You can find some useful tips in our how-to guide.
The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below).
Your submission should include up to 12 appropriate and short keywords that capture the principal topics of the paper. Our how to guide contains some practical guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords.
Please note, while we will always try to use the keywords you’ve suggested, the in-house editorial team may replace some of them with matching terms to ensure consistency across publications and improve your article’s visibility.
During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:
You will also be asked to select a category for your paper. The options for this are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:
Reports on any type of research undertaken by the author(s), including:
Covers any paper where content is dependent on the author's opinion and interpretation. This includes journalistic and magazine-style pieces.
Describes and evaluates technical products, processes or services.
Focuses on developing hypotheses and is usually discursive. Covers philosophical discussions and comparative studies of other authors’ work and thinking.
Describes actual interventions or experiences within organizations. It can be subjective and doesn’t generally report on research. Also covers a description of a legal case or a hypothetical case study used as a teaching exercise.
This category should only be used if the main purpose of the paper is to annotate and/or critique the literature in a particular field. It could be a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources, or the paper may aim to cover the main contributors to the development of a topic and explore their different views.
Provides an overview or historical examination of some concept, technique or phenomenon. Papers are likely to be more descriptive or instructional (‘how to’ papers) than discursive.
Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the required hierarchy.
The preferred format is for first level headings to be in bold, and subsequent sub-headings to be in medium italics.
Notes or endnotes should only be used if absolutely necessary. They should be identified in the text by consecutive numbers enclosed in square brackets. These numbers should then be listed, and explained, at the end of the article.
All figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, webpages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted electronically. Both colour and black and white files are accepted.
There are a few other important points to note:
Tables should be typed and submitted in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the main body of the article with corresponding labels clearly shown in the table file. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Roman numerals (e.g. I, II, etc.).
Give each table a brief title. Ensure that any superscripts or asterisks are shown next to the relevant items and have explanations displayed as footnotes to the table, figure or plate.
Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content-hosting platform (this is Emerald's recommended option as we are able to ensure the data remain accessible), or on an alternative trusted online repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance.
Emerald recommends that authors use the following two lists when searching for a suitable and trusted repository:
, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article; there is no need to include the content of the file only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication.
Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copy-edited or typeset, and authors will not receive proofs of this content. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article.
Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions:
, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available. Where an alternative trusted online repository is used, the files hosted should always be presented as read-only; please be aware that such usage risks compromising your anonymity during the review process if the repository contains any information that may enable the reviewer to identify you; as such, we recommend that all links to alternative repositories are reviewed carefully prior to submission.
Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process).
All references in your manuscript must be formatted using one of the recognised Harvard styles. You are welcome to use the Harvard style Emerald has adopted – we’ve provided a detailed guide below. Want to use a different Harvard style? That’s fine, our typesetters will make any necessary changes to your manuscript if it is accepted. Please ensure you check all your citations for completeness, accuracy and consistency.
References to other publications in your text should be written as follows:
, 2006) Please note, ‘ ' should always be written in italics.A few other style points. These apply to both the main body of text and your final list of references.
At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference.
Surname, initials (year), , publisher, place of publication.
e.g. Harrow, R. (2005), , Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.
Surname, initials (year), "chapter title", editor's surname, initials (Ed.), , publisher, place of publication, page numbers.
e.g. Calabrese, F.A. (2005), "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", Stankosky, M. (Ed.), , Elsevier, New York, NY, pp.15-20.
Surname, initials (year), "title of article", , volume issue, page numbers.
e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century", , Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.72-80.
Surname, initials (year of publication), "title of paper", in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), , publisher, place of publication, page numbers.
e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008), “Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development”, in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), , Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, pp.115-118.
Surname, initials (year), "title of paper", paper presented at [name of conference], [date of conference], [place of conference], available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date).
e.g. Aumueller, D. (2005), "Semantic authoring and retrieval within a wiki", paper presented at the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), 29 May-1 June, Heraklion, Crete, available at: http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de/file/aumueller05wiksar.pdf (accessed 20 February 2007).
Surname, initials (year), "title of article", working paper [number if available], institution or organization, place of organization, date.
e.g. Moizer, P. (2003), "How published academic research can inform policy decisions: the case of mandatory rotation of audit appointments", working paper, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, 28 March.
(year), "title of entry", volume, edition, title of encyclopaedia, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.
e.g. (1926), "Psychology of culture contact", Vol. 1, 13th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, London and New York, NY, pp.765-771.
(for authored entries, please refer to book chapter guidelines above)
Surname, initials (year), "article title", , date, page numbers.
e.g. Smith, A. (2008), "Money for old rope", , 21 January, pp.1, 3-4.
(year), "article title", date, page numbers.
e.g. (2008), "Small change", 2 February, p.7.
Surname, initials (year), "title of document", unpublished manuscript, collection name, inventory record, name of archive, location of archive.
e.g. Litman, S. (1902), "Mechanism & Technique of Commerce", unpublished manuscript, Simon Litman Papers, Record series 9/5/29 Box 3, University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as the date that the resource was accessed.
