GUTMANN CENTER FOR PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
at the University of Vienna - http//:www.gutmann-center.at
invites to the following
PUBLIC LECTURE:
(Apologies for any cross-listings!):
Date: DECEMBER 5th, 2006, (Tuesday) - 4.00 pm
Location: Bank Gutmann AG, Schwarzenbergplatz 16, 1010 Wien
Speaker: Prof. Dr. PETER BOSSAERTS, California Institute of Technology
(Caltech)
http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~pbs/
Title: NEURO-FINANCE
Abstract:
Finance has always treated humans as black boxes, whereby behavioral
rules are either imposed by decision theory (neoclassical finance) or
derived from observation of actual or hypothetical choice (behavioral
finance). In contrast, neuro-finance attempts to understand behavior by
examining the physiological processes in the human brain when exposed to
financial risk. The talk will illustrate this with the recent discovery
that the brain analyzes monetary gambles by separately encoding their
expected payoff and the payoff variance (even when subjects have never
heard of these concepts). As such the brain uses the same inputs as
Markowitz' portfolio theory. This is in sharp contrast with economics
(which includes Prospect Theory), which represents desirability of
gambles through scores on a single-dimensional utility scale.
About Peter Bossaerts:
Peter Bossaerts is William D. Hacker Professor of Economics and
Management and Professor of Finance at the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech). At present, he is at the Université de Lausanne as
Swiss Finance Institute Visiting Professor. Prof. Bossaerts holds a PhD
in Management (Finance) from UCLA. His current research area is
experimental finance, in particular, neuro-finance. He investigates
cognitive biases and their impact on asset prices, through observation
of individual behavior, observation of price formation in large-scale
experimental financial markets, and through analysis of brain activation
while individuals face financial risk.
Please REGISTER:
Mail: gutmann.bwl(a)univie.ac.at
Phone: +43-1-4277-38186 - Fax: +43-1-4277-38074
Contact and further information:
Gutmann Center for Portfolio Management
University of Vienna - Mag. Dorothea GRIMM
Bruenner Str. 72 - 1210 Wien (Austria)
phone: +43-1-4277-38186 - fax: +43-1-4277-38074
mail: gutmann.bwl(a)univie.ac.at - web:
www.gutmann-center.at