Finanças comportamentais no Brasil: uma aplicação da teoria da perspectiva em potenciais investidores

Abstract

The premise of unbounded rationality advocated by the Efficient Market Hypothesis is challenged by the theoretical framework that involves the Behavioral Finance, whose basis, the Prospect Theory by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), questions the Expected Utility Theory, an important element of Neoclassical Economics as basis for decision making. This research aims to replicate the empirical investigation of the seminal article by Kahneman and Tversky (1979) to evaluate the decision-making process of employees (potential investors) of a major national financial institution. The results of this study were compared to those obtained in the original article and the studies led by Côrtes (2008), Cruz, Kimura and Krauter (2003), Rogers et al. (2007), Rogers, Favato and Securato (2008), and Torralvo (2010). The questionnaire adopted was an adaptation of the originally used, so that one could test, in studied sample, the applicability of Prospect Theory, more specifically with regard to Certain, Reflection and Isolation Effects. I also analyzed the differences in the decision making process considering the attributes of the respondents (gender, age, education, occupation, income and financial dependents). The results confirmed the existence of behavioral effects and proved that a large portion of the sample presented significant inconsistency in their choices according to the principles of the Expected Utility Theory, pointing that their decisions were not made under strictly rational behavior. Furthermore, in relation to violations observed, it was not possible to present significant conclusions in concern to the attributes by using regression analysis, suggesting the need of further studies