This course examines how behavior and digitalization plays a central role in individual (and household) financial decision-making. The course is a ‘hands on’ empirical study of real transactional data from a bank/brokerage with real investors and bank clients. Throughout the course students will work on an empirical project in groups about a key issue in retail/household finance.

Students will get hands on experience of analyzing recent real data. We will focus on:

Exploratory data analysis and data visualization
Understanding trends in consumer behavior
Understanding topics in bank/brokerage profitability
Identifying strategies to improve bank product offering, profitability, and/or consumer outcomes

Attendance is required and points can be earned from active participation.

This course consists of a mix of regular lectures, discussions and group work on the empirical project.

For the empirical research project/presentation, students will be allowed to work in small groups of maximum of 4 students per group. Students will analyze the provided dataset and present a final presentation on the problem, the methods, the findings, and the implications for retail banking.

The specific topics will be provided by the professor (and of course can be altered based on group feedback).  Some examples may included the following:

Topics:

1)    Do investors trade with momentum when adding positions to their portfolio? What about when adding to existing positions?

2)    Investors are home-biased: How can they gain exposure to international equity markets?

3)    Do ETFs improve portfolio performance? Why or why not?

4)    What do average investors pay in fees, and when do they pay them? How can brokerages benefit? How can investors do better?

5)    Do some groups of investors take enough risk? Do some take too much?

6)    When do investors trade? How can we improve investor outcomes, and how can brokerages profit from this?

• Participation in the in-person sessions
• Evaluation of team outcomes between sessions
• Quality of the project outcome and the individual contribution to that outcome
• Written paper and presentation

• Successful completion of both courses in the subject area Orientation: Finance and Accounting
• Successful completion of at least eight courses in the subject area Foundations of Finance, Accounting, and Taxation
• Prior allocation to the project seminar

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