Expectations: From neuroscience to household finance and macroeconomics

Camelia Kuhnen @ U North Carolina

Summary:
Prof. Kuhnen will talk about her work in household finance, focused on understanding how people form beliefs about the state of the economy. This work builds on insights from neuroscience regarding the effects of experiencing adversity on how the brain processes information about gains and losses. Prof. Kuhnen will present evidence -- based on lab experiments as well as large surveys -- indicating that people’s socio-economic status shapes the way they perceive opportunities, form expectations about the macroeconomy, and make decisions regarding spending, investing, or borrowing decisions.

Bio: 

Camelia Kuhnen is Professor of Finance and Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She serves as Department Editor at Management Science, and Editor at the Review of Corporate Finance Studies. Prof. Kuhnen is a past President of the Society for Neuroeconomics, the President-Elect of the Society for Experimental Finance, and an elected director of the American Finance Association. Prof. Kuhnen has B.S. degrees in Neuroscience and in Finance from MIT (2001), and a Ph.D. in Finance from Stanford University (2006). Prior to joining UNC-Chapel Hill, she was a professor at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on household finance, neuroeconomics, and labor and finance.