A Neuroeconomics Analysis of Investment Process with Money Flow Information: The Error-Related Negativity

This investigation is among the first ones to analyze the neural basis of an investment process with money flow information of financial market, using a simplified task where volunteers had to choose to buy or not to buy stocks based on the display of positive or negative money flow information. After choosing “to buy” or “not to buy,” participants were presented with feedback. At the same time, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to record investor’s brain activity and capture the event-related negativity (ERN) and feedback-related negativity (FRN) components. The results of ERN suggested that there might be a higher risk and more conflict when buying stocks with negative net money flow information than positive net money flow information, and the inverse was also true for the “not to buy” stocks option. The FRN component evoked by the bad outcome of a decision was more negative than that by the good outcome, which reflected the difference between the values of the actual and expected outcome. From the research, we could further understand how investors perceived money flow information of financial market and the neural cognitive effect in investment process

Executive compensation : the finance perspective

This paper is a survey of the research on executive compensation from the period between 1995 and 2007, focusing on the most important academic publications in the area. The reason for analysing this period of time and these publications is that we believe that 13 years is enough time to cover a set of research studies that are representative of the present lines of investigation on this theme, and that the most important findings in terms of executive compensation are published in these high quality scientific publication

Could mergers become more sustainable? A study of the stock exchange mergers of NASDAQ and OMX

This study investigates whether the merger of NASDAQ and OMX could reduce the portfolio diversification possibilities for stock market investors and whether it is necessary to implement national policies and international treaties for the sustainable development of financial markets. Our study is very important because some players in the stock markets have not yet realized that stock exchanges, during the last decades, have moved from government-owned or mutually-owned organizations to private companies, and, with several mergers having occurred, the market is tending gradually to behave like a monopoly. From our analysis, we conclude that increased volatility and reduced diversification opportunities are the results of an increase in the long-run comovement between each pair of indices in Nordic and Baltic stock markets (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and NASDAQ after the merger. We also find that the merger tends to improve the error-correction mechanism for NASDAQ so that it Granger-causes OMX, but OMX loses predictive power on NASDAQ after the merger. We conclude that the merger of NASDAQ and OMX reduces the diversification possibilities for stock market investors and our findings provide evidence to support the argument that it is important to implement national policies and international treaties for the sustainable development of financial markets

A Neuroeconomics Analysis of Investment Process with Money Flow Information: The Error-Related Negativity

This investigation is among the first ones to analyze the neural basis of an investment process with money flow information of financial market, using a simplified task where volunteers had to choose to buy or not to buy stocks based on the display of positive or negative money flow information. After choosing "to buy" or "not to buy, " participants were presented with feedback. At the same time, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to record investor's brain activity and capture the event-related negativity (ERN) and feedback-related negativity (FRN) components. The results of ERN suggested that there might be a higher risk and more conflict when buying stocks with negative net money flow information than positive net money flow information, and the inverse was also true for the "not to buy" stocks option. The FRN component evoked by the bad outcome of a decision was more negative than that by the good outcome, which reflected the difference between the values of the actual and expected outcome. From the research, we could further understand how investors perceived money flow information of financial market and the neural cognitive effect in investment process

Could the global financial crisis improve the performance of the G7 stocks markets?

Financial crises are normally associated with negative effects on financial markets. In this paper, we investigate whether the most recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had any positive impact on the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) indices. We carry out our investigation by employing mean-variance (MV) analysis, CAPM statistics, a runs test, a multiple variation ratio test, and stochastic dominance (SD) tests. Our MV and CAPM results conclude that most of the G7 stock indices are significantly less volatile and have a higher beta, higher Sharpe ratios and a higher Treynor’s index after the GFC. Run tests and multiple variation ratio results confirm that efficiency improved in the post-GFC period. Finally, SD results conclude that there is no arbitrage opportunity and the markets are efficient due to the GFC, and, in general, investors prefer investing in the indices after the GFC. Overall, we conclude that the GFC led to markets that are more efficient and mature, confirming that crises can also have positive impacts on stock markets

Could the global financial crisis improve the performance of the G7 stocks markets?

