Tobin Hanspal has received the "Sturm & Drang Award" in 2018. On 7 December, the economist who works as an assistant professor at the Research Center SAFE, was awarded the prize for the best publication by a young researcher at the Dies Academicus of the Department of Economics and Business Administration at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
The jury chose the paper “Once Bitten, Twice Shy: The Power of Personal Experiences in Risk Taking,” which is forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics. The paper is coauthored by Steffen Andersen (Copenhagen Business School and Centre for Economic Policy Research, CEPR) and Kasper Meisner Nielsen (Copenhagen Business School and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology).
In the paper, the authors study the impact of negative financial experiences of individuals in the past on their current risk-taking. Using data from individuals who have inherited a portfolio of risky assets, the economists show that people with negative personal experiences not only shun the risk of investing in new assets, but also actively sell risky assets in their portfolios. A summary of the paper was published in SAFE Newsletter Q2/2018.
Tobin Hanspal has been working for the Research Center SAFE since November 2016. His research interests are particularly in the area of household finance, behavioral economics and finance, and entrepreneurship. Hanspal received his Ph.D. from Copenhagen Business School.
The "Sturm & Drang Prize" has been awarded annually since 2012 for the best publication by a young researcher of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Goethe University. It is endowed with 1,500 Euro. The award ceremony is traditionally held at the Dies Academicus of the faculty.
