J. Anthony Cookson

J. Anthony Cookson

Michael A. Klump Endowed Professor of Finance

Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder

CU Boulder Professor at University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business Since 2013
Penn State Joining Penn State Smeal College of Business as Smeal Chair Professor · June 2026

I study how households, investors, and firms use financial products and make financial decisions. My recent work examines the role of emerging technologies — particularly social media and large language models — in shaping behavior, belief formation, and ideological expression in financial markets.

Curriculum Vitae Data & Programs Contact
Research

Working Papers & Publications

Working Papers

Coverage Neglect in Homeowners Insurance

with Emily Gallagher and Phil Mulder

SSRN
Immigration and Credit in America

with Ben Guttman-Kenney and Will Mullins

SSRN
Market Signals from Social Media

with Runjing Lu, Will Mullins, and Marina Niessner

SSRN
The Market's Mirror: Revealing Investor Disagreement with Large Language Models

with Vineet Bhagwat, Chukwuma Dim, and Marina Niessner

SSRN
Disagreement on the Horizon

with Chukwuma Dim and Marina Niessner

SSRN
News Consumption in the Wild

with Diego García and Elvis Jarnecic

SSRN
Do I Really Want to Hear the News? Public Information Arrival and Ambiguity

with Azi Ben Rephael and Yud Izhakian

SSRN
Trading, Ambiguity, and Information in the Options Market

with Azi Ben Rephael and Yud Izhakian

SSRN
Investor Disagreement: Daily Measures from Social Media

with Marina Niessner

SSRN

Publications

Money to Burn: Crowdfunding for Disaster Recovery

with Emily Gallagher and Phil Mulder

Forthcoming Journal of Finance · March 2026 SSRN
Speculative and Informative: Lessons from Market Reactions to Speculation Cues

with S. Katie Moon and Joonki Noh

Forthcoming Review of Corporate Finance Studies · September 2025 SSRN DOI
Social Media as a Bank Run Catalyst

with Corbin Fox, Javier Gil-Bazo, Juan Imbet, and Christoph Schiller

Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 176 (February 2026), 104218 SSRN DOI
Can Social Media Inform Corporate Decisions? Evidence from Merger Withdrawals

with Marina Niessner and Christoph Schiller

Journal of Finance Vol. 81, No. 1 (February 2026), pp. 91–142 SSRN DOI
Does Disagreement Facilitate Informed Trading?

with Slava Fos and Marina Niessner

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 61, No. 2 (March 2026), pp. 612–639 SSRN DOI
The Social Signal

with Runjing Lu, William Mullins, and Marina Niessner

Journal of Financial Economics Editor's Choice Vol. 158 (August 2024), 103870 SSRN

Best Paper Award in Honor of Jack Brick, 11th Michigan State FCU Conference · Best Paper in Investments and Asset Pricing, 2023 Midwest Finance Association

Echo Chambers

with Joseph E. Engelberg and William Mullins

Review of Financial Studies Vol. 36, No. 2 (February 2023), pp. 450–500 SSRN

NASDAQ Award for Best Paper in Asset Pricing, 2021 Western Finance Association · Best Paper in Markets and Trading, 2021 Midwest Finance Association · 2023 Kahle Family Research Award · First Prize, 2021 CQA Academic Competition

Shale Shocked: Cash Windfalls and Debt Repayment

with Erik P. Gilje and Rawley Z. Heimer

Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 146, No. 3 (December 2022), pp. 905–931 SSRN
Personal Wealth, Self-Employment, and Business Ownership

with Aymeric Bellon, Erik P. Gilje, and Rawley Z. Heimer

Review of Financial Studies Vol. 34, No. 8 (August 2021), pp. 3935–3975 SSRN
A Text-Based Analysis of Corporate Innovation

with Gustaf Bellstam and Sanjai Bhagat

Management Science Featured Article Vol. 67, No. 7 (July 2021), pp. 4004–4031 SSRN

Outstanding Paper in Corporate Finance, 2017 Midwest Finance Association

Assortative Matching and Reputation in the Market for First Issues

with Oktay Akkus and Ali Hortaçsu

Management Science Vol. 67, No. 4 (April 2021), pp. 2049–2074 SSRN
Does Partisanship Shape Investor Beliefs? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

with Joseph E. Engelberg and William Mullins

Review of Asset Pricing Studies Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2020), pp. 863–893 SSRN
Why Don't We Agree? Evidence from a Social Network of Investors

with Marina Niessner

Journal of Finance Vol. 75, No. 1 (February 2020), pp. 173–228 SSRN

Best Paper, 2017 Front Range Finance Seminar

Growing Up Without Finance

with James R. Brown and Rawley Z. Heimer

Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 134, No. 3 (December 2019), pp. 591–616 SSRN

Top 100 Papers, Financial Times List of Business School Research with Social Impact · Finalist, 2021 TIAA Paul A. Samuelson Award

Does Contract Enforcement Mitigate Hold Up?
Review of Corporate Finance Studies Vol. 7, No. 2 (September 2018), pp. 245–275 SSRN
When Saving is Gambling
Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 123, No. 1 (July 2018), pp. 24–45 SSRN

