International Center for Finance at Yale SOM Hosts Behavioral Science Conference

The 2010 Behavioral Science Conference will be held at Yale SOM on April 30. The conference will bring leading researchers from around the world together to discuss developments in the fields of behavioral finance, economics, and marketing. It is hosted by the International Center for Finance, with three leading SOM behavioral researchers serving as chairs: Robert J. Shiller, the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics; Nicholas C. Barberis, the Stephen and Camille Schramm Professor of Finance; and Ravi Dhar, the George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing.

The presentations at the conference will be grouped into sessions on "Marketing and Psychology" and "Behavioral Finance and Economics." The individual presentations will cover topics such as "Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency" and "Risk Aversion and Wealth: Evidence from Person-to-Person Lending Portfolios." A complete schedule is available at the conference website.

The conference will also feature a book signing by Andrew Redleaf, a hedge fund manager and author of Panic: The Betrayal of Capitalism by Wall Street and Washington. Redleaf is the founder and CEO of Whitebox Advisors and a Yale graduate. His book, coauthored with Richard Vigilante, argues that the theory of efficient financial markets replaced the capitalist’s appreciation for free markets as a context for human creativity.