Essays on Household Risk-taking and Corporate Investment Decisions

This thesis explores the intricacies of financial decision-making, delving into the investment choices of households and the investment efficiency of corporations. The first chapter examines the relation between psychological responses, measured by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, to traumatic events and financial risk-taking. In the second chapter, I study the association between spousal disparity in noncognitive abilities and stock market participation. The last chapter focuses on corporate finance, where I investigate the effect of brand perception on investment efficiency.