Surname, initials (year), “title of electronic source”, available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year).
e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013), “Developing strong thesis statements”, available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018)
Standalone URLs, i.e. those without an author or date, should be included either inside parentheses within the main text, or preferably set as a note (Roman numeral within square brackets within text followed by the full URL address at the end of the paper).
Surname, initials (year), , name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year).
e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), , ICPSR07218-v4, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018)
There are a number of key steps you should follow to ensure a smooth and trouble-free submission.
Before submitting your work, it is your responsibility to check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. A few other important points:
You will find a helpful submission checklist on the website Think.Check.Submit .
All manuscripts should be submitted through our editorial system by the corresponding author.
The only way to submit to the journal is through the journal’s ScholarOne site as accessed via the Emerald website, and not by email or through any third-party agent/company, journal representative, or website. Submissions should be done directly by the author(s) through the ScholarOne site and not via a third-party proxy on their behalf.
A separate author account is required for each journal you submit to. If this is your first time submitting to this journal, please choose the Create an account or Register now option in the editorial system. If you already have an Emerald login, you are welcome to reuse the existing username and password here.
Please note, the next time you log into the system, you will be asked for your username. This will be the email address you entered when you set up your account.
Don't forget to add your ORCiD ID during the submission process. It will be embedded in your published article, along with a link to the ORCiD registry allowing others to easily match you with your work.
Don’t have one yet? It only takes a few moments to register for a free ORCiD identifier .
Visit the ScholarOne support centre for further help and guidance.
You will receive an automated email from the journal editor, confirming your successful submission. It will provide you with a manuscript number, which will be used in all future correspondence about your submission. If you have any reason to suspect the confirmation email you receive might be fraudulent, please contact the journal editor in the first instance.
Review and decision process.
Each submission is checked by the editor. At this stage, they may choose to decline or unsubmit your manuscript if it doesn’t fit the journal aims and scope, or they feel the language/manuscript quality is too low.
If they think it might be suitable for the publication, they will send it to at least two independent referees for double anonymous peer review. Once these reviewers have provided their feedback, the editor may decide to accept your manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline your work.
While all journals work to different timescales, the goal is that the editor will inform you of their first decision within 60 days.
During this period, we will send you automated updates on the progress of your manuscript via our submission system, or you can log in to check on the current status of your paper. Each time we contact you, we will quote the manuscript number you were given at the point of submission. If you receive an email that does not match these criteria, it could be fraudulent and we recommend you contact the journal editor in the first instance.
Emerald’s manuscript transfer service takes the pain out of the submission process if your manuscript doesn’t fit your initial journal choice. Our team of expert Editors from participating journals work together to identify alternative journals that better align with your research, ensuring your work finds the ideal publication home it deserves. Our dedicated team is committed to supporting authors like you in finding the right home for your research.
If a journal is participating in the manuscript transfer program, the Editor has the option to recommend your paper for transfer. If a transfer decision is made by the Editor, you will receive an email with the details of the recommended journal and the option to accept or reject the transfer. It’s always down to you as the author to decide if you’d like to accept. If you do accept, your paper and any reviewer reports will automatically be transferred to the recommended journals. Authors will then confirm resubmissions in the new journal’s ScholarOne system.
Our Manuscript Transfer Service page has more information on the process.
Open access.
Once your paper is accepted, you will have the opportunity to indicate whether you would like to publish your paper via the gold open access route.
If you’ve chosen to publish gold open access, this is the point you will be asked to pay the APC (article processing charge). This varies per journal and can be found on our APC price list or on the editorial system at the point of submission. Your article will be published with a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user licence , which outlines how readers can reuse your work.
For UK journal article authors - if you wish to submit your work accepted by Emerald to REF 2021, you must make a ‘closed deposit’ of your accepted manuscript to your respective institutional repository upon acceptance of your article. Articles accepted for publication after 1st April 2018 should be deposited as soon as possible, but no later than three months after the acceptance date. For further information and guidance, please refer to the REF 2021 website.
All accepted authors are sent an email with a link to a licence form. This should be checked for accuracy, for example whether contact and affiliation details are up to date and your name is spelled correctly, and then returned to us electronically. If there is a reason why you can’t assign copyright to us, you should discuss this with your journal content editor. You will find their contact details on the editorial team section above.
Once we have received your completed licence form, the article will pass directly into the production process. We will carry out editorial checks, copyediting, and typesetting and then return proofs to you (if you are the corresponding author) for your review. This is your opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. We can’t accept requests to rewrite texts at this stage.
When the page proofs are finalised, the fully typeset and proofed version of record is published online. This is referred to as the EarlyCite version. While an EarlyCite article has yet to be assigned to a volume or issue, it does have a digital object identifier (DOI) and is fully citable. It will be compiled into an issue according to the journal’s issue schedule, with papers being added by chronological date of publication.
Visit our author rights page to find out how you can reuse and share your work.
To find tips on increasing the visibility of your published paper, read about how to promote your work .
Sometimes errors are made during the research, writing and publishing processes. When these issues arise, we have the option of withdrawing the paper or introducing a correction notice. Find out more about our article withdrawal and correction policies .
