Topic: Necessary Evidence for a Risk Factor’s Relevance
Speaker: Samuel Hartzmark, Associate Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Date: March 10, 2021 (Wednesday)
Time: 10:00-11:30
Location: 4-101
Language: English
Abstract:
Textbook models assume that investors are trying to insure against bad states of the world associated with specific risk factors when investing. This is a testable assumption and we develop a survey framework for doing so. Our framework can be applied to any risk factor. We demonstrate the approach using consumption growth, making our results applicable to most modern asset-pricing models. Participants respond to changes in the mean and volatility of stock returns consistent with textbook models, but we find no evidence that they view an asset’s correlation with consumption growth as relevant to investment decisions.
About the speaker:
Samuel M. Hartzmark studies asset pricing and behavioral finance. His research has appeared in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Quarterly Journal of Finance, and the Review of Asset Pricing Studies. He has received a number of awards including the 2016 AQR Insight Award, the 2019 Research Affiliates Best Paper Award, the 2019 Moskowitz Prize, the 2018 BNP Paribas Best Paper Award, the 2017 Charles Brandes Prize, Best Paper in the Review of Asset Pricing Studies 2016, 2nd prize Fama-DFA award for best paper in asset pricing research in the Journal of Financial Economics 2015, the Hillcrest Behavioral Finance Award in 2015 and 2018, the UBS Global Asset Management Award, the Michael J. Barclay young scholar award and he was a finalist for the 2014 AQR Insight award. His work has been covered by a variety of media outlets including CNBC, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg among others.
Hartzmark holds a PhD from Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, a MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in mathematics/economics (summa cum laude) with a double major in religion from Emory University.
