PhD Defense R.M. Barahona

This dissertation is a collection of three independent research articles that investigate how investor behavior shapes financial markets as well as obtaining a better understanding of that behavior. The dissertation has three main findings. First risk predictability is an important driver of assets prices, the higher the predictability of a given risk, the higher the degree to which it’s reflected in asset prices. Second, higher investor protection standards can protect retail investors from making costly decisions. Finally, organizing professional money managers in teams can reduce the extent to which they let their behavioral biases guide poor investment decisions.

Ricardo Barahona (Lisbon, Portugal, 1989) obtained his Bachelor degree in Economics in 2010 and his Master’s degree in Finance in 2012 from Nova School of Business and Economics. Two years later, he started the Research Master program in Finance at the CentER Graduate School of Tilburg University. After graduating in 2015, he joined the Department of Finance as a PhD candidate where he was supervised by prof. dr. Joost Driessen and dr. Rik Frehen. He spent the last 2 years at the Finance Department of Erasmus School of Economics as a Post-Doctoral

Researcher and will be joining the Bank of Spain as a Research Economist.

• Location: Cobbenhagen building, Portraits room
• Supervisor: Prof. J.J.A.G. Driessen
• Co-supervisor: Dr. R.G.P. Frehen