10 September 2013

Launch of new Financial Research Centre

One of the world's leading experts in behavioural finance will help launch a new centre for research at the University of Dundee tomorrow (Wednesday Sept 11th).

Professor Meir Statman, from Santa Clara University, will deliver a guest lecture to mark the launch of the Centre for Qualitative Research in Finance.

The new Centre has been created to establish a focal point for Qualitative Research, which is becoming increasingly influential across the financial sector.

'For many years most of finance has veered heavily towards the more mathematical route, or what we call quantitative research,' said Professor Bruce Burton, Head of Accounting & Finance in the School of Business at Dundee. 'This research has yielded many important insights and those involved are extremely talented, but it does not provide a complete picture. For one thing, a system built on quantitative research did not predict the global crisis of the last five years.

'Qualitative research essentially brings back into account much more of the human element of finance - why managers and investors make certain decisions, how they choose particular courses of action in practice, and so on.

'A lot of this work involves a return to talking to people - chief executives, regulators, financial directors - as opposed to just looking at the numbers. This work builds on that of a very successful journal I established six years ago, 'Qualitative Research in Financial Markets' which clearly identified a knowledge and research gap.'

The Centre will be closely aligned with the journal, which is published by Emerald. It will be based within the School of Business at Dundee but will work with international experts in the field, host a biannual conference and provide a forum for the presentation of leading research in progress.

Meir Statman is the Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University and Visiting Professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. His research focuses on behavioral finance. He attempts to understand how investors and managers make financial decisions and how these decisions are reflected in financial markets.

Professor Statman's research has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Financial Analysts Journal, and many other journals. He was named as one of the Investment Advisor 25 Most Influential People in the Advisor Community.

Professor Statman's lecture tomorrow is titled 'A behavioural asset pricing model with social responsibility factors'. It takes place in the University's Dalhousie Building from 2-3.30pm.

For more information see: www.dundee.ac.uk/business/cqrf.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902