Essays in Financial Economics

Abstract

This thesis consists of four empirical essays in financial economics, and the central theme is learning in financial markets. The first essay delves into retail investors' learning within an information market, which is comprised of information providers that produce approximately half a million reports on firms' future earnings. The study reveals that the most active information produvers have a significant effect on the subjective beliefs of retail investors. The second essay discusses how investors learn from medical data pertaining to individual COVID-19 cases to navigate a new source of uncertainty. The study reveals that the influence of economic news on prices varies depending on the level of health uncertainty. In the third essay, the focus is on sophisticated investors who gather specific information from individual oil tanker shipments and leverage this data for futures market speculations. It establishes that acquiring access to primary information provides a tangible benefit to sophisticated investors. Lastly, the fourth essay shows that domestic lending by Russian banks exposed to dollar deposits is affected by U.S. monetary policy shocks. Employing diverse research methodologies, these essays aim to provide empirical evidence on the interconnections between learning, belief formation, and economic activity.