Politics, Religion and Finance

This interdisciplinary lecture will describe how psychological and social factors actually drive financial behavior; something often ignored in conventional theory. Among other things Professor Kumar will draw on his own research to explore such issues as how political and religious beliefs, sex, age and gambling, as well as "economic Prozac" and xenophobia help determine investment activity and drive stock market returns, and discuss some of the more general implications such findings have for other areas of human decision making.

Alok Kumar is the Gabelli Asset Management Professor of Finance at the School of Business Administration of the University of Miami. Inter alia, a graduate of Cornell, Yale and Dartmouth College, Alok is author of over 20 papers in a range of 4* US journals. Highly creative and broad ranging in his research interests, Professor Kumar is also an engaging and highly entertaining speaker. We are very privileged to have him visit WBS.