IN­VIT­A­TION FOR PHD DE­FENCE - Chris­ti­an Stol­borg

To obtain the PhD degree, Christian Stolborg has submitted his thesis entitled:

Essays on Empirical Asset Pricing

This thesis presents three empirical studies on asset prices. The first chapter replicates published corporate bond factors, documents widespread failures, and proposes a new framework for robust factor construction. The second chapter links analyst forecasts, media sentiment, and short interest to show that bubbles reflect widespread optimism and an absence of skeptics. The third chapter uses blockchain data to demonstrate that speculative demand—not fundamentals—drives Bitcoin's extreme price swings. Together, the studies show how large-scale data analysis can resolve key puzzles in asset pricing.

The thesis will be available from research.cbs.dk