Attending the 2024 Yale Summer School in Behavioral Finance
By Luke Abolins
I was fortunate to participate in this year’s Behavioral Finance Summer School, which brought together 46 Economics and Finance PhD students from around the world at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, USA.
The intensive one-week program was led by Nicholas Barberis, whose lecture series offered a captivating overview of behavioral finance. An impressive lineup of guest speakers further delved into related topics: Andrei Shleifer explored Cognitive Economics, Ulrike Malmendier shed light on Behavioral Corporate Finance, Kelly Shue discussed the intriguing topic of Personality Extraction from Faces, James Choi presented on Practically-useful Behavioral Household Finance, Alex Imas delved into Mental Representation in Decision-Making, and Ben Enke examined Behavioral Attenuation.
Outside the lecture theatre, I had the privilege of joining Nicholas Barberis and Alex Imas at lunch, which provided fantastic opportunities to discuss research ideas in informal settings. Each evening, I was assigned to a new dinner group at a different local restaurant, which was a great way to build closer relationships with other attendees over some great food.
This experience was immensely rewarding on both an academic and personal level. Yale's hospitality was exceptional, and I am deeply grateful for their generosity in covering all associated expenses. I wholeheartedly recommend that fellow PhD students with an interest in behavioral finance apply for future iterations of this program, which is held every two years.
Luke Abolins is an Economics PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham.
