Lecture by Professor Andrei Simonov "The Bright Side of Investor Attention"

On January 29, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, a joint lecture organized by the Career Center and the MiF Program will take place on the NES campus (+ online).
Professor Andrei Simonov will host a meeting focused on “The Bright Side of Investor Attention.”

Please note that the event will not be recorded.

Program:
7:00–8:30 PM — Lecture
8:30–9:00 PM — Q&A session

About the lecture
We argue that large exogenously driven market shocks have significant allocational effects, as they increase the attention of long-term-oriented investors. The increased attention of these investors, traditionally on the sidelines, increases the discipline of the asset managers who manage their money. Focusing on Target Date Funds (TDFs) and leveraging the COVID-19 crisis, we document that broad market shocks increase attention among TDFs’ retail investors with longer investment horizons. Asset managers respond by improving fund performance and enhancing portfolio risk management, as reflected in reduced favoritism in selecting affiliated underperforming and expensive funds.

About the speaker
Andrei Simonov is the Frederick S. Addy Distinguished Chair in Finance and Chair of the Finance Department at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, and a CEPR Research Fellow in Financial Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from INSEAD (2000) and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Moscow State University (1991). Before joining MSU in 2008, he was on the faculty at the Stockholm School of Economics (2000–2008). He founded and led the Research Center for Empirical Finance at the Gaidar Institute (2011–2021) and has served as Academic Director of the Financial Markets Institute since 2016.

His research focuses on asset pricing, individual portfolio decisions, and behavioral finance, with publications in top journals such as the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Finance, and Management Science. His work has been featured in major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and The Guardian. He serves on multiple editorial boards, including Management Science and the Journal of Empirical Finance, and has received numerous awards, including the BlackRock Prize for Best Paper in Asset Management (2022) and the Management Science Distinguished Service Award (2019).