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What Investors Really Want: Behavioral finance in culture wars and safety nets

17 December 2013

Time: 11:45pm
Venue: David Sizer Lecture Theatre, Bancroft Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus


Meir Statman is the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University. His research focuses on behavioral finance. He attempts to understand how investors and managers make financial decisions and how these decisions are reflected in financial markets. Meir's award-winning book, "What Investors Really Want," has been published by McGraw-Hill. The book's subtitles are "Know What Drives Investor Behavior and Make Better Financial Decisions," and "Learn the Lessons of Behavioral Finance."

The questions he addresses in his research include: What are the cognitive errors and emotions that influence investors?  What are investor aspirations? How can financial advisors and plan sponsors help investors? What is the nature of risk and regret?  How do investors form portfolios?  How successful are tactical asset allocation and strategic asset allocation?  What determines stock returns?  What are the effects of sentiment? How successful are socially responsible investors?

We want more than expected returns consistent with risk. We want the freedom that let us seek riches and the safety net that support us in poverty. We want to save for tomorrow and spend it today. We want to be #1, and beat the market. We want fairness, libertarian or paternalistic, tailored to our self interest. We want status, whether access to hedge funds or invitations to the White House.

The presentation would focus on our wants and their reflections in our culture wars about income redistribution, safety nets, and deserving and undeserving rich and poor.

 

Meir's research has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Portfolio Management, and many other journals.  The research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Research Foundation of the CFA Institute, and the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA).  Meir is a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Portfolio Management, the Journal of Wealth Management and the Journal of Investment Consulting, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Research, the Journal of Behavioral Finance, and the Journal of Investment Management and a recipient of a Batterymarch Fellowship, a William F. Sharpe Best Paper Award, a Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Outstanding Article Award, a Davis Ethics Award, a Moskowitz Prize for best paper on socially responsible investing, three Baker IMCA Journal Awards, and three Graham and Dodd Awards.  Meir was named as one of the 25 most influential people by Investment Advisor in 2011. He consults with many investment companies and presents his work to academics and professionals in many forums in the U.S. and abroad.
Meir received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and his B.A. and M.B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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