Ulrike Malmendier 
Professor | Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES
Leading expert on behavioral science, behavioral finance, and corporate finance.
Spotlight
Areas of Expertise (7)
Behavioral Finance
Behavioral Economics
Corporate Finance
Law and Finance
Contract Theory
Economics of Organizations
Law and Economics
About
Ulrike Malmendier is the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance at Berkeley Haas and Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley. Her research interests include corporate finance, behavioral economics/behavioral finance; economics of organizations; contract theory; law and economics; law and finance. Her area of focus is the intersection of economics and finance, and why and how individuals make decision—specifically how individuals make mistakes and systematically biased decisions. Some of her work includes research on CEO overconfidence, the long-term frugality of Depression “babies” and the decision-making behind gym membership.
In 2013, Malmendier was awarded the prestigious Fisher Black Prize from the American Finance Association, given biennially to the top financial scholar under the age of 40. The award citation referred to Malmendier’s work in corporate finance; behavioral economics and finance; and contract theory and noted the originality and creativity of her research.
Malmendier has received fellowships and grants from numerous institutions in the U.S. and Europe and many honors, awards, and prizes, including the 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, as well as several Emerald Citations of Excellence by Emerald and Distinguished or Keynote Speaker engagements. In 2015 she was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, University of California at Berkeley’s most prestigious honor for teaching.
She received her PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University in 2002, and her PhD in Law (summa cum laude) from the University of Bonn in 2000. She joined Berkeley in 2006 as an Assistant Professor, after having been at Stanford as Assistant Professor of Finance since 2002. She is also a research associate at NBER—Corporate Finance and Labor Economics—and a faculty research fellow at IZA, a CESifo affiliate, and a CEPR research affiliate. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Max-Planck Institute in Bonn, a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Education (6)
Harvard University: PhD, Business Economics
Harvard University: AM, Business Economics
University of Bonn: PhD, Law
University of Bonn: MA, Economics
University of Bonn: BA equiv., Law
University of Bonn: BA, Economics
Links (7)
Honors & Awards (14)
Gustav Stolper Prize
Verein für Socialpolitik (German Economic Association) 2019
JFE Best Paper Prize
(Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations, 1st prize) 2017
Guggenheim Fellow
2017
Thomson Reuter Highly Cited Researcher
2016
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2016
Bessel Prize for Outstanding Research, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
2015
Thomson Reuter Highly Cited Researcher
2015
FMA Europe Best Paper award
“M&A Negotiations and Lawyer Expertise” 2015
Citation of Excellence by Emerald Management Reviews
(one of the 50 best articles published in management in 2014) for the paper “Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market’s reaction” 2015
Distinguished Teaching Award, University of California, Berkeley
2015
The Fischer Black Prize
Awarded biennially by the AFA to a leading finance scholar under 40 2013
“Rising Star in Finance” award, Fordham/NYU Rising Stars Conference
New York 2012
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow
2010 - 2012
Citation of Excellence by Emerald Management Reviews
2009
Selected External Service & Affiliations (11)
- Guest Associate Editor, Management Science, Special Issue on Behavioral Economics and Finance
- Associate Editor, Journal of the European Economic Association
- Associate Editor, Journal of Financial Intermediation
- Associate Editor, Economic Journal
- American Finance Association, Western Finance Association, Financial Management Association, European Finance Association, Financial Intermediation Research Society (FIRS) conference, Annual Conference in Corporate Finance
- Washington University
- Memberships: Econometric Society, American Economic Association, American Finance Association
- Referee Service: Academy of Management Review, American Economic Review, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, Econometrica, Economic Journal, Economic Letters, Experimental Economics, Financial Management, Games and Economic Behavior, German Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Journal of European Economic Association, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Labour Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Management Science, RAND Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Finance, Review of Financial Studies
- 2009-present: Telecom Council of Silicon Valley. Industry panels on IoT; SD-WAN; connected car; AI; unlicensed spectrum; national broadband plan; entertainment; wireless and government policy; 5G; small cells; and more
- 2014-present: Japan Society of Northern California. Opportunities in the On-Demand Economy; Sharing Economy in Japan; global venture capital; Silicon Valley’s return to Japan; venture capital; and more
- September 2014: CTIA – The Wireless Association, SuperMobility Conference.
