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 (19)
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 by the American Finance Association 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
Coleman Fung Risk Management Research Center Grant
2008
Kauffman Foundation Grant
2008
Instructional Improvement Grant
2007
Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging Grant
2007
Abigail Reynolds Hodgen Publication Fund Grant
2007
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)
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.
Bubbles, virus and biases
Investors Chronicle online
2020-06-09
Ideas can spread as quickly as viruses, and they don't even have to spread widely to start distorting market prices. Research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, has shown that the house price bubble of the mid-2000s was driven largely by the 1% of Americans who bought many houses.
The irrational minority
Investors Chronicle online
2020-05-21
One common objection to the idea that share prices are driven by irrational investors is that, over time, they should be driven out of the market as the smarter money profits at their expense. Very often, however, this claim is wrong as a new paper by Ulrike Malmendier at the University of California at Berkeley shows. She describes how markets sometimes actually select in favour of irrational buyers.
Why Generation Z will never recover from Corona
Welt online
2020-05-18
You are the ones who ask about the first sabbatical during the job interview. Who do not want to work overtime during their probationary period. Who know the needs of employers struggling for skilled workers only too well and orient their behavior accordingly. They are the young people who were born shortly before the turn of the millennium or sometime afterwards - Generation Z.
Investors Chronicle: SDL, AA, Hunting
Financial Times online
2020-04-17
Research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier found that recessions have scarring effects on behavior. They teach us that the economy is riskier than we thought—a lesson that stays with people for years, even decades.
On scarring effects
Investors Chronicle online
2020-03-26
A coronavirus recession could have long-term, lingering effects. Research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier has shown that economic behavior is shaped not just by current realities and expectations, but by our memories. She shows that men who lived during the 1930s Great Depression in their formative years borrowed less when they became chief executives years later, while younger men were more financially adventurous.
Crashes and COVID-19 in Historical Context
Yale Insights online
2020-03-23
Prof. Ulrike Malmendier studied the investment behavior of people who lived through the Great Depression and those who experienced high inflation in their lifetimes. She found that these life experiences are associated with higher expectations of bad times and high inflation.
Newsletter: Businesses Brace for Longer Downturn
Wall Street journal online
2020-03-11
The "what else we're reading" includes a summary of new research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier on how men and women see inflation differently. "As they undertake the majority of grocery shopping duties for their households, women are exposed to the volatile and large price changes of grocery goods more frequently than men. This differential exposure could explain their higher inflation expectations," the paper says.
The Influence You Have: Why We Fail To See Our Power Over Others
NPR online
2020-02-24
An "egocentric bias" may reveal itself when we put others on the spot. It causes us to vastly underestimate the pressures we place on those around us. Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, and Prof. Stefano DellaVigna, Daniel Koshland, Sr., Distinguished Professor of Economics, studied how this factors into charitable giving.
Why optimism is a class issue
New Statesman online
2019-07-04
A host of research, including work by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier of the Haas Finance Group, suggests that hard times during our formative years make us pessimistic long after those times have passed. But being posh insulates you somewhat from hard times, making you more likeley to be upbeat about the future.
Correct market timing is difficult so drip-feed cash into investments
Investors Chronicle online
2019-06-06
Addressing an investor's question, the author suggests personal history can make investors unusually fearful. Research by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier of the Haas Finance Group has found that people who have experienced tough economic times remain fearful even many years later.
The bias behind monetary policymaking
ING Think online
2019-05-22
Like consumers and investors, central bankers are susceptible to biases. Work by Ulrike Malmendier, Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance, found that Fed board members with more exposure to inflation in the past were more likely to have hawkish voting patterns.
Don't Be A Laughingstock: Stamping Out Financial Illiteracy -- Why It's Time to Take Action
Nasdaq online
2019-05-08
A study by Prof. Ulrike Malmendier of the Haas Finance Group found that economic crises tend to have long-lasting effects on individuals' behavior.
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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