research@hec - Issue #16 - (Page VIII)

Launch of the AXA – HEC Paris Chair research Itzhak Gilboa Improving Understanding of Decision-Making “It would be a serious error to ignore psychological evidence and affirm that people can make decisions by following steps outlined in traditional decision models. And it would be just as serious an error to say they should rely solely on intuition or to proclaim that formal, mathematical-based decision-making theory has nothing to teach us,” Gilboa explains in the June 2010 issue of Echo, the AXA Research Fund magazine. Indeed, today’s challenge in decision analysis is to strike the right balance between mathematical formalization and people’s cognitive and psychological capacities. The holder of the newly created Chair for Decision Science (the result of a partnership between Europe's top business school.* The AXA – HEC Paris Chair for Decision Science was inaugurated on June 29, born from a partnership between a world leader in financial protection and 2010. Its first holder, professor Itzhak Gilboa, offers an overview of an initiative hec BIOGRAPHY Itzhak Gilboa holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science as well as a bachelor’s, a master’s (1984), and a PhD (1987) in economics from the University of Tel Aviv. His graduate study supervisor was David Schmeidler. Gilboa currently teaches economics and decision science at HEC Paris. His research focuses mainly on decision theory— particularly under uncertainty—as well as on game theory and consumer theory. The AXA Research Fund Created in 2008, the AXA Research Fund supports studies geared toward understanding and preventing environmental, human, and societal risk. Disposing of a five-year budget of 100 million euros, the Fund represents a major and innovative European initiative to support research. As of May 31, 2010, the Fund has provided 36 million euros to finance 154 research projects in 15 countries involving researchers of 36 different nationalities. Grants are allocated by an advisory board chaired by Ezra Suleiman and composed of academics (Pascale Cossart, Sir Brian Hoskins, Daniel Laurent, Hélène Rey, José Scheinkman, James Vaupel), EXANE CEO Nicolas Chanut (CEO of EXANE), and representatives of the AXA Group (Eric Chaney, Shu Khoo, Nick Lane, Jean-Christophe Menioux, Gaëlle Olivier, Véronique Weill). The board is supported by an operational team led by Anne-Juliette Hermant. For more information, see www.axa-research.org. *For the fourth consecutive year, HEC ranks first on the December 7, 2009 Financial Times list of the 70 top European business schools. AXA and HEC Paris) must undertake to reconcile these two perspectives to advance understanding of how decisions are made. At the crossroads of theory and practice, the chair will provide funding to support academic research and organize conferences to bring together researchers from a range of disciplines. HEC Paris to will thus further develop its research capacity in the field of decision science and enhance the leadership training it offers its students. I VIII research@hec • August-September 2010 http://www.axa-research.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of research@hec - Issue #16

Cover & Contents
Real Options for Optimal Investment Strategies
Social Construction of Identity among Poor Consumers
Promoting Creativity Same-Discipline vs Cross-Discipline Interactions
Launch of the AXA – HEC Paris Chair

research@hec - Issue #16