Need to make a change to the author list? See our frequently asked questions (FAQs) below.
| The only time we will ever ask you for money to publish in an Emerald journal is if you have chosen to publish via the gold open access route. You will be asked to pay an APC (article-processing charge) once your paper has been accepted (unless it is a sponsored open access journal), and never at submission.
At no other time will you be asked to contribute financially towards your article’s publication, processing, or review. If you haven’t chosen gold open access and you receive an email that appears to be from Emerald, the journal, or a third party, asking you for payment to publish, please contact our support team via . |
| Please contact the editor for the journal, with a copy of your CV. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. |
| Typically, papers are added to an issue according to their date of publication. If you would like to know in advance which issue your paper will appear in, please contact the content editor of the journal. You will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. Once your paper has been published in an issue, you will be notified by email. |
| Please email the journal editor – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. If you ever suspect an email you’ve received from Emerald might not be genuine, you are welcome to verify it with the content editor for the journal, whose contact details can be found on the editorial team tab on this page. |
| If you’ve read the aims and scope on the journal landing page and are still unsure whether your paper is suitable for the journal, please email the editor and include your paper's title and structured abstract. They will be able to advise on your manuscript’s suitability. You will find their contact details on the Editorial team tab on this page. |
| Authorship and the order in which the authors are listed on the paper should be agreed prior to submission. We have a right first time policy on this and no changes can be made to the list once submitted. If you have made an error in the submission process, please email the Journal Editorial Office who will look into your request – you will find their contact details on the editorial team tab on this page. |
CiteScore 2023
CiteScore is a simple way of measuring the citation impact of sources, such as journals.
Calculating the CiteScore is based on the number of citations to documents (articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters, and data papers) by a journal over four years, divided by the number of the same document types indexed in Scopus and published in those same four years.
For more information and methodology visit the Scopus definition
CiteScore Tracker 2024
(updated monthly)
CiteScore Tracker is calculated in the same way as CiteScore, but for the current year rather than previous, complete years.
The CiteScore Tracker calculation is updated every month, as a current indication of a title's performance.
2023 Impact Factor
The Journal Impact Factor is published each year by Clarivate Analytics. It is a measure of the number of times an average paper in a particular journal is cited during the preceding two years.
For more information and methodology see Clarivate Analytics
5-year Impact Factor (2023)
A base of five years may be more appropriate for journals in certain fields because the body of citations may not be large enough to make reasonable comparisons, or it may take longer than two years to publish and distribute leading to a longer period before others cite the work.
Actual value is intentionally only displayed for the most recent year. Earlier values are available in the Journal Citation Reports from Clarivate Analytics .
Time to first decision
Time to first decision , expressed in days, the "first decision" occurs when the journal’s editorial team reviews the peer reviewers’ comments and recommendations. Based on this feedback, they decide whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript.
Data is taken from submissions between 1st June 2023 and 31st May 2024
Acceptance to publication
Acceptance to publication , expressed in days, is the average time between when the journal’s editorial team decide whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript and the date of publication in the journal.
Data is taken from the previous 12 months (Last updated July 2024)
Acceptance rate
The acceptance rate is a measurement of how many manuscripts a journal accepts for publication compared to the total number of manuscripts submitted expressed as a percentage %
Data is taken from submissions between 1st June 2023 and 31st May 2024 .
This figure is the total amount of downloads for all articles published early cite in the last 12 months
(Last updated: July 2024)
Peer review process.
This journal engages in a double-anonymous peer review process, which strives to match the expertise of a reviewer with the submitted manuscript. Reviews are completed with evidence of thoughtful engagement with the manuscript, provide constructive feedback, and add value to the overall knowledge and information presented in the manuscript.
The mission of the peer review process is to achieve excellence and rigour in scholarly publications and research.
Our vision is to give voice to professionals in the subject area who contribute unique and diverse scholarly perspectives to the field.
The journal values diverse perspectives from the field and reviewers who provide critical, constructive, and respectful feedback to authors. Reviewers come from a variety of organizations, careers, and backgrounds from around the world.
All invitations to review, abstracts, manuscripts, and reviews should be kept confidential. Reviewers must not share their review or information about the review process with anyone without the agreement of the editors and authors involved, even after publication. This also applies to other reviewers’ “comments to author” which are shared with you on decision.
Discover practical tips and guidance on all aspects of peer review in our reviewers' section. See how being a reviewer could benefit your career, and discover what's involved in shaping a review.
More reviewer information
The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2023 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...
The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2022 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...
The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2021 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...
The Special Issue ‘Thaler’s Nobel prize: the evolution of behavioral finance’ is now available online. Professor Richard Thaler’s Nobel Prize recognised his work in the field of behavioral f...
We are pleased to announce our 2023 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper The impact of heuristic and herding bias...
We are pleased to announce our 2022 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper A test of the association betw...
We are pleased to announce our 2021 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Papers My way to the second generati...
We are pleased to announce our 2020 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Papers Do overconfident CEOs stay out of trouble? Evidence f...
Review of Behavioral Finance covers not only theoretical and empirical approaches to financial decision making, but also the way the behavioral attributes of the decision makers influence the financial structure of a company, investors’ portfolio, and the functioning of financial markets.
