My research interests are an outgrowth of both of these traditions of my alma mater. Behavioral finance studies the behavior of both people and prices in the financial markets. Instead of assuming rational behavior at all times, this field dares to look “inside the box,” examining the sometimes flawed and irrational behavior of economic agents as they make decisions and impact security prices. My dissertation work focused on the tendency of investors to overreact to new information, causing stock prices to take wider, predictable swings than rational behavior would suggest. My paper published in the Midwest Review of Finance and Insurance, “Stock Market Overreaction in the 1980s,” is a product of that work.
