From theory to practice with the new Behavioural and Finance Lab

A great day not only for the School of Economics and Business in Ljubljana, but also for the University of Ljubljana! On Wednesday, 22 March 2023, two laboratories were officially opened, enabling students of the SEB LU and others to conduct high-quality and advanced research in various fields. We inaugurated the Behavioural Lab and the Finance Lab, which are a great pride of the already renowned SEB LU.

The official inauguration was opened by Prof. Dr Metka Tekavčič, Dean of the SEB LU, who then handed over the floor to Prof. Dr Igor Papič, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, and the introductory words were concluded by Prof. Dr Boštjan Markoli, Vice-Rector of the University of Ljubljana for Internationalisation and Quality. The two laboratories are the result of a close cooperation of several institutions that have made it possible for future PhDs in economics and business to receive the highest quality and most up-to-date education and, above all, to carry out experiential research.

Before the tour, Prof. Dr Vesna Žabkar, from the Academic Unit for Marketing, presented the Behavioural Lab and explained: “It contains actual electro-technical devices for measuring biological responses, which is how we want to go a step further than the questionnaire-based measurement we have been using so far.”Prof. Dr Aljosa Valentinčič, from the Academic Unit for Money and Finance, highlighted the need for a finance laboratory: “We have a financial crisis unfolding, where we have witnessed problems with the SVB bank … for which there were supposedly no indications. But if we look at the financial data in our new finance lab and open one of these sub-screens, we can actually see that everything has been written down.”

Prof. Dr Igor Lončarski presented to the SEB LU news portal two aspects of the SEB LU Finance Lab. From a pedagogical point of view, the laboratory will facilitate and improve the quality of studies: “During lectures or tutorials, we provide students with a real and direct introduction to the data set, how to access it and how to use it… The same is of course true from a research point of view: easier accessibility to data collected in one place.”

The Behavioural Lab has several different devices, e.g. technology to monitor eye activity, emotional facial response, etc. For EFnet, Assoc. Prof. Dr Mojca Marc, from the research team led by Prof. Dr Matej Černe, presented the current research on sleep with the smart Oura ring and Dreem headband, and explained why such research makes sense in the first place. “In our project, we are linking sleep to performance at work the next day. We are looking at how sleep quality, sleep length and other aspects of sleep affect how we behave at work and what kind of results we get at work.”

We look forward to the new research and wish all the researchers in the lab every success in their studies.

Danica Tajčman, EFnews

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