Bulls and Bears: Lessons from some European Countries

Long-run Bulls and Bears∗

A central challenge in asset pricing is the weak connection between stock returns and observable economic fundamentals. We provide evidence that this connection is stronger than previously thought. We use a modified version of the Bry-Boschan algorithm to identify long-run swings in the stock market. We call these swings long-run bull and bear episodes. We find that there is a high correlation ...

Bulls, Bears and Market Sheep*

Much has been written about the efficiency of markets in general and of the market for equities in particular, and of its implications for the more-orless random-like behavior of stock prices. The conventional argument is that opportunistic trading by rational investors will arbitrage away any gains that can be made from predictable patterns; what is left are the perturbations in asset values c...

Bulls, Bears, and Retirement Behavior

Agrarian Reforms in Eastern European Countries: Lessons from International Experience

The fall of the Berlin wall has led to a monumental change in the social and economic structure of most countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the CIS that have profoundly affected the nature of the rural sector and the livelihood opportunities open to rural residents. Prior to 1990, most of these countries had de facto abolished private property rights in favor of state or cooperati...

Reducing Poverty in Developing Countries: Some Lessons from Latin America