"Asset pricing theory abounds with elegant mathematical models. The logic is so compelling that the models are widely used in policy, from banking, investments, and corporate finance to government. In The Paradox of Asset Pricing, a leading financial researcher argues that the empirical record is weak at best.".

"Bossaerts writes that the existing empirical evidence may be tainted by the assumptions needed to make sense of historical field data or by reanalysis of the same data. To address the first problem, he demonstrates that one central assumption - that markets are efficient processors of information, that risk is a knowable quantity, and so on - can be relaxed substantially while retaining core elements of the existing methodology. The new approach brings novel insights to old data.

As for the second problem, he proposes that asset pricing theory be studied through experiments in which subjects trade purposely designed assets for real money. This book will be welcomed by finance scholars and all those math- and statistics-minded readers interested in knowing whether there is science beyond the mathematics of finance."--BOOK JACKET.