Leigos e especialistas
: um estudo experimental sobre diferenças comportamentais

  • Diogo Correia Mendes (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

The primary motivation for the completion of this thesis is firstly due by the curiousity to figure out what in fact Behavioral Economics are, the reason for their existence and what challenges do they try to tackle; secondly, the chance to dealin my professional area with Experienced Investors in financial markets that reveal, even on the same day, very different behaviors. As a result of the socio-economic context of the crisis that still persists in Portugal, the challenge that I set out to was not only to observe whether investors are more rational, but also if they decide better than Lay people in financial markets, especially when on the verge of facing behavioural biases. The method used for solving this challenge was achieved via a questionnaire made to investors that have their own portfolios of securities or individuals with experience in financial markets. The findings, in some way, have answered to the questions that had been raised and show that experience does not turn people more inhuman or, devoid of emotions (especially when money is involved). The most significant discovery of this research was that when a problem is described in a more violent and aggressive way, people become more sensitive to solve it. This could be a chance to explore by nonprofitable organisations, in order to raise more funds. The conclusions from this research go from the fact that the participants were not affected by random anchors, made more efforts to protect themselves from losses than risking to obtain larger gains, and donate more money to a group of children than to a properly iddentified child. The limitations of this research had to do mainly with difficulties in finding more people that would fulfill the necessary requirements of financial expertise and the lack of structure to formulate questions involving real money.
Date of Award12 Jul 2016
Original languagePortuguese
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorCarlos Eduardo Evangelista Mauro (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Behavioural economics
  • Anchoring
  • Identifiable victim effect
  • Prospect theory
  • Decision
  • Experience

Designation

  • Mestrado em Finanças

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