Prof. Thorsten Hens
SFI Faculty Member, Professor of Financial Economics, University of Zurich
Thorsten Hens is Professor of Financial Economics at the University of Zurich. Professor Hens is co-founder of the UNISG–UZH spin-off Behavioral Finance Solutions, which provides financial firms with decision-making tools based on behavioral finance principles.
Expertise
Professor Hens works on giving the financial advice offered to private clients a more stable foundation than simply referring to the risk and return characteristics of assets, which are volatile both ex post and ex ante. He has found a stable link between the personality dimensions of the big five personality models from psychology and how private clients invest. Since personality characteristics are more stable than asset characteristics, advice based on the former is more consistent over time. These results have concrete and practical implications for risk profiling, ESG profiling, and investment styles, all key elements in private banking.
Expertise Fields
- Financial Markets
- Information and Market Efficiency
- Portfolio Management and Asset Classes
- Asset Pricing
- Behavioral Finance and Neurofinance
- Equities
- Personal Finance and Household Choices
- Portfolio Management
- Financial Institutions
- Banks
- Independent Asset Managers
- Institutional Investors and Funds
- Insurance Companies
- Pension Funds
- Frontier Topics
- Big Data and Fintech
- Operations Research and Decision Theory
- Sustainable Finance