Review of Behavioral Finance (RBF) welcomes high-quality empirical, experimental and theoretical research articles from the finance field as well as finance applications from psychology, sociology and decision sciences disciplines and is open to a wide spectrum of methodologies including those from finance, market accounting, economics, psychology, sociology and maths.
The journal’s coverage includes but is not limited to:
These are the latest articles published in this journal (Last updated: July 2024)
Hierarchical complexity and seasoned equity offerings, herding behaviour surrounding the russo-ukraine war and covid-19 pandemic: evidence from energy, metal, livestock and grain commodities, top downloaded articles.
These are the most downloaded articles over the last 12 months for this journal (Last updated: July 2024)
Sentiment investor, exchange rates, geopolitical risk and developing stock market: evidence of co-movements in the time-frequency domain in war ukraine., can virtual reality nudge towards green investing an experiment with small business entrepreneurs.
These are the top cited articles for this journal, from the last 12 months according to Crossref (Last updated: July 2024)
Familiarity bias in direct stock investment by individual investors.
We aim to champion researchers, practitioners, policymakers and organisations who share our goals of contributing to a more ethical, responsible and sustainable way of working.
This journal is part of our Accounting, finance & economics collection. Explore our Accounting, finance & economics subject area to find out more.
See all related journals
Qualitative Research in Financial Markets is dedicated to publishing research that employs qualitative methods and tools...
Managerial Finance provides an international forum for the publication of high quality and topical research across all...
China Finance Review International is a flagship academic journal broadly covering the Chinese and international...
Understanding behavioral finance, behavioral finance concepts.
Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Yarilet Perez is an experienced multimedia journalist and fact-checker with a Master of Science in Journalism. She has worked in multiple cities covering breaking news, politics, education, and more. Her expertise is in personal finance and investing, and real estate.
Behavioral finance, a subfield of behavioral economics , proposes that psychological influences and biases affect the financial behaviors of investors and financial practitioners. Moreover, influences and biases can be the source for the explanation of all types of market anomalies and specifically market anomalies in the stock market, such as severe rises or falls in stock price. As behavioral finance is such an integral part of investing, the Securities and Exchange Commission has staff specifically focused on behavioral finance.
Behavioral finance can be analyzed from a variety of perspectives. Stock market returns are one area of finance where psychological behaviors are often assumed to influence market outcomes and returns but there are also many different angles for observation. The purpose of the classification of behavioral finance is to help understand why people make certain financial choices and how those choices can affect markets.
Within behavioral finance, it is assumed that financial participants are not perfectly rational and self-controlled but rather psychologically influential with somewhat normal and self-controlling tendencies. Financial decision-making often relies on the investor's mental and physical health. As an investor's overall health improves or worsens, their mental state often changes. This impacts their decision-making and rationality towards all real-world problems, including those specific to finance.
One of the key aspects of behavioral finance studies is the influence of biases. Biases can occur for a variety of reasons. Biases can usually be classified into one of five key concepts. Understanding and classifying different types of behavioral finance biases can be very important when narrowing in on the study or analysis of industry or sector outcomes and results.
Read about Investopedia's 10 Rules of Investing by picking up a copy of our special issue print edition.
Behavioral finance typically encompasses five main concepts:
Behavioral finance is exploited through credit card rewards, as consumers are more likely to be willing to spend points, rewards, or miles as opposed to paying for transactions with direct cash.
Breaking down biases further, many individual biases and tendencies have been identified for behavioral finance analysis. Some of these include:
Confirmation bias is when investors have a bias toward accepting information that confirms their already-held belief in an investment. If information surfaces, investors accept it readily to confirm that they're correct about their investment decision—even if the information is flawed.
An experiential bias occurs when investors' memory of recent events makes them biased or leads them to believe that the event is far more likely to occur again. For this reason, it is also known as recency bias or availability bias.
For example, the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 led many investors to exit the stock market. Many had a dismal view of the markets and likely expected more economic hardship in the coming years. The experience of having gone through such a negative event increased their bias or likelihood that the event could reoccur. In reality, the economy recovered, and the market bounced back in the years to follow.
Loss aversion occurs when investors place a greater weighting on the concern for losses than the pleasure from market gains. In other words, they're far more likely to try to assign a higher priority to avoiding losses than making investment gains.
As a result, some investors might want a higher payout to compensate for losses. If the high payout isn't likely, they might try to avoid losses altogether even if the investment's risk is acceptable from a rational standpoint.
Applying loss aversion to investing, the so-called disposition effect occurs when investors sell their winners and hang onto their losers. Investors' thinking is that they want to realize gains quickly. However, when an investment is losing money, they'll hold onto it because they want to get back to even or their initial price. Investors tend to admit they are correct about an investment quickly (when there's a gain).
However, investors are reluctant to admit when they made an investment mistake (when there's a loss). The flaw in disposition bias is that the performance of the investment is often tied to the entry price for the investor. In other words, investors gauge the performance of their investment based on their individual entry price disregarding fundamentals or attributes of the investment that may have changed.
