökningen fann att Europeiska fastighetskreditfonder är ett nytt tillgångsslag som har upplevt kraftig tillväxt sedan början av 2007. Marknaden består idag av 47 fonder som inriktar sig på senior, junior eller hel finansierings utlåning till kommersiella fastighetsinvesterare. Den rådande inställningen till tillgångsklassen bland de nordiska institutionella investerarna är förhållandevis positiv och en majoritet förväntar sig att tillgångsklassen kommer att fortsätta växa i framtiden. En del av de institutionella investerarna har redan idag genomfört investeringar i det nya tillgångsslaget och flertalet förväntar sig att investera i Europeiska fastighetskreditfonder i framtiden. Trots den rådande positiva inställningen till tillgångsklassen fann undersökningen några hinder som behöver överkommas för att en fortsatt tillväxt skall ske i framtiden. Det mest uppenbara hindret är hur tillgångsklassen skall definieras av de institutionella investerarna. Allteftersom informationen och intresset för de Europeiska fastighetskreditfonderna ökar kommer dock hindrena troligen att minska och bana vägen för en fortsatt tillväxt för tillgångsslaget.

Background: There are several studies that have found an expectation gap between auditors and different stakeholders. Since 2019, there has been a sharp increase in the number of individual investors in Sweden. There is a lack of studies examining the expectation gap between auditors and individual investors. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyze and explain whether Swedish auditors and individual investors have a different view regarding the auditor’s responsibility, reliability, and decision usefulness. Furthermore, the view of individual investors is analyzed with different demographic factors. Research method: This is a quantitative study with a deductive approach, where the hypotheses are developed from prior research. The empirical data comes from the answers from a mail survey and a web survey. The survey consisted of statements regarding the auditor’s responsibility, reliability, and decision usefulness. Results: The study shows that there is an expectation gap between auditors and individual investors in Sweden. The study also shows that experience from the stock market leads to a more narrow expectation gap between auditors and individual investors in Sweden. Contributions: The study contributes to a better understanding of what the expectation gap between auditors and individual investors in Sweden consists of. Additionally, it shows how individual investors in Sweden perceive the auditor’s responsibility, reliability, and decision usefulness / Bakgrund: Det finns många studier som konstaterat ett förväntansgap mellan revisorer och olika intressentgrupper. Sedan 2019 har antalet småsparare i Sverige kraftigt ökat. Det saknas studier som undersöker småspararnas förväntningar på revisorn. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att analysera och förklara huruvida svenska revisorer och småsparare har olika uppfattningar gällande revisorns ansvar, tillförlitlighet och beslutspåverkan. Vidare analyseras även småspararnas uppfattningar utifrån olika demografiska faktorer. Metod: Studien är kvantitativ med en deduktiv ansats, där hypoteserna utvecklats med hjälp av tidigare forskning. Empirin har samlats in genom en mailenkät och en webbenkät som utgörs av påståenden om revisorns ansvar, tillförlitlighet och beslutspåverkan. Resultat: Resultatet visar att det finns ett förväntansgap mellan revisorer och småsparare i Sverige. Vidare visar resultatet att utbildningsnivå inte minskar förväntansgapet, men att mer erfarenhet på börsen leder till ett mindre förväntansgap mellan revisorer och småsparare i Sverige. Kunskapsbidrag: Studien bidrar till ökad förståelse för hur förväntansgapet mellan revisorer och småsparare i Sverige ser ut. Därtill hur revisorer och småsparare i Sverige ser på revisorns ansvar, tillförlitlighet och beslutspåverkan.

Den svenska fastighetsmarknaden har tagit fart de senaste åren. Den gynnsamma marknaden har lockat allt fler nya aktörer till fastighetsbranschen. Detta ger upphov till nya finansieringsalternativ så som crowdfunding. Idag är det främst privatpersoner som investerar i fastighetsprojekt med crowdfunding-modeller. I den här uppsatsen undersöks varför investeringsviljan i crowdfunding är låg hos institutionella investerare. Information har hämtats från sex stycket interjuver med representanter från olika institutioner. Inställningen till det nya finansieringsalternativet crowdfunding har visat sig vara positivt men det är många faktorer som hindrar institutionerna från att investera. Framförallt är det den bristande likviditeten i investeringen, förtroende hos projektutvecklarna & crowdfunding-plattformen samt den projektvolymerna som begränsar viljan att investera i crowdfunding-projekt. Crowdfunding inom fastigheter i Sverige är fortfarande något som är väldigt nytt och behöver därför fortsätta att växa för att skapa ett vidare intresse hos institutionella investerare. / The Swedish real estate market has taken off in recent years. The growing market has attracted an increasing number of new actors to the real estate industry. This promotes new alternatives to traditional financing, such as crowdfunding. Currently crowdfunding models is used to invest mostly by private individuals invest in crowdfunding models. This paper examines the incentives of institutional investors to invest in crowdfunding.  Information have been gathered from six interviews with representatives from different institutions. While the attitude towards the new funding option crowdfunding has proved to be positive, there are many factors that prevent the institutions from investing. Above all, it is the lack of liquidity in the investment, trust of the project developers & crowdfunding platform, as well as the project volumes that limit the incentive/will to invest in crowdfunding projects. Crowdfunding within real estate in Sweden is still very new and therefore needs to continue to grow to create a wider interest in institutional investors.

This dissertation consists of two essays investigating the trading by institutions and its impact on the stock market. In the first essay, I investigate why changes in institutional breadth predict return. I first show that changes in breadth are positively associated with abnormal returns over the following four quarters. I then demonstrate that this return predictability can be attributed to the information about the firms' future operating performance. When I examine different types of institutions independently, I find that the predictive power varies across the population of institutions. More specifically, institutions that follow active management style are better able to predict future returns than the passive institutions, and their predictive power appears to be associated with information about future earnings growth. These findings are consistent with the information hypothesis that changes in breadth of institutional ownership can predict return because they contain information about the fundamental value of firms. In the second essay, I examine institutional herding behavior and its impact on stock prices. I document that herds by institutions usually last for more than one quarter and that herds occur more frequently for small and medium size stocks. I find that after herds end, there are reversals in stocks returns for up to four quarters. The magnitude of reversals is positively related to the duration of herding, and negatively related to the price impact of current herding activity. This pattern in returns prevails for all sub-periods examined and is concentrated in small and medium size stocks. My findings suggest that institutional herding may destabilize stock prices.