Robert Samuelson writes for The Washington Post about research by Professor Antoinette Schoar that indicates that risky loans were not the primary reason for the 2008 housing bubble. The crisis “was caused, at least in part, by a larger delusion that was the bubble’s root source,” writes Samuelson of the research.
Financial Times reporter John Authers highlights Prof. Andrew Lo’s work examining how human aversion to risk impacts financial decisions. Lo’s research provides evidence that “investors in markets will take risk-averse actions rather than the purely rational decisions that economists have classically assumed."
Wall Street Journal reporter Chris Gay profiles several books examining the financial crisis, highlighting Prof. Simon Johnson’s book “13 Bankers.” In the book Johnson and his co-author, “trace two centuries of government attempts to grapple with the power of big finance,” Gay writes.
Forbes reporter Susan Adams examines a new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Evan Apfelbaum that looks at how diversity impacts the performance of stock traders. The researchers compared groups of ethnically homogenous and diverse traders and found that “traders in the diverse group did a 58% better job at correctly pricing assets.”
Richard Eisenberg of Forbes writes about a symposium hosted by the MIT AgeLab, which explored the impact of Alzheimer’s and dementia on financial planning. The symposium “brought together a broad spectrum of experts ranging from Alzheimer’s Association execs to neurology professors to financial advisers to people who have early onset Alzheimer’s or are married to them,” writes Eisenberg.
Dr. Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT Age Lab, collaborated on a study that indicates that grandchildren are likely to take financial advice from their grandparents, writes Kimberly Palmer of U.S. News & World Report. “Grandparents can tell stories and explain how they were able to muddle through or succeed,” says Coughlin.
Lisa Kiplinger writes for USA Today about research from Dr. Joseph Coughlin, director of the the MIT AgeLab, that indicates that 85 percent of Millennials are open to having conversations about finances with their grandparents, but only 8 percent of grandparents are likely to initiate the conversation.
Wall Street Journal reporter Ed Silverman interviews Professor Andrew Lo about his proposal that a public-private partnership could solve funding issues for drugs research and development. “Right now, the risk of failure [in developing an Alzheimer’s treatment] is far too high for any single pharmaceutical company to take on,” Lo explains.
“Based on the current rates of success in creating new drugs for Alzheimer's disease, it could take 260 years until the next one is approved,” writes The Boston Globe’s Carolyn Johnson on the rationale for why Professor Andrew Lo is proposing a new, portfolio-based approach to Alzheimer's research.
NPR’s Jim Zarroli reports on new MIT research that explores how tax evasion techniques like round-tripping can hurt the U.S. economy.