The familiarity bias is when investors tend to invest in what they know , such as domestic companies or locally owned investments. As a result, investors are not diversified across multiple sectors and types of investments, which can reduce risk. Investors tend to go with investments that they have a history or have familiarity with.
Familiarity bias can occur in so many ways. You may resist investing in a specific company because of what industry it is in, where it operates, what products it sells, who oversees the management of the company, who its clientele base is, how it performs its marketing, and how complex its accounting is.
The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) says that at any given time in a highly liquid market , stock prices are efficiently valued to reflect all the available information. However, many studies have documented long-term historical phenomena in securities markets that contradict the efficient market hypothesis and cannot be captured plausibly in models based on perfect investor rationality.
The EMH is generally based on the belief that market participants view stock prices rationally based on all current and future intrinsic and external factors. When studying the stock market, behavioral finance takes the view that markets are not fully efficient. This allows for the observation of how psychological and social factors can influence the buying and selling of stocks.
The understanding and usage of behavioral finance biases can be applied to stock and other trading market movements on a daily basis. Broadly, behavioral finance theories have also been used to provide clearer explanations of substantial market anomalies like bubbles and deep recessions. While not a part of EMH, investors and portfolio managers have a vested interest in understanding behavioral finance trends. These trends can be used to help analyze market price levels and fluctuations for speculation as well as decision-making purposes.
Behavioral finance helps us understand how financial decisions around things like investments, payments, risk, and personal debt, are greatly influenced by human emotion, biases, and cognitive limitations of the mind in processing and responding to information.
Mainstream theory, on the other hand, makes the assumptions in its models that people are rational actors, that they are free from emotion or the effects of culture and social relations, and that people are self-interested utility maximizers. It also assumes, by extension, that markets are efficient and firms are rational profit-maximizing organizations. Behavioral finance counters each of these assumptions.
By understanding how and when people deviate from rational expectations, behavioral finance provides a blueprint to help us make better, more rational decisions when it comes to financial matters.
Investors are found to systematically hold on to losing investments far too long than rational expectations would predict, and they also sell winners too early. This is known as the disposition effect, and is an extension of the concept of loss aversion to the domain of investing. Rather than locking in a paper loss, investors holding lose positions may even double down and take on greater risk in hopes of breaking even.
Behavioral finance is an area of economics that fuses with psychology. It ascribes the often irrational behavior of individuals when faced with financial choices to a variety of biases and heuristics. Often, individuals are unaware of the underlying biases at work that can underlie bad decision-making. A study of this area of finance is essential to anyone who wants to master the art of trading and investing.
Post doctoral.
The International Center for Finance is a leading center for research in behavioral science – specifically, research in the fields of behavioral decision-making, behavioral economics, and behavioral finance. Behavioral decision-making studies the basic psychology of decision-making, while behavioral economics and behavioral finance study the role of irrational thinking in economic and financial decision-making, respectively. Yale’s research efforts in these fields have been helped immeasurably by the generous support of the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation (formerly Whitebox Advisors).
The Yale Summer School in Behavioral Finance, which has been led since its inception in 2009 by Nicholas Barberis with support from the ICF’s outstanding staff members, is a one-week intensive course in behavioral finance for PhD students.
Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation Student Fellows (formerly Whitebox Advisors student fellows) are selected by a committee of Yale faculty and receive funding to help with their research.
Behavioral research projects funded with the generous support of the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation (formerly Whitebox Advisors) that have been published either in journals or as working papers.
Since 2005, the annual Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation Graduate Student Conference (formerly the Whitebox Advisors Graduate Student Conference) , held in conjunction with the Behavioral Science Conference, draws top doctoral students from around the world to present their research in the fields of behavioral economics, behavioral finance and behavioral marketing. The goal of the conference is to foster an environment to promote interaction amongst doctoral student researchers, and to provide feedback for students presenting their work in these fields.
Jeremy Stein’s research has covered such topics as behavioral finance and stock-market efficiency, corporate investment and financing decisions, risk management, capital allocation inside firms, banking, financial regulation, and monetary policy. He was previously a co-editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal of Economic Perspectives , and has served on the editorial boards of several other economics and finance journals. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2008, he was president of the American Finance Association. He has served in the Obama Administration as a senior advisor to the Treasury Secretary and on the staff of the National Economic Council.... Read more about Jeremy Stein
Research programs are the backbone of the NBER. Each of the 19 programs corresponds loosely to a traditional field of study within economics. Each NBER affiliate is associated with one or more programs. Programs are led by a Director or co-Directors, and host at least two meetings each year, including one at the NBER Summer Institute.
Working groups are less formal than programs. They do not have affiliated researchers. Their directors convene one or two meetings each year, bringing together both NBER affiliates and other researchers who are working on particular topic areas.
In addition to working papers , the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter , the NBER Digest , the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability , the Bulletin on Health , and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports , video lectures , and interviews .
🏆 best behavioral finance topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on behavioral finance, 💡 most interesting behavioral finance topics to write about.
IvyPanda. (2024, February 22). 55 Behavioral Finance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/behavioral-finance-essay-topics/
"55 Behavioral Finance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 22 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/behavioral-finance-essay-topics/.
IvyPanda . (2024) '55 Behavioral Finance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 22 February.