Financial crises are normally associated with negative effects on financial markets. In this paper, we investigate whether the most recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had any positive impact on the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) indices. We carry out our investigation by employing mean-variance (MV) analysis, CAPM statistics, a runs test, a multiple variation ratio test, and stochastic dominance (SD) tests. Our MV and CAPM results conclude that most of the G7 stock indices are significantly less volatile and have a higher beta, higher Sharpe ratios and a higher Treynor’s index after the GFC. Run tests and multiple variation ratio results confirm that efficiency improved in the post-GFC period. Finally, SD results conclude that there is no arbitrage opportunity and the markets are efficient due to the GFC, and, in general, investors prefer investing in the indices after the GFC. Overall, we conclude that the GFC led to markets that are more efficient and mature, confirming that crises can also have positive impacts on stock markets

Antiherding in Financial Decision Increases Valuation of Return on Investment: An Event-Related Potential Study

Using event-related potentials, this study investigated how financial herding or antiherding affected the valuation of subsequent outcomes. For each trial, subjects decided whether to buy the stock according to its net money flow information which could be used to reflect the strength of buying power or selling power of the stock. The return on investment (ROI) as feedback included the increase or decrease percentage after subjects’ responses. Results showed that, compared with herding, antiherding induced larger discrepancies of FRN and P300 amplitude between positive ROI and negative ROI, indicating that individuals under antiherding condition had stronger motivation and paid more attention in the evaluation process of ROI. Moreover, only for positive ROI, the amplitudes of FRN and P300 were modulated by two kinds of behaviors. We suggested that individuals making antiherd decisions were more confident with their own ability and choices, which reduced the positive outcome prediction error and gave more mental resources to evaluate positive outcome. However, negative outcomes evoked no different motivational meaning and negative emotion for individuals between herding and antiherding. The study may provide new insights into neurocognitive processes of herding and antiherding in financial market

Stock Market Liberalizations and Efficiency: The Case of Latin America

This investigation is among the first to examine the impact of stock market liberalization on the efficiency of Latin American stock markets. It is also among the first to apply the martingale hypothesis test and a stochastic dominance approach to study the issue of efficient markets. Daily stock indices from Latin American countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, are used in our analysis. To examine the impact of stock market liberalization on efficiency, we employ several approaches, including the runs test, Chow-Denning multiple variation ratio test, Wright variance ratio test, the martingale hypothesis test and the SD test, the stock market indices of the countries above. We find that stock market liberalization does not significantly improve stock market efficiency in Latin America

Do both demand-following and supply-leading theories hold true in developing countries?

To overcome the limitations of the traditional approach which uses linear causality to examine whether the supply-leading and demand-following theories hold. As certain countries will be found not to follow the theory by using the traditional approach, this paper first suggests using all the proxies of financial development and economic growth as well as both multivariate and bivariate linear and nonlinear causality tests to analyze the relationship between financial development and economic growth. The multivariate nonlinear test not only takes into consideration both dependent and joint effects among variables, but is also able to detect a multivariate nonlinear deterministic process that cannot be detected by using any linear causality test. We find five more countries in which the supply-leading hypothesis and/or demand-following hypothesis hold true than with the traditional approach. However, there is still one country, Pakistan, for which no linear or nonlinear causality is found between its financial development and economic growth. To overcome this limitation, this paper suggests including cointegration in the analysis. This leads us to conclude that either supply-leading or demand-following hypotheses or both hold for all countries without any exception. There will be some types of relationships between economic growth and financial development in any country such that either they move together or economic growth causes financial development or financial development causes economic growth without any exception. The finding in our paper is may be useful for governments, politicians, and other international institutions in their decision making process for the development of the countries and reducing poverty

Stock Market Liberalizations and Efficiency: The Case of Latin America

This investigation is among the first to examine the impact of stock market liberalization on the efficiency of Latin American stock markets. It is also among the first to apply the martingale hypothesis test and a stochastic dominance approach to study the issue of efficient markets. Daily stock indices from Latin American countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, are used in our analysis. To examine the impact of stock market liberalization on efficiency, we employ several approaches, including the runs test, Chow-Denning multiple variation ratio test, Wright variance ratio test, the martingale hypothesis test and the SD test, the stock market indices of the countries above. We find that stock market liberalization does not significantly improve stock market efficiency in Latin America