PhD defence: Tobin Hanspal

In order to obtain the PhD degree, Tobin Hanspal submitted his thesis entitled: Essays in Household Finance

Fredag, 10 februar, 2017 - 13:00 to 15:00

This Ph.D. thesis analyzes the implications of personal experiences in financial markets (Chapter 1), financing disruptions (Chapter 2), and investment biases (Chapter 3) on households, individual investors, and small business owners. Chapter one shows that experiences gained personally, aside from portfolio inertia or common shocks, explain substantial heterogeneity in individuals’ risk taking.  In chapter two, I study how idiosyncratic financing shocks experienced directly by entrepreneurs affect the survival of their firms. I find that changes in personal wealth strongly reduce survival rates, especially for more constrained entrepreneurs. The results of this chapter suggest that personal financing is an important component of firm financing. In the final chapter, I study the Disposition Effect using a unique research design combining experimentally elicited preferences and expectations with observed patterns of trading behavior. Experimental findings suggest that optimism and expectations may be important aspects of the Disposition Effect.

Primary Supervisor:
Professor Steffen Andersen
Department of Finance
Copenhagen Business School

Assessment Committee:
Professor Mirjam van Praag (Chair)
Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics
Copenhagen Business School

Associate professor Janet Bercovitz
College of Business
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Professor Peter Thompson
Georgia Tech University

Thesis:
The thesis is available here
 
Reception:
The Doctoral School of Economics and Management will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence in The Gallery, Porcelænshaven 26, 2000 Frederiksberg.
 

Sidst opdateret: Communications // 02/09/2020