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Caltech
The Linde Institute

Society depends increasingly on financial solutions to help address diverse and far-reaching challenges, from environmental concerns to health and medicine.

  • How do great scientific breakthroughs most efficiently reach commercial markets?
  • How do we best manage financial risks associated with innovation?
  • How do we ensure efficient allocation of global capital?

These are among the ambitious questions that researchers in The Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences are uniquely equipped to address. By leveraging strengths in economics, mathematics, computation, behavioral science, and neuroscience, Caltech scholars are conducting investigations that promise landmark contributions to understanding financial decision-making and integrating findings to design better financial institutions.

Linde Institute researchers study various aspects of finance—financial economics and econometrics, financial mathematics, private equity, and behavioral and empirical finance. They use their theoretical and technical expertise to analyze large financial data sets, identify financial risk factors, and study long-term and short-term consequences of managerial compensation and human financial decision-making. Other projects focus on the design and regulation of markets, financial networks, and the flow of information in markets. Another major strength is research in behavioral and neuroeconomics, where psychology and neuroscience are used to gain insight into markets, risk-taking, and other economic decisions.

Equipped with knowledge and skills gained through Caltech's rigorous training in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering, many alumni have gone on to highly successful careers in economics and finance. Two have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences: Robert Merton (MS '67) in 1997 and Vernon Smith (BS '49) in 2002. Several others have become widely acclaimed in the field.

By hosting research conferences and career panels, The Linde Institute builds on the successes of alumni and faculty who have distinguished themselves in the financial sector, further strengthening Caltech's network, reputation, and impact. Past examples of such events include the 2015 "Caltech + Finance" symposium, the 2016 Behavioral Finance Conference, the annual Caltech/USC Private Equity Finance Conference, and ongoing alumni career panels.