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JanFeb2014

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headlines Nobel Prize Recognizes Three Professors been honored with the 2013 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences for their empirical analysis of asset prices: Eugene F. Fama, the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Illinois; Lars Peter Hansen, David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor in the department of economics at the University of Chicago; and Robert J. Shiller, the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. According to the official press release, their work shows that the behavior of stocks and bonds can be predicted for medium-term periods of time, such as three to five years, enabling investors to make more informed decisions. Beginning in the 1960s, Fama and collaborators showed that stock prices are almost impossible to forecast for the short run and that new information is quickly incorporated into prices. These findings helped lead to index funds in stock markets worldwide. In the 1980s, Shiller found that prices for stocks, bonds, and other assets fluctuate more than corporate dividends; his research also indicated that investors can be irrational, leading to market bubbles. Hansen developed statistical methods for testing how rational investors react to uncertainty in asset pricing. According to the official release, together these three Laureates "have laid the foundation for the current understanding of asset prices. [That understanding] relies in part on fluctuations in risk and risk attitudes, and in part on behavioral biases and market frictions." In response to the naming of the 2013 Nobel Laureates in all categories, publisher Elsevier has created a Nobel Prize tribute website at www.elsevier.com/ nobel. The site provides an overview of the Laureates' research as well as free access to some of their papers that have been published in Elsevier journals. Shiller also authored "Teaching Finance as a Force for Good," a Your Turn column that appeared in the January/February 2013 issue of BizEd. Scholarships for Entrepreneurs SCHOOLS OFFER A variety of scholarships to their students, but there's a highly distinctive one at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. In February, MBA students who also are developing startup ventures will be able to compete for two scholarships awarded to the winners of a shark-tank style pitch competition. Each scholarship is worth more than US$174,000 in tuition and startup services. The scholarships are made possible by Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs (TVL); this is the second year TVL has funded the program. The first scholarship was awarded to Courtney Leffall for his idea Grillmobile, a bracket that allows truck owners to mount barbecue grills to the beds of their pickups. More information can be found at www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/ Texas-Venture-Labs/For-Students/TVL-Scholarship. 10 January/February 2014 BizEd R ETROROCKET/G ETTY I MAG ES; FE DE R ICO CAPUTO/TH I N KSTOCK THREE PROFESSORS HAVE

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