Superstition and Financial Decision Making

David Hirshleifer, Ming Jian () and Huai Zhang ()
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Ming Jian: Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798
Huai Zhang: Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798

Management Science, 2018, vol. 64, issue 1, 235-252

Abstract: In Chinese culture, certain digits are lucky and others unlucky. We test how such numerological superstition affects financial decision in the China initial public offering (IPO) market. We find that the frequency of lucky numerical stock listing codes exceeds what would be expected by chance. Also consistent with superstition effects, newly listed firms with lucky listing codes experience inferior post-IPO abnormal returns. Further tests suggest that our conclusions are not driven by endogeneity.

Keywords: asset pricing; information and market efficiency; international financial markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2584 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Superstition and financial decision making (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:64:y:2018:i:1:p:235-252

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