Art and Money

This paper investigates the impact of equity markets and top incomes on art prices. Using a newly constructed art market index, we demonstrate that equity market returns have had a significant impact on the price level in the art market over the last two centuries. We also find empirical evidence that an increase in income inequality may lead to higher prices for art, in line with the results of a numerical simulation analysis. Finally, the results of Johansen cointegration tests strongly suggest the existence of a long-run relation between top incomes and art prices.Art market;Equities;Income inequality;Cointegration;Comovement

Is Trading Behavior Stable Across Contexts? Evidence from Style and Multi-Style Investors

In this paper we study priming of identity within the context of inherent vs. contextual financial decision making. We use a sample of individual trading accounts in equity-style funds taken from one fund family to test the hypothesis that trading styles are inherent vs. contextual. Our sample contains investors who invest either in a growth fund, a value fund, or both. We document behavioral differences between growth fund investors and value fund investors. We find that their trades depend on past returns in different ways: growth fund investors tend towards momentum trading and value fund investors tend towards contrarian trading. These differences may be due to inherent clientele characteristics, including beliefs about market prices, specific personality traits and cognitive strategies that cause them to self-select into one or the other style. We use a sample of investors that trade in both types of funds to test this proposition. Consistent with the contextual hypothesis, we find that investors who hold both types of funds trade growth fund shares differently than value fund shares

Risk Aversion and Clientele Effects

We use traded options on growth and value indices to test for clientele differences in risk preferences. Value investors appear to have exhibited a higher average level of risk aversion than growth investors for two different time periods in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. We construct a model of time-varying clientele preferences that allows investors with different levels of risk-aversion to switch between investment styles conditional upon the evolution of returns and risk. The model makes predictions about the autocorrelations structure of measured risk parameters and also about the autocorrelation and cross-autocorrelation of fund flows by style. Empirical tests of the model provide evidence consistent with the existence of style switchers—investors who move funds between growth and value securities. We construct trading strategies in the value and growth index options markets that effectively buy risk from one clientele and sell it to another. These strategies generated modest positive returns over the period of study

“Is Trading Behavior Stable across Contexts? Evidence from Style and Multi-Style Investors”

In this paper we use a sample of individual trading accounts in equity style funds taken from one fund family to test the hypothesis that trading styles are inherent vs. contextual. Our sample contains investors who invest either in a growth fund, a value fund or both. We document behavioral differences between growth fund investors and value fund investors. We find that their trades depend on past returns in different ways: growth fund investors tend towards momentum trading and value fund investors tend towards contrarian trading. These differences may be due to inherent clientele characteristics, including beliefs about market prices, specific personality traits and cognitive strategies that cause them to self-select into one or the other style. We use a sample of investors that trade in both types of funds to test this proposition. Consistent with the contextual hypothesis, we find that investors who hold both types of funds trade growth fund shares differently than value fund shares

Risk Aversion and Clientele Effects

We use traded options on growth and value indices to test for clientele differences in risk preferences. Value investors appear to have exhibited a higher average level of risk aversion than growth investors for two different time periods in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. We construct a model of time-varying clientele preferences that allows investors with different levels of risk-aversion to switch between investment styles conditional upon the evolution of returns and risk. The model makes predictions about the autocorrelations structure of measured risk parameters and also about the autocorrelation and cross-autocorrelation of fund flows by style. Empirical tests of the model provide evidence consistent with the existence of style switchers—investors who move funds between growth and value securities. We construct trading strategies in the value and growth index options markets that effectively buy risk from one clientele and sell it to another. These strategies generated modest positive returns over the period of study.

"Medikamente sind Bomben" - zum Metapherngebrauch von Lungentransplantations-Patienten mit guter oder ungenügender Compliance

Fragestellung: Nach einer Organtransplantation finden komplexe psychologische Verarbeitungsprozesse statt. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde untersucht, welche Metaphern im Zusammenhang mit Transplantationserfahrungen verwendet werden, und ob Unterschiede zwischen Patienten mit guter bzw. ungenügender Compliance im Gebrauch dieser Metaphern bestehen. Methode: 14 lungentransplantierte Patienten wurden in einem halbstrukturierten Interview zu ihren Transplantationserfahrungen befragt. Ihre Compliance wurde von den behandelnden Ärzten eingeschätzt. Die Auswertung der Interviews erfolgte anhand einer Metaphernanalyse, welche Hinweise auf vor- und unbewusste Vorstellungen der Patienten liefert. Die Interraterreliabilität über die Metapherngruppen war Cohen’s Kappa K = 0.8. Ergebnisse: Die Patienten konzeptualisierten ihren Körper, aber auch ihr Selbst als ein “Gefäß”, dass sowohl materielle (z.B. die Lunge) wie immaterielle Objekte (z.B. Gedanken an den Spender, Affekte) enthält. Der wichtigste Unterschied zwischen den Compliance-Gruppen bestand darin, dass Patienten mit ungenügender Compliance eine grössere Distanz zur transplantierten Lunge erlebten. Auch konzeptualisierten sie ihren Körper bzw. ihr Selbst nicht als ein Gefäß, das die Lunge enthält. Diskussion: Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass gute Compliance mit einer erfolgreichen Organintegration assoziiert ist, welche die Zugehörigkeit der Lunge in einem als Gefäß konzeptualisierten Körper bzw. Selbst umfasst. Patienten mit ungenügender Compliance nehmen die Lunge eher als Fremdkörper wahr. Diese Verarbeitungsprozesse sind teils bewusster, teils vor- und unbewusster Natur