FinanceProfessor

Most work in the field of behavioral finance focuses on the investment side of the fence.  That is unfortunate as managers are people too and they fall prey to many of the same biases that investors do. In this section of the course we will look at how overconfident managers will take bigger risks than more rational managers.  

WHen most people think of behavioral finance, they think of the material we will cover in this section. It is a look at how biases can impact investor returns.   We will look at bubbles, excessive trading (and risk taking), and the social aspects of investing.  

From Marketing to politics., from Healthcare to Education,  from International Development to treating addictions, the things we learned in Behavioral Finance and Economics can be used to help make the world a better place.    

This episode gives a short introduction into the two concepts covered in this part class:The concept of Scarcity as described in Mullainathan and Shafer's great book: Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives.  How having too little (or alternatively having too much stress) can impact brain development and rational decision making.  PS: this may be my favorite part of the class.  I see it constantly in my own life, but also in those of many of the people that BonaResponds helps.  

While this is not a science class, we do need to have an understanding of the various parts of the brain, how we look at the brain, and how what we do (or don't do) can influence the brain and our decisions.  We also look some at addiction as it gives us insights into how the brain works, and also in the context of being "addicted to risk".