Behavioral Finance: A Novel Approach presents original papers exploring fresh ideas in behavioral finance. Its chapters span a wide range of topics in a distinct mix of traditional issues along with less conventional matters. This blend creates an optimal balance between chapters aiming at widening the scope of research in behavioral finance and those striving to refine the extant knowledge.Thus, along with traditional topics such as biases in pension decisions, analysts recommendation, gender differences in decisions and IPO''s underpricing, the book also contains chapters on CEO and board members behavior, biased responses to regulation and regulatory reform, investors'' attitudes towards corporate governance, cognitive biases in judicial decisions, the relations between behavioral finance and religion, new methods to calibrate the accuracy of forecasts, and the relations between behavioral finance and optimal contracting.Presenting original findings on a vast assortment of subjects, all in one venue, makes the book ideal as a reference book for researchers and practitioners interested in keeping up with the important developments in behavioral finance. The book could also serve as a handy guide for adapting insights from popular behavioral finance to some important underrepresented issues.

This unique volume presents new original research exploring factors that lead to investors behavioral biases. It discusses how features such as professionalism, sophistication, gender, media, and culture influence investors'' decision-making in general, and in particular, how they generate (or limit) behavioral and cognitive biases. The effects of these factors on capital markets are also discussed. The book is based on the discussions and presentations at the First Israel Behavioral Finance Conference, which took place in Tel Aviv in May 2015. It examines in greater detail some of the key issues discussed at the conference.This is an innovative book in behavioral finance: it is the first to present an extensive collection of papers which discuss a comprehensive array of factors that influence or define investor character and analyzes these factors'' effects on financial markets. The book is useful for readers interested in understanding the factors that influence investors'' profiles and thus their behavioral biases. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students seeking a reference book which contains timely research on these areas of behavioral finance.

This volume presents lecture notes for a course in behavioral finance, most suitable for MBA students, but also adaptable for a PhD class. These lecture notes are based on the author''s experience in teaching behavioral finance classes at Bocconi University (at the PhD level) and at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo (MBA).Written in a way that is user-friendly for both teachers and students, this book is the first of its kind and consolidates all the material necessary for a course on behavioral finance, balancing psychological concepts with financial applications. Material formerly presented only in academic papers has been transformed to a format more suitable for students, while the most important issues have been highlighted in boxes that can form the basis of a lecturer''s teaching slides.In addition to corralling all the currently scattered materials into one book, a neat logical order is introduced to the subject matter. Behavioral finance is put in a context relative to the other disciplines of finance, its history is outlined and the way it evolved — from an eclectic collection of counter examples to market efficiency into a bona fide discipline of finance — is reviewed and explained.The 17 topic-based chapters in this book are each intended for a 90-minute lecture. The first five chapters (Part 1) provide the psychological and financial foundations of behavioral finance. The next 12 chapters (Part 2) are applications: Chapters 6-13 cover the essentials while Chapters 14-17 are special, elective topics.

The area of behavioral finance, though relatively young, has matured and spread beyond its initial objectives: to demonstrate the fallibility of the efficient market hypothesis, to shake the belief in the ubiquity of rational decision making, and to convince the finance world of the importance of psychological biases in decision making. The success of the field in meeting its goals, however, has called into question its continued relevance. Behavioral finance is thus currently at a crossroads, and researchers need to decide which way they should turn for the area to continue to thrive and to meaningfully contribute to financial knowledge.This collection of papers deals with rarely-explored topics to point at new directions that behavioral finance should explore to maintain its viability, along with contributions to traditional topics. Some of these topics include innovations, the psychology of policy-makers, biases of peer-to-peer market participants, the behavior and motivation behind corporate social responsibility, and the design of exchanges. Additionally, well-known topics such as the disposition effect, slow and fast decisions and the availability heuristic are revisited, and surprising new findings are presented.By opening the field to novel avenues of discussion, this book addresses the future of behavioral finance and its transition into a new era.

