Centennial Speaker Series: George G. Szpiro on Risky Decisions: How Mathematical Paradoxes and Other Conundrums Have Shaped Economic Science

At its core, economics is about making decisions. In the history of economic thought, great intellectual prowess has been exerted toward devising exquisite theories of optimal decision-making in situations of constraint, risk, and scarcity. Yet not all of our choices are purely logical, so there is a long-standing tension between those emphasizing the rational and irrational sides of human behavior. One strand develops formal models of rational utility-maximizing, while the other draws on what behavioral science has shown about our tendency to act irrationally.

In this talk, George Szpiro will give examples of mathematical paradoxes and psychological conundrums that have led to advancements in economic science. He will challenge the audience with questions about how to make decisions, thereby showing how people who believe themselves to be rational can be led astray.

Agenda
12 p.m.: Welcome Remarks: Donna Rapaccioli, dean of the Gabelli School of Business

12:05 p.m.: Speaker Introduction: David Cowen, president and CEO of the Museum of American
Finance

12:08 p.m.: Discussion: George G. Szpiro

12:45 p.m.: Audience Q&A

1 p.m.: Closing Remarks: David Cowen

About the Speaker
George G. Szpiro is an award-winning author and journalist. A longtime correspondent for the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, his many books include Numbers Rule: The Vexing Mathematics of Democracy, from Plato to the Present (2010) and Pricing the Future: Finance, Physics, and the 300-Year Journey to the Black-Scholes Equation (2011).

Copies of Risky Business will be raffled off to attendees.

This event is co-sponsored with the CFA Society New York, the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, and the Museum of American Finance.