Cronqvist and Barnea Interview
with PBS's Nightly Business Report

CMC Professors Henrik Cronqvist and Amir Barnea recently sat down on campus with Joe Jabaly of PBS's Nightly Business Report for an ongoing feature called "Your Mind and Your Money". They discussed the findings of a recent study conducted by Cronqvist, Barnea, and their colleague Stephan Siegel at the University of Washington, which suggests that investment behavior is much more disposed to genetic identity than previously believed.
"Your Mind and Your Money" focuses on the developing field of behavioral finance. NBR has interviewed experts across the country on topics ranging from risk aversion to herd mentality to provide investors with information about their own biases in order to make more rational investment decisions. The segment airs on select Mondays throughout the year.
Cronqvist and Barnea's study focuses on the investment behaviors of fraternal and identical twins. They observed that identical twins shared much more similar investment behaviors than the fraternal twins and determined through statistical analysis that close to one third of the variance in stock market participation can be chalked up to genetic predisposition.
Collum and crew transformed Parents Library at the Athenaeum from quiet reading spot to fully-fledged PBS studio in a matter of minutes. Several bright lights and some makeup application later, Cronqvist and Barnea were sitting in the hot seats answering questions about genetic predisposition and their study. Reed Hogan 11 got in on the action as well when he volunteered to be in a few shots at an office in Bauer Center.
The interview is now available online and can be seen here. --- Carlton Rueb 11