Risk perceptions of individual investors are studied by asking experimental questions to 2,226 members of a consumer panel. Their responses are analyzed in order to find which risk measures they implicitly use. We find that most investors implicitly use more than one risk measure. For those investors who systematically perceive risk according to the same risk measure, semi-variance of returns is most popular. Semi-variance is similar to variance, but only negative deviations fro the mean or another benchmark are taken into account. Stock investors implicitly choose for semi-variance as a risk measure, while bond investors favor probability of loss. Investors state that they consider the original investment to be the most important benchmark, followed by the risk-free rate of return, and the market return. However, their choices in the experimental questionnaire study reveal that the market return is the most important benchmark

Abstract:We study wealth effects for a sample of 156 spin-offs from 15 different European countries that were announced between January 1987 and September 2000. The cumulative average abnormal return over the three-day event window is 2.62%. This number increases to 2.66% for the subsequently completed spin-offs. The cumulative average abnormal return is 3.57% for completed spin-offs by companies that increase their industrial focus and only 0.76% for non-focus increasing companies. The difference between these two sub-samples is significantly different from zero. These results are in line with previous studies for the United States. The long-run returns in excess of matching firms are mostly insignificant for parents, subsidiaries and pro-forma combined firms. This result suggests that, unlike U.S. spin-offs, European spin-offs are not associated with long-run superior performance.

We examine how executive compensation affects the cost of debt financing. Analyzing CEO pay data from the UK, we find that debt-like and equity-like pay components have opposite effects on the cost of debt. An increase in defined benefit pensions is associated with lower bond yield spread, while an increase in executive stock options intensifies it. In addition, we find some evidence that cash bonus is negatively associated with the cost of borrowing. We do not observe any relation between restricted stock grants and the cost of debt financing. Our results suggest that bondholders are fully aware of both risk-taking and risk-avoiding incentives created by various executive pay components.

Do happy people predict future risk and return differently from unhappy people, or do individuals rely only on economic facts? We survey investors on their subjective sentimentcreating factors, return and risk expectations, and investment plans. We find that non-economic factors systematically affect return and risk expectations, where the return effect is more profound. Investment plans are also affected by non-economic factors. Sports results and general feelings significantly affect predictions. Sufferers from seasonal affective disorder have lower return expectations in the autumn than in other seasons, supporting the Winter Blues hypothesis.