IvyPanda . 2024. "55 Behavioral Finance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." February 22, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/behavioral-finance-essay-topics/.
1. IvyPanda . "55 Behavioral Finance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." February 22, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/behavioral-finance-essay-topics/.
Bibliography
IvyPanda . "55 Behavioral Finance Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." February 22, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/behavioral-finance-essay-topics/.
Experience our close community with a campus tour, connect with admissions counselors or apply now.
Creighton is within your reach. Explore financial aid options, calculate your costs and discover scholarships.
Explore our vibrant campus life with diverse student activities, supportive resources and a strong sense of community.
Learn about Creighton’s rich history, commitment to Jesuit, Catholic values, and dedication to academic excellence.
Behavioral finance is the study of the psychological factors, emotions and subconscious beliefs of investors and how they can affect decision-making.
"Behavioral finance is the application of cognitive psychology to finance,” says Bradley Klontz, PsyD, CFP®, associate professor of practice in the Department of Economics and Finance at Creighton University. “Cognitive psychology examines how people acquire, process and store information, and it explores ways in which that affects emotions and behavior.”
Advisors now find themselves managing client behavior, and this is at the heart of behavioral finance.
“The relationship between advisor and client has become the most important aspect of financial planning,” says Klontz. “It's not about products. It's not about the investment portfolios. It's now the relationship that the advisor establishes with the client and the role they're playing in their client's life.
“That role has now expanded beyond just selling products and managing portfolios."
Financial professionals use behavioral finance to help their clients identify and overcome certain psychological biases so they can make better financial decisions.
“If we understand what drives people to act irrationally in regard to their finances, experts can begin to build a framework to help people make better decisions—and that can help us better understand market behavior overall,” Klontz says.
“Understanding behavioral finance can help you better serve your clients,” he adds.
One of the key aspects that behavioral finance studies is the influence of psychological biases. Also known as cognitive biases, these are systematic errors in thinking that can sway our judgments and decision-making.
"All of these biases can be self-destructive in our current environment of modern finance,” Klontz says. “They can be explained by our prehistoric brain that was just trying to survive in a hunter-gatherer environment.
“It's only in recent times that we've even dealt with an abstract thing called money or investing. When we become emotionally charged, we become rationally challenged, and these biases kick in. We make these decisions from our emotional brain—which worked great in terms of our survival as a species—but it may not be as beneficial to us in our modern financial lives."
Loss aversion is our natural tendency to avoid experiencing a real or perceived loss. This, in turn, affects how we make decisions relating to our finances.
"For example, with stocks, we have a disposition to hold on to losing stocks and sell winning stocks, which is the absolute opposite of what you should be doing,” Klontz says. “And part of that is because of our aversion to loss. If I have an investment that has tanked, selling it would mean admitting defeat. I would have to sit with the idea that I made a mistake. If I don't want to have that experience, I may hold onto it, even though it may be in my best interest to sell."
Familiarity bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to prefer familiar options over unfamiliar ones, even when the unfamiliar options may be better.
“The more familiar we are with something, the more likely we are to make bad decisions about it,” says Klontz. “It's part of our inherent cognitive laziness, and it's also related to safety and survival.
“Say you're looking at two potential food sources: one you’ve eaten for years and years, and one you've never seen before. That new food source might actually be healthier for you, but it's probably a good idea not to try it because it might kill you. So we have this natural tendency to prefer what’s familiar."
Herd instinct (or herd mentality) refers to investors’ tendencies to follow what other investors are doing rather than their own research and analysis.
"If everyone in your tribe got up and started sprinting south, it's a good idea for you to get up and start sprinting south,” Klontz says. “The people who didn't do that got picked off by a saber-toothed tiger."
A similar concept applies here.
“When we see people around us jumping into or out of a particular investment or asset class, it goes against our nature to sit still or do the opposite,” Klontz says. “The herd instinct helps explain every investment bubble and crash we have had throughout history.”
Overconfidence bias is the tendency of investors to overestimate their knowledge and financial abilities. One of the key ways we see this bias play out is that, on average, women are better investors than men.
“And when we say better, we're talking as high as 1% annual return on average, which is huge,” Klontz says, referring to a pioneering study that examined gender and overconfidence.
“One of the reasons for this is that women may feel less confident in their ability to predict the right investments,” he says. “Men, in turn, tend to feel overconfident in their abilities, which causes them to trade more than women. By trading more, they hurt their performance.”
A study by Fidelity Investments confirms this. Based on an analysis of annual performance of 5.2 million accounts, the study found women investors tend to achieve positive returns and outperform men by 40 basis points.
The status quo bias is people’s preference for things to stay as they are by sticking with a decision made previously. “This is our desire to keep things the way they are,” Klontz says. “So even in situations in which we should take action, doing nothing is our natural default and can work against us.”
The Certified Financial Planner™ certification is considered the standard of excellence in financial planning. The CFP Board now lists “psychology of financial planning” as one of the eight principal knowledge domains covered in the CFP® certification exam. “The fact that the CFP Board identified the psychology of financial planning as a formal knowledge topic to become a Certified Financial Planner is indicative of how important behavioral finance has become,” Klontz says.