Behavioral Finance: A Novel Approach presents original papers exploring fresh ideas in behavioral finance. Its chapters span a wide range of topics in a distinct mix of traditional issues along with less conventional matters. This blend creates an optimal balance between chapters aiming at widening the scope of research in behavioral finance and those striving to refine the extant knowledge.Thus, along with traditional topics such as biases in pension decisions, analysts recommendation, gender differences in decisions and IPO''s underpricing, the book also contains chapters on CEO and board members behavior, biased responses to regulation and regulatory reform, investors'' attitudes towards corporate governance, cognitive biases in judicial decisions, the relations between behavioral finance and religion, new methods to calibrate the accuracy of forecasts, and the relations between behavioral finance and optimal contracting.Presenting original findings on a vast assortment of subjects, all in one venue, makes the book ideal as a reference book for researchers and practitioners interested in keeping up with the important developments in behavioral finance. The book could also serve as a handy guide for adapting insights from popular behavioral finance to some important underrepresented issues.

This unique volume presents new original research exploring factors that lead to investors behavioral biases. It discusses how features such as professionalism, sophistication, gender, media, and culture influence investors'' decision-making in general, and in particular, how they generate (or limit) behavioral and cognitive biases. The effects of these factors on capital markets are also discussed. The book is based on the discussions and presentations at the First Israel Behavioral Finance Conference, which took place in Tel Aviv in May 2015. It examines in greater detail some of the key issues discussed at the conference.This is an innovative book in behavioral finance: it is the first to present an extensive collection of papers which discuss a comprehensive array of factors that influence or define investor character and analyzes these factors'' effects on financial markets. The book is useful for readers interested in understanding the factors that influence investors'' profiles and thus their behavioral biases. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students seeking a reference book which contains timely research on these areas of behavioral finance.

This volume presents lecture notes for a course in behavioral finance, most suitable for MBA students, but also adaptable for a PhD class. These lecture notes are based on the author''s experience in teaching behavioral finance classes at Bocconi University (at the PhD level) and at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo (MBA).Written in a way that is user-friendly for both teachers and students, this book is the first of its kind and consolidates all the material necessary for a course on behavioral finance, balancing psychological concepts with financial applications. Material formerly presented only in academic papers has been transformed to a format more suitable for students, while the most important issues have been highlighted in boxes that can form the basis of a lecturer''s teaching slides.In addition to corralling all the currently scattered materials into one book, a neat logical order is introduced to the subject matter. Behavioral finance is put in a context relative to the other disciplines of finance, its history is outlined and the way it evolved — from an eclectic collection of counter examples to market efficiency into a bona fide discipline of finance — is reviewed and explained.The 17 topic-based chapters in this book are each intended for a 90-minute lecture. The first five chapters (Part 1) provide the psychological and financial foundations of behavioral finance. The next 12 chapters (Part 2) are applications: Chapters 6-13 cover the essentials while Chapters 14-17 are special, elective topics.

The area of behavioral finance, though relatively young, has matured and spread beyond its initial objectives: to demonstrate the fallibility of the efficient market hypothesis, to shake the belief in the ubiquity of rational decision making, and to convince the finance world of the importance of psychological biases in decision making. The success of the field in meeting its goals, however, has called into question its continued relevance. Behavioral finance is thus currently at a crossroads, and researchers need to decide which way they should turn for the area to continue to thrive and to meaningfully contribute to financial knowledge.This collection of papers deals with rarely-explored topics to point at new directions that behavioral finance should explore to maintain its viability, along with contributions to traditional topics. Some of these topics include innovations, the psychology of policy-makers, biases of peer-to-peer market participants, the behavior and motivation behind corporate social responsibility, and the design of exchanges. Additionally, well-known topics such as the disposition effect, slow and fast decisions and the availability heuristic are revisited, and surprising new findings are presented.By opening the field to novel avenues of discussion, this book addresses the future of behavioral finance and its transition into a new era.