Jie Cao, Gang Li, Xintong (Eunice) Zhan, and Guofu Zhou ♦ We examine time-series stock market excess return predictability by aggregate stock option order imbalance. While individual-level call order imbalance (CIB) captures informed trading and positively predicts cross-sectional stock returns,…
Andrew Ellul, Marco Pagano, and Annalisa Scognamiglio ♦ Past research has documented a substantial finance wage premium. We examine whether this premium reflects differences in lifetime career opportunities. Using resume data, we reconstruct career trajectories in finance and non-finance sectors…
Patrick Schwarz, Dominik Walter, and Patrick Weiss ♦ In January 2025, CRSP discontinued the existing stock tape used in many published papers. This transition rewrites 9.62% of monthly returns by more than 1 basis point, primarily due to a change…
Lucas A. Mariani and Bernardo Ricca ♦ We examine how banks reallocate employees following mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and the resulting effects on productivity. Using matched employee–branch data combined with branch-level financial information, we show that M&As expand internal labor…
Zhihui Gu, Hao Liang, and Hanyu Zhang ♦ We examine how Confucian culture operates as an informal institution by fostering relational contracts that substitute for formal legal frameworks in shaping corporate behavior. Using data on historical Confucian academies near firms’…
Brad Cannon and Hannes Mohrschladt ♦ Retail investor contrarian selling depends on whether a position is at a gain or loss. Selling propensity increases in daily returns for positions with unrealized gains (contrarian selling) and decreases in returns for loss…
