Invitation to the VGSF Research Seminar!
This semester the seminar usually takes place on Friday from 15:30 to 17:00
in HS 7 (Bauteil III, 3rd floor) at the BWZ in Brünnerstrasse 72, 1210 Wien.
The detailed seminar schedule and the papers can be found on the
VGSF-website (
www.vgsf.ac.at --> Activities --> Research Seminar).
On March 9th there will be TWO (!!!) VGSF research seminars from 14:00 (!!!)
to 17:00:
(A) Prof. Matti Keloharju (Helsinki School of Economics): Sensation Seeking,
Overconfidence, and Trading Activity
ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the role that two psychological
attributessensation seeking and overconfidenceplay in the tendency of
investors to trade stocks. Equity trading data are combined with data from
an investors tax filings, driving record, and psychological profile. We use
the data to construct measures of overconfidence and sensation seeking
tendencies. Controlling for a host of variables, including wealth, income,
age, number of stocks owned, marital status, and occupation, we find that
overconfident investors and those investors most
prone to sensation seeking trade more frequently.
(B) Prof. Laurent Calvet (HEC Paris): Down or Out: Assessing the Welfare
Costs of Household Investment Mistakes
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the efficiency of household investment
decisions in a unique dataset containing the disaggregated wealth and income
of the entire population of Sweden. The analysis focuses on two main sources
of inefficiency in the financial portfolio: underdiversification of risky
assets (down) and nonparticipation in risky asset markets (out). We find
that while a few households are very poorly diversified, the cost of
diversification mistakes is quite modest for most of the population. For
instance, a majority of participating Swedish households are sufficiently
diversified internationally to outperform the Sharpe ratio of their domestic
stock market. We document that households with greater financial
sophistication tend to invest more efficiently but also more aggressively,
so the welfare cost of portfolio inefficiency tends to be greater for these
households. The welfare cost of nonparticipation is smaller by almost one
half when we take account of the fact that nonparticipants would be unlikely
to invest efficiently if they participated in risky asset markets.
Both professors will be available for individual meetings on Friday before
the seminars. If you would like to meet them, please contact Michael
Halling.
Best,
Michael Halling