Behavioral Finance from 2001 to 2012: Concepts, Themes and Academic Production

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science

Vol. 3 No. 19; November 2013

Behavioral Finance from 2001 to 2012: Concepts, Themes and Academic Production

Andre Nardy Student on the Postgraduate Program in Administration Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo Rua Monte Alegre, 984, Perdizes, CEP: 05014-901, São Paulo - SP, Brazil. Rubens Famá Professor Doctor of the Postgraduate Program in Administration Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo Rua Monte Alegre, 984, Perdizes - São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Abstract

We discuss the role of Behavioral Finance in the context of Finance, presenting a dual approach: the use of concepts from psychology to the understanding of financial decisions, markets and asset pricing; and as a process of building a new paradigm. A conceptual definition for Behavioral Finance is set to define scope and conduct this research. A sample of scientific papers from 2001 to 2012 is evaluated, divided in two equal time periods, also compared by country and academic production. Effects of Preferences, and the study of effects in beliefs in financial decisions, and in portfolio selection, are dominant in the studies. Non-US research spreads, especially in China and EU, but US is still dominant in the role of providing academic texts. A research agenda is presented on developing studies on cross cultural aspects of biases, corporate finance and on the role of education in behavioral aspects of financial decisions.

Keywords: Behavioral Finance, Bibliometric Study, Beliefs, Financial Theory, Process, Decisions 1. Foreword

Theory in Finance has experienced for the last thirty at least years the questioning of the dominant paradigm of Modern Finance (MF), especially by Behavioral Finance (Kahnemann and Tversky, 1979). MF is based on a series of assumptions and hypothesis: the notion of rationality of economic agents and their homogeneous expectations; the possibility of obtaining the fundamental value of an asset (pricing);...