Emotional Finance

In Emotional Finance we discuss the relevance of emotions and (childhood) experiences for financial decision making. We start our discussion by revisiting neoclassical and behavioral finance and introducing the concept of emotions and emotional finance. Psychological theories and especially Freud‘s comprehensive theory of psychoanalysis are fundamental building blocks for understanding human perception and decision-making and hence emotional finance. We elaborate Tuckett’s approach of emotional finance, which is based on psychoanalysis. As irrational exuberance and panics are stylized facts of capital markets, we study concepts of crowd psychology and herding. In the following, we discuss applications of these different concepts for asset management, risk management, and financial regulation.

An important part of the course is a group assignment. Students have to develop their own research ideas in emotional finance and conduct first empirical analyses themselves. Students get access to the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which is a large and influential longitudinal study of German households. SOEP covers in-depth information on individuals’ attitudes, values, and personalities. Combined with information on these subjects’ background and balance sheet, we ask students to come up with their own, creative interdisciplinary ideas, and to test these empirically. The assignment is based on chapter 3 (see below). Teams will present their results in-class.

Students must also individually write an essay in which they reflect on their key (childhood) experience and its effects. Course concepts that cater to the respective students’ experience should be used as theoretical underpinning. For example, as a single child you might have been shaped by your parent’s indulging behavior. You might identify that this is why Riemann’s hysterical form of fear suits your character, and how this affects your decision making today.

Course Contents:

1. Neoclassical and Behavioral Finance Revisited
2. Introduction to Emotional Finance
3. Literature on Culture, Experiences, and Finance
4. Overview of Psychological Theories
5. Psycho-Analysis and Personalities
6. Tuckett’s Approach to Emotional Finance
7. Crowd Psychology and Herding on Capital Markets
8. Applications: Asset Management, Risk Management, and Regulation
9. Group Presentations

Students will have sharpened their empirical skillset.

Students will have obtained foundations in psycholanalysis.

group assignment (40%)

class participation (20%)