Skip to main content
Log in

Does Overconfidence Bias Explain Volatility During the Global Financial Crisis?

  • World Transition Economy Research
  • Published:
Transition Studies Review

Abstract

This paper explores the problem of the current global financial crisis, using a behavioral perspective. Particularly, the main objective of this paper is to test whether overconfidence bias can explain excessive volatility witnessed during global financial crisis in developed and emerging equity markets. Empirical results of EGARCH estimated models show an asymmetric effect of volatility for all equity market indexes. The relation between excessive trading volume of overconfident investors and excessive prices volatility is then estimated. The results indicate that conditional volatility is positively related to trading volume caused by overconfidence bias. This finding provides strong statistical support to the presence of overconfidence bias among investors in developed and emerging stocks markets. This cognitive bias contributes to the exceptional financial instability that erupted in 2008. However, during the subprime financial crisis period overconfidence bias cannot explain volatility because of the loss of confidence by investors in financial markets.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdelhédi ZM, Boujelbène-Abbes M, Boujelbène Y (2011) Subprime crisis and volatility spillover. Int J Monet Econ Financ 4:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ackermann J (2008) The subprime crisis and its consequences. J Financial Stab 4:329–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albulescu CT (2008) The Impact of the New Financial Products on the Volatility of the Economic Growth. J Appl Econ Sci 2:12–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Anders CJ (2010) Financial markets in East Asia and Europe during the global financial crisis. In: Working Paper Stockholm School of Economics

  • Avgouleas E (2008) Financial regulation, behavior Finance, and the financial credit crisis in search of a new regulatory model. In: Working paper, http://papers.ssrn.com. Accessed 20 Nov 2008. Bachellier L 1900

  • Benos AV (1998) Aggressiveness and survival of overconfident traders. J Financial Mark 1:353–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger AN, Bouwman CHS (2008) Financial crises and bank liquidity creation. http://ssrn.com

  • Black F (1976) Studies of stock price volatility changes. In: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Business and Economic Statistics Section, pp 177–181

  • Chuang W, Lee BS (2006) An empirical evaluation of the overconfidence hypothesis. J Banking Financ 30:2489–2511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chukwuogor C (2008) Stock Markets Returns and Volatilities: A Global Comparison. Int Res J Financ Econ 15:1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Claude B. Erb, Campbell RH, Viskanta TE (1998) Risk in emerging markets, contagion and other factors must be taken into account. In: The financial survey July–August, pp 42–46

  • Daniel K, Hirshleifer D, Subrahmanyam A (1998) Investor psychology and security market under and overreactions. J Financ 53:1839–1886

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gervais S, Odean T (2001) Learning to be overconfident. Rev Financial Stud 14:1–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kausik C, Franc K (2001) Have East Asian stock markets calmed down? Evidence from a regime-switching model working paper, mimeo, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam

  • Lamoureux CG, Lastrapes WD (1990) Heteroskedasticity in stock return data: volume versus GARCH effects. J Financ 45:221–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • León Á, Rubio G, Serna G (2004) Autoregressive conditional volatility, skewness and kurtosis WP-AD 2004-13, Instituto Valenciano de Investigacines Economicas

  • Nelson DB (1991) Conditional heteroskedasticity in asset returns: a new approach. Econometrica 59:347–370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Odean T (1998) Volume, volatility, price, and profit when all traders are above average. J Financ 53:1887–1934

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richard JR (2009) Too much right can make a wrong: setting the stage for the financial crisis FBR of Chicago Working Paper, No. 2009-18

  • Schwert GW (1989) Why does stock market volatility change over time? J Financ 44:1115–1153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shefrin H (2009) How psychological pitfalls generated the global financial crisis voices of wisdom: understanding the global financial crisis

  • Söhnke MB, Gordon MB (2009) No place to hide: the global crisis in equity markets in 2008/09. J Int Money Financ (in press)

  • Yates JF, Lee JW, Shinotsuka H, Patalano AL, Sieck WR (1998) Cross-cultural variations in probability judgment accuracy: beyond general knowledge overconfidence? Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 74:89–117

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mouna Boujelbène Abbes.

Appendix

Appendix

See Figs. 5 and 6

Fig. 5
figure 5

Index prices of developed and emerging markets, 1999–2009

Fig. 6
figure 6

Index volatilities of the developed and emerging markets, 1999–2009

About this article

Cite this article

Abbes, M.B. Does Overconfidence Bias Explain Volatility During the Global Financial Crisis?. Transit Stud Rev 19, 291–312 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11300-012-0234-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11300-012-0234-6

Keywords

JEL Classifications

Navigation