s/bf-HSG News June 2016

Prof. Martin Brown spoke at the FinanceMission press conference on May 25, 2016, about financial education of young people. The association FinanceMission is promoting financial literacy among children and is supported by the umbrella organization of Teachers Switzerland (LCH), the French-speaking Teachers Union (SER), and the 24 cantonal banks. The association has developed the digital learning game "FinanceMission Heroes". "FinanceMission Heroes" and the accompanying didactic material form innovative learning facilities for teaching at Swiss schools. Professor Brown is a board member of the association FinanceMission.

Prof. Dr. Markus Schmid was granted a Grundlagenforschungsfonds (GFF) Research Grant for Project "The Effect of Public Opinion and Peer Pressure on Corporate Board Structure".

Celine Kharma and Melk Bucher have received SNF mobility grants to visit the U.S. next year (University of Maryland and Columbia University, respectively).

Farshid Abdi has been granted a SNF supplementary grant in the Sinergia Project "Empirics of Financial Stability", for a visiting scholarship at New York University, Stern School of Business from August 15, 2016 to May 15, 2017. Professor Joel Hasbrouck will host his visiting and Farshid will conduct research on the empirics of market liquidity.

Publications: 
The Impact of Financial Advice on Trade Performance and Behavioral Biases. D. Hoechle, S. Ruenzi, N. Schaub and M. Schmid. Review of Finance, forthcoming.
Characteristics-based Portfolio Choice with Leverage Constraints. M. Ammann, G. Coqueret and J.P. Schade. Journal of Banking and Finance, forthcoming.
Determinants of Liquidity (Re-)Allocation and the Decision to Cross-List or Cross-Delist. R. Füss, U. Hommel und J.C. Plagge. International Journal of Finance and Economics, forthcoming.
Towards Removal of the Swiss Franc Cap: Market Expectations and Verbal Interventions. N. Mirkov, I. Pozdeev and P. Söderlind. Working Paper.
The Economic Drivers of Differences in House Price Inflation Rates across MSAs. R. Füss, und J. Zietz. Journal of Housing Economics, Volume 31, 35-53.
Uniform-Price Auctions for Swiss Government Bonds: Origin and Evolution. A. Ranaldo and E. Rossi. School of Finance Working Paper 2016/09.
A Simple Estimation of Bid-Ask Spreads from Daily Close, High, and Low Prices. F. Abdi and A. Ranaldo. School of Finance Working Paper 2016/04.
Fragility of Money Markets. A. Ranaldo, M. Rupprecht and J. Wrampelmeyer. School of Finance Working Paper 2016/01.

Selected Working Paper:
Experience and brokerage in asset markets: Evidence from art auctions. B. Bruno, E. García-Appendini and G. Nocero.
We analyze whether more experienced brokers achieve better performance as information providers. We focus on the art market, a market with severe illiquidity and acute information asymmetry problems where auction houses act as brokers between art sellers and buyers, and we measure experience as the number of times an auctioneer has auctioned the artworks of a certain artist in a given location. We find that more experienced auction houses brokers (i) are more likely to achieve a sale and (ii) provide more accurate predictions of the prices ultimately fetched at auctions through their pre-sale estimates. These findings suggest that experience plays an important role for brokers to reduce illiquidity and opacity in markets with asymmetric information. The results are consistent with theories that suggest that brokers develop special skills in interpreting subtle signals related to the deals.

• NZZ online, 31.05.2016. Zinsregulierungen taugen kaum zur Schuldenprävention. M. Brown und S. Rutz.
• Ökonomenstimme, 31.05.2016. Zinsregulierungen taugen kaum zur Schuldenprävention. M. Brown und S. Rutz.
• Die Volkswirtschaft, 25.05.2016. Hypothekarmarkt Schweiz: Starke Bindungen zwischen Bank und Kunde. M. Brown and M. Hoffmann.
• ImmoScout24 Portrait 2015/2016, March 2016. Wohnen muss auch für Haushalte mit geringem Einkommen bezahlbar sein. 18-21.
• Absolut spezial, Immobilien, Kommentar, February 2016. Lerneffekte in intransparenten Asset-Markten: Evidenz von internationalen Gewerbeimmobilien. R. Füss und D. Ruf.
• RSI.ch, 11.03.2016. Tagli alla BCE, la Svizzera non deve cambiare politica. Interview with Angelo Ranaldo.
• FORMAT.at, 11.01.2016. So profitieren die Schweizer vom starken Schweizer Franken, SNF gewinnt an Spielraum. Contribution of Angelo Ranaldo to the article.
• HSG Focus 1/2016 – Forschung, January 2016. Money Markets – The flow of money. A. Bechtel and A. Ranaldo.
• Tribune des Genève, 29.12.2015. La BNS a regagné en indépendance. Article with Angelo Ranaldo.