This introduces the symposium on financial economics. JEL Classification Codes: G01, G02, G11, G12, G18, G21, G23, G28

We compare capital requirements derived by tail conditional expectation (TCE) with those derived by tail conditional median (TCM) and find that there is no clear-cut relationship between these two measures in empirical data. Our results highlight the relevance of TCM as a robust alternative to TCE, especially for regulatory control. JEL Classification: G10, G11, G23, G29

Crowdfunding, Cascades and Informed Investors Do higher proportions of (a) informed investors and (b) high-quality projects increase the number of good projects that are ultimately financed via crowdfunding? A simple model and simulation reveals the answers to both questions to be: ‘not necessarily’. JEL Classification: L26, C63, G23

A fund’s performance is usually compared to the performance of an index or other funds. If a fund trails the benchmark, the fund manager is often replaced. We argue that this may lead to excessive risk-taking if fund managers differ in ability and have the opportunity to take excessive risk. To match the benchmark, fund managers may increase the risk of their portfolio even if this decreases th...

This article examines institutions’ investment strategies towards environmental and social (E&S) stocks in the first quarter of 2020, coinciding with COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Backed both institutional- firm-level analyses, we find that institutional investors shift higher E&S performance. The high portfolios exhibit lower risk return characteristics, outperforming (underperforming) t...

We use unique institutional securities holdings data to examine the trading behaviour of delegated capital and its impact on bond risk premia. show that fund managers trade strongly procyclically: they actively move into higher yielding, longer duration lower rated as yields fall spreads compress, vice versa. Funds more exposed negative increase their risk-taking strongly, this effect is partic...

Using a unique database that includes publicly disclosed fund holdings at the end of quarter as well in all non-publicly months, we found some funds could alter their portfolios months to artificially increase Active Share scores and consequently appear more active take advantage positive relationship between money flows. We show how, consistent with non-informed trades, these erode future perf...

Using a comprehensive and survivor bias-free dataset of US hedge funds, we document the role that inside investment plays in managerial compensation and fund performance. We find that funds with greater investment by insiders outperform funds with less “skin in the game” on a factor-adjusted basis, exhibit greater return persistence, and feature lower fund flow-performance sensitivities. These ...

The paper deals with Alternative Risk Transfer (ART) through securitization of longevity and mortality risks in pension plans and commercial life insurance. Various types of such mortality-linked securities are described including methods of their pricing and real examples (e.g. CATM bonds, longevity bonds, mortality forwards and futures, mortality swaps, and others). Hypothetical calculations ...

The consensus wisdom of active mutual fund managers, as reflected in their average overand underweighting decisions, contains valuable information about future stock returns. Analyzing a comprehensive sample of active U.S. equity funds 1984—2008, we find that stocks heavily overweighted by active funds outperform their underweighted counterparts by more than 7% per year, after adjustments for t...