End of Behavioral Finance
Abstract: While the popularity of behavioral finance has increased and behavioral biases have got so pervasive that everybody seems to be biased, the question is whether the behavioral finance experts are bias free? If mean reversion failure is the ubiquitous phenomenon witnessed across markets and nature, then is psychology or mood not just a tail explanation of an elephant phenomenon?
The BRIC Model from a Japanese Perspective - Pre and Post Financial Crisis Review and Forecasts
Starting with the fundamental idea of an “emerging market economy”, it's role, utility and dynamics in the current global set up as a balancing economic block, the paper analysis Goldman Sach's emerging BRIC’s countries model in context of the pre and post 2008 financial crisis. The paper looks at micro and macroeconomic valuations, currency and the economic cycles to illustrate changes in the four economies. Using Japan as a developed economy, the paper also makes a comparative approach and tries to forecast the economic development of the block and respective relation among these countries.
The role of prolactin in andrology: what is new?
Prolactin (PRL) has been long deemed as a hormone involved only in female reproduction. However, PRL is a surprising hormone and, since its identification in the 1970s, its attributed functions have greatly increased. However, its specific role in male health is still widely unknown. Recently, low PRL has been associated with reduced ejaculate and seminal vesicle volume in infertile subjects. In addition, in men consulting for sexual dysfunction, hypoprolactinemia has been associated with erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation, findings further confirmed in the general European population and infertile men. Several metabolic derangements, recapitulating metabolic syndrome, have also been associated with low PRL both in men with sexual dysfunction and from the general European population. In men with sexual dysfunction, followed-up for more than 4 years, low PRL was identified as an independent predictor of the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events. Finally, an association with anxiety or depressive symptoms has been found in men with sexual dysfunction and from the general European population. While a direct role for impaired PRL function in the pathogenesis of these reproductive, sexual, metabolic and psychological disorders is conceivable, the possibility that low PRL is a mirror of an increased dopaminergic or a decreased serotonergic tone cannot be ruled-out. Hyperactivity of the dopaminergic system can explain only a few of the aforementioned findings, whereas a hypo-serotonergic tone fits well with the clinical features associated with low PRL, and there is significant evidence supporting the hypothesis that PRL could be a mirror of serotonin in the brain.