Finance is an ever-changing field that shifts as the world around it does. With the growing
presence of social media, it is indispensable in business. Behavioral finance takes people’s biases
and judgement into account and assumes people do not always act in the most rational or logical way. As a young person myself, I wanted to blend my knowledge of social media and finance
and see what links I could find.

This essay is aimed to analyse how behavioural economics can contribute to solving the climate
change problem. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), including Nauru, Tuvalu and
Vanuatu, are at stake of their national survival due to the rise of sea level (Vogler, 2017, p.394).
The average earth temperature in January 2018 was 0.71°C (1.28°F) above the 20th century
average of 12.0°C (53.6°F) (Co2 Earth, 2019).

The process of integrating technology and finance is not new and the threats that developments
in software bring to the finance industry are well documented. However, the rapid innovation that is occurring in the field of Artificial intelligence demands a new outlook in the process and
delivery of financial services, specifically trading.

I am delighted to present the reader four essays written by a small team of our researchers at
Economic Policy and Research Group (St. Andrews), all of whom share a great interest in the
world of Behavioural Economics and its relevance in academia, finance or the environment.

When I first came to St Andrews my degree was Economics & Psychology and when asked to
explain such an unusual choice, I would often say ‘I like behavioural economics’. Up until
December 2017, many non-Economics students would have told me that they had heard of
Daniel Kahneman but not anybody else in this field. But in December 2017 the Nobel Prize was
awarded to Richard Thaler, another behavioural economist.

Driven by the desire to connect economic theory with real world examples, this paper has chosen to assess the effect of divestment on the UK economy. Specifically, it will focus on divestment from the wider the defence sector. In recent years divestment has become a growing tool which has been utilised by social activists and protestors alike.