Regardless of whether you go on to earn the CFP® certification or not, a solid knowledge of behavioral finance is needed for the following roles, according to Klontz:
If you’re interested in behavioral finance and/or want to prepare to sit for the CFP® exam, earning an online Master's in Financial Planning and Financial Psychology may be a good idea. The Creighton University program is one of the few graduate business programs in the country with a heavy emphasis in financial psychology taught by leading experts in the field.
Ready to learn more? Request more information today —one of our Creighton University Student Success Managers will reach out.
I manage my money myself.
I consult or invest on behalf of a financial institution.
I want to learn more about BlackRock.
To reach a different BlackRock site directly, please update your user type .
Why discuss.
Be the voice of reason
Help clients remember their long-term goals in the face of emotional market disruptions.
Acquire new clients
Invite prospective clients to your seminar and show them your value as an advisor and personal coach.
Boost client loyalty
Build trust with existing clients by offering sound advice in times of market upheaval.
Alleviate client anxiety.
While other advisors talk about standard deviation and risk tolerance, you can better explain risk-reward, answer “what if” questions, make panic-proof plans and identify investments to manage volatility.
360 EVALUATOR
Analyze client portfolios from different angles to uncover risk
SCENARIO TESTER
Anticipate portfolio risks in various market scenarios
INVESTMENT POLICY WORKSHEET
Create an investment roadmap to stay aligned in the long run
Market volatility can unnerve even the most experienced investors. Lower volatility investments and can help manage volatility, making it easier for investors to stay the course during market turmoil.
Use our chart to ensure that your clients recognize the importance of portfolio diversification and help them overcome ‘S&P Envy’ when comparing their portfolio to stock market returns.
Share our chart with clients to explain why limiting portfolio losses during a downturn can have a bigger overall impact across market cycles than capturing returns in a bull market.
Historically, the stock market’s worst days have clustered together, followed by a rebound in returns. Encourage clients to stay invested during volatility using our chart.
Investing based on emotions can lead investors to buy high and sell low. Use our chart to help clients overcome their desire to make investment decisions based on emotions rather than convictions.
EARN TOMORROW’S CLIENTS
Embrace client demographic changes to grow your business
BLACKROCK BUSINESS CONSULTING
Grow your business while making the most of your time with your clients
ADDITIONAL CLIENT PROGRAMS
BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit our Corporate Website | Twitter | LinkedIn
Carefully consider the Funds' investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Funds' prospectuses or, if available, the summary prospectuses which may be obtained visiting the iShares ETF and BlackRock Mutual Fund prospectus pages. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Investing involves risks including possible loss of principal.
The tools are provided on an "as-is" basis. BlackRock expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, statutory or otherwise with respect to the tool (and any results obtained from its use) including, without limitation, all warranties or merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or use, accuracy, completeness, originality and/or non-infringement. In no event shall BlackRock have any liability for any claims, damages, obligations, liabilities or losses relating to the tool including, without limitation, any liability for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, punitive and/or consequential damages (including loss of profits or principal). The use of the tools is subject to the BlackRock Terms of Use .
The data collected through the tools is treated pursuant to BlackRock’s Data Promise .
IMPORTANT: The projections or other information generated by the tools regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Results may vary with each use and over time.
Transactions in shares of ETFs may result in brokerage commissions and will generate tax consequences. All regulated investment companies are obliged to distribute portfolio gains to shareholders.
This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and nonproprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader.
Prepared by BlackRock Investments, LLC, member FINRA.
© 2024 BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. BLACKROCK is a trademark of BlackRock, Inc., or its affiliates. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
USRRMH0724U/S-3703725
IMAGES
COMMENTS
Much of the financial literature focuses on the decisions of auditors and managers and the behavior of investors in negotiation decisions, leading to the publication of a large number of experimental studies in the 1960s and 1970s (Libby et al., 2002).Moreover, the instruments of the experimental method—the ability to observe directly, control, and manipulate variables—are adequate for the ...
Behavioral finance replaces the traditional and idealized idea of rational decision makers with real and imperfect people who have social, cognitive, and emotional biases. The resulting inefficiencies in the capital markets can create opportunities for investment managers and firms. Closed for comment; 0 Comments. 1.
1. Introduction. Behavioral economics and finance have emerged as research areas that have revolutionized economic and finance theories. Since the first studies of the discipline [1, 2] these areas have experienced a steady increase in research interest.During the XXI century, the Academy has validated the importance of this behavioral approach by awarding several Nobel prizes in economic ...
Growing research on behavioral finance themes, underdeveloped research in behavioral accounting, future research directions proposed: VOS viewer: Scopus: 1973-2019: ... The top research topics in this cluster are psychologically volatility, asset bubble, and anomalies market. The most cited work in this cluster is by s (2015), which warned of ...
Published online: 16 Aug 2024. Gaoshan Wang et al. Published online: 16 Aug 2024. Lucy F. Ackert et al. Published online: 4 Aug 2024. View all latest articles. Explore the current issue of Journal of Behavioral Finance, Volume 25, Issue 3, 2024.
