Behavioural Finance

Time: 27.06. – 01.07.2016

Place: Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki

Learning Goal and Objectives: Behavioral Finance is an approach to the analysis of asset prices, corporate finance, and financial decision-making in general, that relaxes some key assumptions of neoclassical financial economics. Namely, it considers a larger class of objective functions, not always compatible with expected utility. Second, it entertains the possibility that expectations are sometimes biased, and not updated in a Bayesian manner. Third, it considers how various financial market frictions can form strong ‘limits to arbitrage’. This course is designed to introduce doctoral students to these concepts, and to support them in developing behavioral research ideas of their own.

Instruction and examination: See course website: http://gsf.aalto.fi/bf.html

Credits: 6 ECTS

Grading: Written exam and term paper will comprise the final grade. Grading will be on the scale of 0-5.

Prerequisites: 25. Finance PhD students have priority, but the course is also open for KATAJA-, FDPE-, and foreign doctoral students given that there is space in the course.

Admittance: See course website: http://gsf.aalto.fi/bf.html

Instructors: See course website: http://gsf.aalto.fi/bf.html

Course coordinator and contact information: Milja Koski, gsf@aalto.fi, 040 353 8061.