Languages (2)
- German
- Italian
Positions Held (2)
At Haas since 2010
2012 – present, Professor of Finance, Haas School of Business 2012 – present, Professor of Economics, University of California Berkeley 2009 – present, Research Associate, Corporate Finance and Labor Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) 2007 – present, Research Affiliate, Financial Economics, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) 2006 – present, Research Affiliate, Labour Economics, CEPR 2006 – present, Affiliate, CESifo 2005 – present, Faculty Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) 2010 – 2012, Associate Professor of Finance (with tenure), Haas School of Business 2008 – 2012, Associate Professor of Economics (with tenure), University of California, Berkeley 2006 – 2009, Faculty Research Fellow, Corporate Finance, NBER 2006 – 2008, Assistant Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley 2004 – 2009, Faculty Research Fellow, Labor Economics, NBER 2002 – 2006, Assistant Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Visiting Positions
2005, Visiting Fellow, Department of Economics, Princeton University 2005, Visiting Assistant Professor of Finance, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago 2000, Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Institute "Law of Common Goods," Bonn (Germany) 1998, Visiting Scholar, Nuttfield College, Oxford University
Media Appearances (15)
Being a CEO is a deadly affair, new research finds
MarketWatch online
2021-03-19
Research co-authored by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier found that CEOs can die up to 1.5 years earlier, when their companies are at risk of being taken over. Looking at the births and deaths of more than 1,600 chief executives, it found that antitakeover laws increase the life expectancy by up to two years. On top of that, “industry distress shocks” are equivalent to increasing age by 1.5 years.
How Biases Influence CEOs Throughout Their Careers
World Economic Forum online
2021-03-01
CEOs often have a tailwind of strong performance that leads people to expect them to be more rational and objective than the masses. However, CEOs are equally vulnerable to bias, according to research co-authored by Ulrike Malmendier, The Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance.
2020: Things that changed in the tumultuous year may never go back to the way they were
FOX2 KTVU online
2020-12-17
The drastic economic downturn during the pandemic may have lasting effects on Americans in the years to come. "When you live through a financial trauma, you actually get rewired and that experience is triggered even after it's no longer applicable," Ulrike M. Malmendier, The Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, told Newsweek in an earlier interview.
Reinventing yourself or succumbing to the crisis
El País (Spanish) online
2020-12-06
The pandemic will have far-reaching effects on the labor market, impacting workers' future job choices, according to Ulrike Malmendier, The Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance.
Will Gen Z ever recover from the COVID-19 recession?
Al Jazeera online
2020-11-10
As the first members of Gen Z are hitting the employment market, research by Ulrike Malmendier, The Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, suggest that early formative experiences may have long-lasting effects on their future financial behavior.
"Assuming that everything will be the same after the pandemic is a mistake"
El País (Spanish) online
2020-11-03
Ulrike Malmendier, The Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, discusses how crises affect personal money habits and what that will mean for the economy after the pandemic. "My parents' generation, who saw World War II and thought that from any moment our house could be bombed, was a generation of great savers," she said.
Economist Malmendier explains how the "experience effect" will make Covid inhibit entrepreneurship and greatly promote savings
Expansión (Spanish) online
2020-10-29
In this interview, Ulrike Malmendier, The Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, explains how a crisis like a recession or a pandemic can make its mark on a generation, impacting financial decision-making for years to come.
The Money Men Could Save Us. But They’re Stuck in the Seventies.
The New York Times online
2020-10-16
"The Making of Hawks and Doves: Inflation Experiences on the Federal Open Market Committee," a research study by Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, Stefan Nagel, and Zhen Yan, tracks how the lived experiences of Fed officials with inflation decades ago has sustained a hawkish culture in American monetary policy in which inflation prevention has always overshadowed employment.
A new study shows that industry downturns age CEOs by an extra 1.5 years
Quartz online
2020-09-22
Research co-authored by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, shows that business leaders who lead companies during an industrywide downturn have a higher mortality risk, as downturns age them by an extra 1.5 years.
How the Pandemic Will Change the Way We Manage Money Forever
Newsweek online
2020-08-31
The pandemic-triggered economic crisis is expected to impact the way people manage money. "When you live through a financial trauma, you actually get rewired and that experience is triggered even after it's no longer applicable," says Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance. "If you live through a deep recession or a stock market drop, you act for several decades like you think it will happen again at any moment."
