CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

         BEHAVIOURAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

                       December 10-11, 2009

                 Behavioural Finance Working Group
                       Cass Business School,
                      City University, London

                       Conference Organisers:
       William Forbes, Paul Hamalainen, and Gulnur Muradoglu

                          Keynote Speaker:
            Werner DeBondt, DePaul University, Chicago, USA


     OVERVIEW:

     The unfolding financial crisis issues a dramatic challenge
     to the current practice of banking, insurance and
     investment management professionals and those who regulate
     them. The intensity of the Crisis raises problems regarding
     the adequacy of prevailing Orthodoxy regarding how markets
     operate and how their excesses might be controlled.
     Behavioural approaches to Finance as an emergent complement
     and critique of standard Finance theory should have much to
     say about both the causes and potential remedies for "the
     state we are in."


     TOPICS:

     This inaugural meeting of the Behavioural Workshop will
     seek contributions from areas which include while not being
     limited to the following issues:

     - The construction of mental frames and heuristics to guide
       risk management of structured finance products,
       securitised debt and other instruments,

     - The role of individual investors in the crisis,
       especially those obtaining "sub-prime" mortgages,

     - The psychology and reactions of investors (professional
       and retail) to the engulfing crisis,

     - The way forward and behavioural perspectives on
       rebuilding a robust financial system,

     - Attempts to improve financial markets by enhancing
       "financial democracy" through trading platforms for the
       most commonly feared risks, losing one's job or home,
       etc,

     - Reflecting behavioural perspectives in financial
       regulation and corporate governance reforms,

     - Professional investors, transparency and
       behavioural assumptions underlying market discipline.


     PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

     The deadline for paper submissions is 18th September 2009.
     The organisers will come back with a decision within three
     weeks after the deadline. To submit a paper for
     consideration please email a PDF version of the paper to:

     Email:       MAILTO:Behavioural-Finance@city.ac.uk

     Papers chosen for submission will be considered for
     publication for a Special Issue of Qualitative Research in
     Financial Markets.

     There will be a separate PhD session to encourage the work
     of PhD students on Behavioural Finance. PhD students with
     full or near full papers are encouraged to apply.

---

Posted 6/22/09