McIntire School of Commerce Sponsors Spring Symposium
Nobel Prize Winner In Economics Is Keynote Speaker

April 1, 2003-- Daniel Kahneman, who last year won the Nobel Prize in economics, will be the featured speaker at the fourth annual spring symposium sponsored by the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. The symposium will explore “Judgment in an Uncertain World: Conversations with Master Decision Makers.”

Kahneman, a psychologist by training and one of the founders of the new field of behavioral finance, is counted among the most influential thinkers in 20th century economics. Taking issue with the idea of man as a rational consumer, his research suggests that man is irrational but in ways that can be predicted.

“We are pleased that Daniel Kahneman could join us for this exciting program,” said Carl Zeithaml, dean of the McIntire School of Commerce. “His non-traditional thinking both transforms and transcends the field of economics and illustrates what can happen when people approach problems from a new perspective and without preconceived notions of what they will find.”

The daylong symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be held Friday, April 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., in U.Va’s Old Cabell Hall auditorium.

Kahneman shared the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science with Vernon L. Smith, a professor of economics and law at George Mason University. Kahneman’s longtime collaborator Amos Tversky, who died in 1996, was cited by the prize committee, but could not be awarded the Nobel Prize posthumously.

After Kahneman’s presentation, the morning panelists will explore the impact of theoretical advances in applied settings. In particular, they will use Kahneman’s work to illuminate the behavioral influences on decision-making for managers of investment funds, corporations and independent enterprises.

The afternoon program will extend the discussion of behavioral influences on decision making to foreign policy decisions and will feature a talk by Philip Zelikow, the White Burkett Miller Professor of History and director of the U.Va. Miller Center of Public Affairs, who will draw on his experience as executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the “9/11 Commission.”

The afternoon program will explore the theory and practice of foreign policy decision-making, and the difficulties inherent in understanding and forecasting outcomes of crucial foreign policy decisions.

A program schedule follows.

The McIntire Center for Financial Innovation
The McIntire Center for Growth Enterprises
The McIntire Center for the Management of Information Technology
The Miller Center of Public Affairs
Present the Fourth Annual Spring Symposium
“Technology and Innovation in a Time of Uncertainty”
Sponsored by Blue Ridge Capital

8:30-8:45 a.m. Welcome
Carl Zeithaml, F.S. Cornell Professor in Free Enterprise
Dean, McIntire School of Commerce
Introduction of Program
John Griffin (McIntire ’85), President and Founder, Blue Ridge Capital
Visiting Scholar of Finance, McIntire School of Commerce
Jeffrey C. Walker (McIntire ’77), Managing Partner, JPMorgan Partners
Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase
8:45-9:30 a.m. Keynote Presentation: “Choice under Uncertainty: Reflections on Prospect Theory”
Introduction of Speaker: John T. Casteen III, President, University of Virginia
Daniel Kahneman, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology
Professor of Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs
Princeton University
9:30-9:45 a.m. Audience Questions
9:45-10 a.m. Break
10-10:45 a.m. Panel: “Behavioral Finance, Market Efficiency and Decision Making: Lessons from Master Investors”
Moderator: John Griffin (McIntire ’85), President and Founder, Blue Ridge Capital
Visiting Scholar of Finance, McIntire School of Commerce
McIntire School of Commerce Participants:
Paul Tudor Jones (A&S ’76), Founder and Chairman, Tudor Group
Julian H. Robertson Jr., Founder and Chairman, Tiger Management
10:45-11 a.m. Audience Questions
11-11:45 a.m. Panel: “Corporate Strategy and Governance:
Balancing Intuitive and Analytic Approaches to Decision Making”
Moderator: Bill Shenkir, William Stamps Farish Professor of Free Enterprise, McIntire School of Commerce
Participants:
Richard Fairbank, Chairman and CEO, Capital One Financial Corp.
Jeffrey C. Walker (McIntire ’77), Managing Partner, JPMorgan Partners
Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase
11:45-Noon Audience Questions
1:15-1:45 p.m. Presentation: “The Essence of Decision:
Foreign Policy Choices under Uncertainty”
Introduction of Speaker: Carl Zeithaml, F.S. Cornell Professor in Free Enterprise
Dean, McIntire School of Commerce
Philip Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History
Director, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
1:45-2:30 p.m. Panel: “The Emergence of Virtual Terrorist States and Foreign Policy Decisions: Complex Realities in Search of a Theory”
Participants:
Richard Betts, Leo A. Shifrin Professor of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University
Douglas McEachin, CIA Deputy Director, Retired
William Quandt, Edward R. Stettinius Professor of Politics and
Vice Provost for International Affairs, University o f Virginia
Philip Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History and
Director, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
2:30-2:50 p.m. Audience Questions
2:50-3 p.m. Special Presentations and Adjournment
Carl Zeithaml, F.S. Cornell Professor in Free Enterprise
Dean, McIntire School of Commerce
Program Note: Signed copies of books by participating authors will be available at the University of Virginia Bookstore during the symposium and lunch, and at the reception at the Colonnade Club after the symposium.

Contact: Jim Travisano, (434) 924-7005

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Contact the Office of University Relations at (434) 924-7116. Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (434) 924-7550.

SOURCE: U.Va. News Services

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