Psychological scars of downturns could depress growth for decades
The Economist online
2020-08-29
Research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier suggests that traumatic economic episodes can exert a drag on growth simply by altering people’s beliefs about the future. She found that periods of economic hardship and spells of unemployment tend to depress people’s consumption for some time, even after controlling for income and other variables. Consumers not only spend less but tend to opt for lower-quality or discounted items, and young people are especially affected.
Announcing the winners of the Economic Impact of Digital Technologies request for proposals
Facebook Research online
2020-08-24
Facebook received 189 proposals from 39 countries for its call for research on the economic impact of digital technology. Five were awarded, including a proposal by Prof. Paul Gertler, the Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics and faculty director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact and Prof. Ulrike Malmendier for a study on using digital sales and inventory technology to assess the creditworthiness of small- to medium-sized businesses. (Sean Higgins of Northwestern University will serve as principal investigator.)
Money Stuff: Now an App Can Pitch Mergers
Bloomberg online
2020-08-03
Chief executive officers at public companies are well paid, but the job can take its toll. That's the empirical finding of a new paper by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance. She used machine-learning age-estimation methods to detect visible signs of aging in CEOs' photos, concluding that exposure to a distress shock during the Great Recession increased CEOs' apparent age by roughly one year over the next decade.
Inflation Expectations Are Wrong, Which Is Good
Wall Street journal online
2020-07-14
On Tuesday the Labor Department reported the lowest year-over-year pace of core inflation since 2011, but consumer expectation of inflation is still high. This might be explained by recent research co-authored by Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, who shows that individual consumers who experience bigger price increases for the food they buy tend to have higher inflation expectations than those who experience smaller price increases.
Covid-19 scars may fade faster than we think
Financial Times online
2020-07-02
Humans have a great capacity for forgetting. But it's also true that crises leave a mark when it comes to financial behavior, according to research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, who found that recessions shape consumer behavior long after they have passed. She found that people who have experienced periods of high unemployment also save more and accumulate wealth.
Selected Papers & Publications (20)
Exposure to Grocery Prices and Inflation Expectations
Journal of Political EconomyUlrike Malmendier, F. D'Acunto, J. Ospina and M. Weber
Forthcoming
Behavioral Corporate Finance: Life Cycle of a CEO Career
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and FinanceUlrike Malmendier and M. Guenzel
2020
The Making of Hawks and Doves: Inflation Experiences on the FOMC
Journal of Monetary EconomicsUlrike Malmendier, S. Nagel and Z. Yan
2020
Investor Experiences and Financial Market Dynamics
Journal of Financial EconomicsUlrike Malmendier, D. Pouzo and V. Vanasco
2020
Investor Experiences and International Capital Flows
Journal of International EconomicsUlrike Malmendier, D. Pouzo and V. Vanasco
2020
Emotional Tagging and Belief Formation - The Long-Lasting Effects of Experiencing Communism
AEA Papers & ProceedingsUlrike Malmendier, C. Laundenbach and Niessen-Ruenzi
2019
Behavioral Corporate Finance
Handbook of Behavioral EconomicsUlrike Malmendier, D. Bernheim, S. DellaVigna, and D. Laibson
2018
Winning by Losing: Evidence on Overbidding in Mergers
Review of Financial StudiesUlrike Malmendier, E. Moretti and F. Peters
2018
Winning by Losing: Evidence on Overbidding in Mergers
Review of Financial Studies.Ulrike Malmendier, E. Moretti and F. Peters
2016
Learning from Inflation Experiences
Quarterly Journal of EconomicsUlrike Malmendier and S. Nagel
2016
Target revaluation after failed takeover attempts: Cash versus stock
Journal of Financial EconomicsUlrike Malmendier, M. Opp and F. Saidi
2016
Voting to Tell Others
Review of Economic StudiesUlrike Malmendier, S. DellaVigna, J. List and G. Rao
2015
On the Verges of Overconfidence
Journal of Economic PerspectivesUlrike Malmendier and Timothy Taylor
2015
Depression Babies: Do Macroeconomic Experiences Affect Risk-Taking?
Quarterly Journal of EconomicsUlrike Malmendier and Stefan Nagel
2011
Contractibility and the Design of Research Agreements
American Economics ReviewUlrike Malmendier and Josh Lerner
2010
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