Explore the latest full-text research PDFs, articles, conference papers, preprints and more on BEHAVIORAL FINANCE. Find methods information, sources, references or conduct a literature review on ...
Peer Review Policy: All research articles in Journal of Behavioral Finance have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymous refereeing by two anonymous referees. Publication office: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 530 Walnut Street, Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Read full aims and scope.
Behavioral finance deals with the study of influence of psychology on the behavior of financial practitioners and its subsequent effects on markets. Behavioral finance offers explanation for why and how markets are inefficient. Through a series of experiments, Kahneman and Tversky (1979) developed the prospect theory. Their research indicate ...
Abstract. This article aims to elaborate a systematic literature review (SLR) on the subject of experiments in behavioral finance, including papers published between 2014 and 2018. Methodology involved the careful selection of articles published in Web of Science and Scopus databases, and bibliometric analysis was applied.
Review of Behavioral Finance (RBF) welcomes high-quality empirical, experimental and theoretical research articles from the finance field as well as finance applications from psychology, sociology and decision sciences disciplines and is open to a wide spectrum of methodologies including those from finance, market accounting, economics ...
By: Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson, Jeremy C. Stein & Adi Sunderam. AUG 2017. In this forthcoming brookings paper, researchers from Harvard Business School and the Behavioral Finance and Financial Stability initiative assess the merits of bank regulation since the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Behavioral finance is a field of finance that proposes psychology-based theories to explain stock market anomalies such as severe rises or falls in stock price. Within behavioral finance , it is ...
Purpose — This paper aims to analyze current research trends, identify theoretical perspectives, and identify research topics of behavioral bias in financial decision-making in the future.
Behavioral finance offers a comprehensive perspective on financial decision-making by acknowledging the intricate interplay between psychology and economics. By understanding the cognitive biases, emotional influences, and heuristics that shape our choices, individuals can strive for more rational financial decision-making. ...
The Behavioral and Financial Stability Project, founded at Harvard Business School, supports research collaborations between faculty and students across Harvard University to understand, predict and prevent financial instability. The BFFS project also maintains an ongoing real-time database of financial stability and investor sentiment measures ...
1. Introduction. The traditional finance theory assumes that investors always make rational decisions based on complete information, but behavioral finance argues that investors are influenced by their emotions, biases, and cognitive limitations (Almansour & Arabyat, Citation 2017).The debate between modern finance theory and behavioral finance theory on the influence of non-financial factors ...
Malcolm Baker is the Robert G. Kirby Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He was the Unit Head for finance from 2014 to 2018, and the program director for corporate finance at the National Bureau of Economic Research from 2011 to 2018. His research is in the areas of behavioral finance, corporate finance, and ...
Behavioural finance studies these biases and their implications on the decision-making process of investors. Being a relatively new area of knowledge, the challenges it poses to traditional ...
Behavioral decision-making studies the basic psychology of decision-making, while behavioral economics and behavioral finance study the role of irrational thinking in economic and financial decision-making, respectively. Yale's research efforts in these fields have been helped immeasurably by the generous support of the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf ...
Moise Y. Safra Professor of Economics. Jeremy Stein's research has covered such topics as behavioral finance and stock-market efficiency, corporate investment and financing decisions, risk management, capital allocation inside firms, banking, financial regulation, and monetary policy. He was previously a co-editor of the Quarterly Journal of ...
Behavioral Finance. The Behavioral Finance Working Group studies financial markets using approaches grounded in psychological research, with applications in asset pricing, corporate finance, and household finance. The latest working group meeting.
Researching of Behavioral Economics. Behavioral economics is an analysis methodology that explores the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural, and social factors on the decisions of individuals and institutions. Cost Containment Concept in Behavioral Economics.
Behavioral finance is the study of the psychological biases, emotions and subconscious beliefs of investors and how they can affect decision-making. ... refers to investors' tendencies to follow what other investors are doing rather than their own research and analysis. ... "The fact that the CFP Board identified the psychology of financial ...
Explore more behavioral finance resources. Find all program resources Find all program resources. ... This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed may ...
The goal of the course is to identify open questions at the research frontier and to develop new research ideas. Outcome 1: Identify key concepts in public finance and behavioral economics recalling the main theories, models, and empirical findings discussed in class and readings.
Sustainable Finance and Behavioral Finance I am interested in hiring 1-2 RAs for empirical research projects in behavioral finance and sustainable finance / ESG investing. For an idea of the type of research that might be conducted, please see ...
Summary. New research in behavioral science has revealed that cynical thinking stands in the way of success in the workplace. Cynics, it turns out, earn less money, report lower job satisfaction ...
Gender-specific play behavior in relation to autistic traits and behavioral difficulties at the age of seven in the SELMA study. PLOS ONE , 2024; 19 (8): e0308605 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308605
Topics. Airlines. Autos. C-Suite. Deals. Earnings. Energy & Oil. ... The $13 billion that Elon Musk borrowed to buy Twitter has turned into the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008 ...
B.T Matemilola. Universiti Putra Malaysia. I have come across some recent topics in behavioral finance such as: Psychological biases in financial investment behaviour; Applying behavioral finance ...