Talk of the Town Award, 2015 Finance Down Under Conference

Anticipated Entry and Entry Deterrence: Evidence from the American Casino Industry
Management Science Vol. 64, No. 5 (May 2018), pp. 2325–2344 SSRN
Law and Finance Matter: Lessons from Externally Imposed Courts

with James R. Brown and Rawley Z. Heimer

Review of Financial Studies Vol. 30, No. 3 (March 2017), pp. 1019–1051 SSRN
Leverage and Strategic Preemption: Lessons from Entry Plans and Incumbent Investments
Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 123, No. 2 (February 2017), pp. 292–312 SSRN
The Determinants of Bank Mergers: A Revealed Preference Analysis

with Oktay Akkus and Ali Hortaçsu

Management Science Vol. 62, No. 8 (August 2016), pp. 2241–2258 SSRN
Institutions and Casinos: An Empirical Analysis of the Location of Indian Casinos
Journal of Law and Economics Vol. 53, No. 4 (November 2010), pp. 651–687 JSTOR

Other Publications

Social Media and Finance

with Marina Niessner and Will Mullins

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, November 2024 SSRN
Courting Economic Development

with James R. Brown and Rawley Z. Heimer

World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 30, Supplement 1 (March 2017) DOI
Service

Editorial & Service

Editorial Roles

Editor
Review of Corporate Finance Studies
Associate Editor
Journal of Financial Economics
Associate Editor
Management Science
Associate Editor
Financial Management

Conference Organization

Director
Financial Research Association
Co-founder
Colorado Finance Summit (2015)
Organizer
Finance in the Cloud
Impact

In the News

Social Media as a Bank Run Catalyst
Wall Street Journal Financial Times Financial Times CNBC Fortune Axios Money San Francisco Chronicle NBC Bay Area CNN International Kiplinger TechNewsWorld KCBS Radio Yahoo! Finance
Money to Burn: Crowdfunding for Disaster Recovery
New York Times New York Times Wall Street Journal The Atlantic The Guardian KQED Forum CBC's The Current CU Boulder Today 9News Fox31 News KUNR Radio Daily Camera
Echo Chambers
CU Boulder Today Colorado Public Radio
When Saving is Gambling
The Daily Northwestern The Conversation Longmont Times-Call
Growing Up Without Finance
PBS NewsHour The Conversation CU Boulder Today Science Daily NPR 1190 Radio
Coverage Neglect in Homeowners Insurance
Wall Street Journal The Conversation Axios Colorado Public Radio CU Boulder Today
Market Signals from Social Media
MarketWatch CU Boulder Today
The Market's Mirror: Revealing Investor Disagreement with Large Language Models
Marginal Revolution
Contact

Get in Touch

The best way to reach me is by email. I believe junior scholars bring essential new ideas to research, and that feedback and exposure are invaluable to their development. I am always happy to hear from them.

Email: tony [dot] lastname [at] gmail [dot] com

Penn State

Affiliation (from June 2026):
Smeal Chair Professor of Finance
Smeal College of Business, Penn State University

Download CV
Data & Programs

Data & Programs

Data and code shared as products of my research. Please cite the associated paper if you use these resources.

Firm-Day Attention and Sentiment Data (2012–2021)

First principal components of attention and sentiment from Twitter, StockTwits, and Seeking Alpha.

"The Social Signal" — Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 158 (August 2024)

Mendeley

Firm-Day Investor Disagreement Data (2010–2021)

Daily disagreement measures derived from social media. Available in Stata, text, and RData formats.

"Why Don't We Agree?" — Journal of Finance, Vol. 75 (2020) · "Investor Disagreement: Daily Measures" (2023)

README Data page

Echo Chambers Data (January 2013 – June 2020)

Stock-daily information siloing and self-stamped disagreement measures.

"Echo Chambers" — Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2 (February 2023)

Download (.zip)

Partisan Investor Beliefs Data (January 2017 – June 2020)

Daily sentiment comparing Republican investors versus others. Includes README, .dta, .csv, and .RData files.

"Does Partisanship Shape Investor Beliefs?" — Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2020)

Download (.zip)

Text-Based Innovation Data (1990–2010)

Firm-level innovation measures derived from 10-K filings, plus innovation word lists. Word lists should be validated when applied to corpora beyond the original sample.

"A Text-Based Analysis of Corporate Innovation" — Management Science, Vol. 67, No. 7 (July 2021)

Data (.zip) Word lists (.zip)

Native American Reservation–County Crosswalk Files

Geographic crosswalks for reservations with Native American populations exceeding 250 in 1989.

"Law and Finance Matter" — Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (March 2017)

Download (CSV)

Native American Casinos and Courts Data

Reservation-level data on casino presence, size, and tribal court development as of 1985.

"Institutions and Casinos" — Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 53, No. 4 (November 2010)

Download (CSV + RData)

Two-Step Assortative Matching Code

R code implementing a matching estimator to correct for selection bias, with Monte Carlo exercises.

"Assortative Matching and Reputation in the Market for First Issues" — Management Science, Vol. 67, No. 4 (April 2021)

Download (.zip)