Welcome

I am a Scientia Associate Professor in Finance at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Business School. I study how individuals apprehend financial risks, by investigating both actual behavior and its neural bases.

I use the knowledge and methodological tools from several disciplines which include experimental finance, experimental economics, financial economics, neuroscience, and psychology, to better understand why market participants behave the way they do. I do research and teaching in this area.

I am currently collaborating with researchers in computer science, economics, finance, neuroscience, and psychology.

I have been teaching the “Behavioural Finance” course at UNSW Business School since March 2011. In September 2021, I have been awarded Highly Commended for the John Prescott Award for Outstanding Teaching Innovation.

I completed the first part of my PhD in finance at the London School of Economics and then transferred to the Swiss Finance Institute at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne to pursue my research. I graduated in 2009. Prior to my PhD, I studied economics at Princeton University, and was Visiting Associate at Caltech from 2010 to 2014. I also hold a diploma of engineer statistician from the ENSAE, Paris, and graduated from the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm in Paris. 

My research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals including the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Financial Analysts Journal, Nature — Scientific Reports, Neuron, and Current Biology.

I have done consulting work for financial institutions and served as an expert witness in legal cases. This included writing expert reports, joint reports and being cross-examined in the courtroom, including the Federal Court of Australia. I enjoy my work with the legal sector and I highly welcome inquiries in that regard. Full references provided.

Please see my CV for more information.

Research Areas

Behavioral Finance, Neurofinance, Experimental Economics / Finance

Opportunities for students

If you are a student and are interested in writing your thesis in the area of experimental/behavioral finance, please feel free to get in touch with me by sending an email to elise@unsw.edu.au.

If you are a UNSW student and would like to participate in research studies and earn some extra spending money, follow the instructions on the UNSW Business School Experimental Research Laboratory website.