Pedagogical Lecture on Who Are I: Intrapersonal Conflicts and Self Control

  Pedagogical Lecture on Who Are I: Intrapersonal Conflicts and Self Control Prof Zhou Xunyu , Columbia University, United States Date: 10 Jan 2018 Time: 10.30am – 12.00pm Venue: I³ Building, 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace. Executive Seminar Room, Level 4

About the Speaker

Xunyu Zhou is the Liu Family Professor of Financial Engineering at Columbia University in New York. His current research focuses on quantitative behavioral finance models that incorporate human emotions and psychology into financial decision makings, and on general time-inconsistent problems. He is known for his work in indefinite stochastic LQ control theory and application to dynamic mean-variance portfolio selection, and in asset allocation and pricing under behavioral preferences.

Abstract

The title of this talk contains a grammatical error, which is intentional. It highlights the notion that an individual is most likely “dividual”: there exist different selves at different points in time who may not act consistently among themselves. This leads to time-inconsistent control and self control problems. In this talk I will present several classes of time-inconsistent problems together with their economic motivations, highlight the ways to address the time inconsistency, and provide solutions to some of the problems.