2013 Awards for Excellence

Citation

Willett, T.D. (2014), "2013 Awards for Excellence", Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFEP-04-2014-001

2013 Awards for Excellence

Article Type: 2013 Awards for Excellence From: Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Volume 6, Issue 1

The following article was selected for this year’s Outstanding Paper Award for Journal of Financial Economic Policy

"The role of defective mental models in generating the global financial crisis"

Thomas D. Willett
Department of Economics, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, USA

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to stress the role that several defective theories or views of the world played in generating the subprime financial crisis.
Design/methodology/approach – This is done by describing these views, showing that they were widely held by relevant decision makers, and by analyzing the flaws in these views. A considerable amount of literature is surveyed in the process.
Findings – It was found that these defective views did play a major role in generating the crisis.
Research limitations/implications – Implications of the analysis for future research are discussed.
Practical implications – Implications of the analysis for reform of private and public sector financial policies are discussed.
Originality/value – While most of the arguments in the paper are not new, no paper of which the author is aware pulls them together with the same emphasis on how faulty mental models interacted with dangerous incentive structures to play a prime role in generating the crisis. The paper also references a much wider range of literature on the crisis than any study of which the author is aware. The paper should be of value to any one interested in the causes of the crisis and ways to make future crises less likely.

Keywords: Decision making, Defective theories, Financial crisis, Financial economics, Financial policy, Future crisis, International financial institutions, Mental models, Subprime

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/JFEP-04-2014-001

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 1, 2012, Journal of Financial Economic Policy

The following articles were selected for this year’s Highly Commended Award

"Microfinance institution costs: effects of gender, subsidies and technology"

Steven B. Caudill, Daniel M. Gropper and Valentina Hartarska

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 4, 2012,Journal of Financial Economic Policy

"Delivering economic stimulus, addressing rising public debt and avoiding inflation"

Richard Wood

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 1, 2012, Journal of Financial Economic Policy

"Degree of openness and inflation targeting policy: model of a small open economy"

Jihene Bousrih

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 3, 2012, Journal of Financial Economic Policy

Outstanding reviewer

Dr Stefanie Kleimeier