Peter Bossaerts William D. Hacker Professor of Economics and Management and Professor of Finance Computational and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA   Research Fellow Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, UK

Photo courtesy of Sofie Van Hoof (http://www.sofievanhoof.be)

LAB SITES:

Experiments with financial markets: Caltech Laboratory for Experimental Finance

Neuro-Finance: Laboratory for Neuro-Finance

Mail, Permanent:

Division of The Humanities and Social Sciences, M/C 228-77, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125

Mail, till July 2007:

Swiss Finance Institute , Université de Lausanne, Building Extranef, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Phone, Permanent: +1.626.395.40.28

Phone, till July 2007: +41.21.692.33.93

Fax: +1.626.405.98.41

Email: pbs@rioja.caltech.edu

Research Interests:

Fields that shed light on the workings of financial markets and their participants: Asset Pricing Theory, Experimental Finance, Cognitive Neuroscience, Econometric Theory, General Equilibrium Theory, Game Theory, Mechanism Design, Derivatives Analysis, Applied Econometrics, Market Microstructure Analysis, Corporate Finance.

Here is a description of my recent work.

Some Links:

• C.V.
• Here is a list of unpublished working papers (with links).
• jMarkets, Java-based software to run (financial) markets experiments over the internet.
• The Paradox of Asset Pricing (published by Princeton University Presss): A book that argues that things are not that bad for asset pricing theory as long as one is willing to drop the untenable assumptions that markets have unbiased beliefs and the world is stationary - in other words, the "Lucas" model. That is, there is not a problem with the theory, but with the way the theory is tested (on field data). Here is what Steve Leroy writes about the book. For a course based on the book, see the link to the course web site for the University of Copenhagen below.
• Check out the Review of Finance, a premier new journal in Finance.
• Lectures on Corporate Finance (published by World  Scientific): written with Bernt Arne Ødegaard; an analytical but low-tech introduction to finance for those who find MBA textbooks confusing loose talk; check the book review in the Journal of Finance, Volume 58, p.467-9.
• A short discussion of the relevance for market experiments of the critique of laboratory experiments in Steven D. Levitt and John A. List, "What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal About the Real World?"

• "Introduction to Finance" Class (Caltech BEM 103): Click here to go to the course web site.
• "Financial Economics" Class (Caltech SS 213): Click here to go to the course web site.
• University of Zurich course on Experimental Financial Markets: Click here to go to the course web site.
• Slides for my talk on The Paradox of Asset Pricing at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration (Helsinki) are here.
• Web site for December 2005 EIASM course on experimental finance (Tilburg, The Netherlands).
• Course web site for University of Copenhagen course on The Paradox of Asset Pricing.

Last Revised: 26 March 2007