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…
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…
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’…
Claus Munk ♦ Applying a rich model of individuals’ life-cycle utility maximization, we comprehensively evaluate retirement saving plans. Across a range of individual characteristics, access to basic plans with constant expected payouts and no or full annuitization leads to individual utility…
