Abstract

 
 

Citations (73)



 


 



A Theory of Overconfidence, Self-Attribution, and Security Market Under- and Over-reactions


Kent D. Daniel


Columbia Business School - Finance and Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

David A. Hirshleifer


University of California, Irvine - Paul Merage School of Business

Avanidhar Subrahmanyam


University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Finance Area

February 19, 1997


Abstract:     
We propose a theory based on investor overconfidence and biased self-attribution to explain several of the securities returns patterns that seem anomalous from the perspective of efficient markets with rational investors. The theory is based on two premises derived from evidence in psychological studies. The first is that individuals are overconfident about their ability to evaluate securities, in the sense that they overestimate the precision of their private information signals. The second is that investors' confidence changes in a biased fashion as a function of their decision outcomes. The first premise implies overreaction to private information arrival and underreaction to public information arrival. This is consistent with (1) post-corporate event and post-earnings announcement stock price 'drift', (2) negative long-lag autocorrelations (long-run 'overreaction'), and (3) excess volatility of asset prices. Adding the second premise leads to (4) positive short-lag autocorrelations ('momentum'), and (5) short-run post-earnings announcement 'drift,' and negative correlation between future stock returns and long-term measures of past accounting performance. The model also offers several untested empirical implications and implications for corporate financial policy.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 59

JEL Classification: G12, G14, G30

working papers series


Download This Paper

Date posted: May 1, 1997  

Suggested Citation

Daniel, Kent D., Hirshleifer, David A. and Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, A Theory of Overconfidence, Self-Attribution, and Security Market Under- and Over-reactions (February 19, 1997). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2017 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2017

Contact Information

Kent D. Daniel (Contact Author)
Columbia Business School - Finance and Economics ( email )
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
United States
212-854-4679 (Phone)
212-854-4679 (Fax)
HOME PAGE: http://www.columbia.edu/~kd2371/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
David A. Hirshleifer
University of California, Irvine - Paul Merage School of Business ( email )
Irvine, CA California 92697-3125
United States
Avanidhar Subrahmanyam
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Finance Area ( email )
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
United States
310-825-5355 (Phone)
310-206-5455 (Fax)
Feedback to SSRN (Beta)


Paper statistics
Abstract Views: 14,563
Downloads: 5,120
Download Rank: 524
Citations:  73

© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  FAQ   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy   Copyright
This page was processed by apollo3 in 0.516 seconds