ECON 4370

I will try to make this as comprehensive a review as possible. I will try to remain unbiased even though I loved the course and Professor Burton. The idea of this review is to present all information you should have since there is a lot of conflicting stories. The first part will focus on Burton as a prof (which I will also post on his other class ECON 434) and then the second part will focus on this course specifically.

**All about Professor Burton** - This applies to both ECON 434 and 437

Lecture style: Professor Burton is very knowledgeable in this subject, having taught it many times and having worked on the Street himself. Because of this, his lectures are in tune with what I -- and maybe you -- imagine old school high-level classes to be like. He posts slides that he rarely actually uses and more so talks about the subject matter. This is probably the first point of contention people have and you have read about him. The best way I can describe his class in one sentence is: if you view going to class as a machine where you input your time and through listening to him explain the subject you output a grade, this is not the class for you. As you can see in the grade distribution it is hard to get lower than a B. You can easily get an A by just reading his book. His book is the most important thing for the exam. He wrote it and has used it for years for this course so you can imagine that he will want you to word things how he words them in the book -- and in class -- when giving answers on the exams. I will touch more on the exams later. This was a long winded way of saying that if you go to class treat it like a seminar where you essentially get to hear a very knowledgable guest speaker talk about behavioral finance and often about the current state of financial markets. Again, he does sometimes include pieces of information such as how to word an idea on an exam. In summary, I believe people find his lectures boring because he does not always talk about things that will be on the exam.

Style of exams (still applies to both classes):
You will have 2 midterms and a final that are weighted 30%, 30%, and 40% respectively. The most annoying thing about these classes is the arbitrary grading. I took these classes with a friend and we would often say very similar if not the same things on exams and the grader would mark them differently. It seems that there may be a keyword that he wants you to mention. I do want to say that this should not be the deciding factor in taking vs not taking his class as he has mentioned that he is working on that. This also produces a relatively small variance in your numerical grade. In other words if you put the effort in to get an A, this grading inconsistency will not get you a B.

Interacting with students:
He is extremely nice and offers students to go to lunch with him on Tuesday and Wednesday (this may change if his new condo is built by the time you take the class). You go to Farmington and he talks about life and asks you about yourself. If the topics are finance focused it is more so about subjects not directly about class. I recommend doing this multiple times as it seems not many people take advantage of it and it will allow him to get to know you better.

Class content:
I enjoyed 437 more than 434. You learn a lot about psychology (the main book you read is Thinking: Fast and Slow). It honestly changed how I think and made me recognize biases that everyone has. I've enjoyed learning about stuff like loss aversion (the big idea you need to know for the exam).

First midterm: This is all about the Efficient Market Hypothesis and its critics. The big thing you need to know for this exam is Andrei Shleifer's article on noise trader risk.
Second midterm: This is very psychology-oriented. The big question is the loss aversion question where you should draw the prospect theory graph. The big thing to read here is Kahneman's book, but know some things in Thaler's book as that is a section that caught me off guard (he discounted it a bit at the beginning of the unit so I didn't read it).
Final: Combines both midterms and also academic articles on predictability of financial markets. Goes in depth in Gene Fama and Ken French's "The Cross Section" as well as others he will mention in class.

I was worried going into this class because the reviews are so mixed. Ended up really enjoying the content, and for a higher level Econ this class is an easy A. There's not much reading, the textbook chapters are very short, and it becomes abundantly clear if you attend class what information he cares about for the exam. At times, lecture did seem to drag on, and he does talk a lot about himself. However, Burton is a nice guy and the actual content is interesting and not too difficult. If you do the readings and attend most lectures you should feel very confident going into the exams. Read intro/conclusion of the articles he mentions, and read his book for other key points. Understand the author's argument and conclusion, and any points that may raise issues for the conclusion of the article or issues for the EMH. Also understanding how the different articles relate to each other (are they in agreement? what are their views? etc) is helpful to keep in mind while studying. Overall, I would recommend this course to anyone. You don't even really need to know anything about econ to take it. There's no homework, two exams and a final (30/30/40 % of grade), and reading is really minimal.

I understand this is something of an unpopular opinion but I absolutely could not stand Ed Burton. His lectures are pointless - he goes off on useless tangents just so he can brag about himself at least three times per class. Learning course material is confined almost exclusively to doing the readings on your own. HOWEVER, he will specifically put questions on the exams that are only answerable if you attended lecture. An example we had from this semester: "What psychological bias was illustrated using the mug in class?" It's clear his ego is the size of the lecture hall he teaches in, and he fetishizes the fact that he's the professor and you're his student. I just hated listening to him every Tues/Thurs. The class is very little work outside of keeping up with the readings and the curve is generous, it's just such a chore to attend.

This is also probably only applicable to this semester but he would spend 20 minutes every class talking nonsense about COVID-19 and spreading misinformation which only made me respect him less.

This class was fascinating. The material covered is the most useful stuff I have learned at this school. That being said, the concepts can be really tough to grasp at first - they appear very math-heavy, but I found that talking them out with other students in my class was really helpful. The lectures were very dry, hard to pay attention to, and I eventually stopped going to them. Since the only grades are based on the tests, and the tests are based on the readings, just taking a couple days before each test to thoroughly read and understand the material was really all I needed to do to be successful.

I think this class would really benefit from an engaged lecturer - the class periods at this point are just a filler. The material alone, however, is enough to highly recommend this class to anyone.

Not sure why Burton is getting so much hate on here. At the end of the day, his lectures, while not the most engaging, are still pretty entertaining as he has some cool stories to share. Regarding the exams, I think that anyone who's complaining probably just didn't read the material well enough. If you read the stuff and understand it, then you're pretty much guaranteed an A, so people really can't complain about his grading. The material itself was also pretty interesting. Overall, for a 4000 Econ elective, the class is pretty good.

One of the worst classes I have ever taken. Professor Burton's lectures are extremely boring and he goes off on extremely long tangents for almost the entire class. He also gives almost the same exact lecture everyday because he is extremely disorganized and doesn't look at the Powerpoints so just ends up repeating the same concepts. It's hard to figure out what to study because he spent so much of class talking about Greece, the Fed, and other random current events that have nothing to do with Behavioral Finance. He ends up asking extremely specific questions on the test. Sometimes if you do the readings you won't even remember the insignificant detail he is asking about. Also, the grading is completely arbitrary and it is difficult to understand why you've received a certain grade. I read the previous reviews before enrolling and thought it must not be that bad but YOU WILL REGRET TAKING THIS CLASS.

Soooooo this will be a long review but just bear with me here, it might be helpful. I have very mixed feelings about Professor Burton, like the entire class was a rollercoaster of emotions i felt towards him. At first, i thought he was okay seemed pretty normal, then i quickly hated him because he talked way too much about irrelevant things during lecture, then the hate grew even more to like A CRAZY level of hatred because he would constantly brag about himself and other rich famous people he was friends with, and then i started to realize he was a nice enough guy he just that type of old white businessman who loves to be social and network. Sometimes his tangents would distract me from what i was supposed to be focusing on, so you have to really pay attention to when he actually starts talking about the important material. For the readings you really just have to read the intro and conclusions and maybe skim the middle, which i was already doing because ya know ~laziness~ but he actually told us that halfway through the course this was the best way to read them. Since, they are real, scholarly articles written by famous people in economics/behavioral finance like Eugene Fama. The two books we had to read i definitely read one of them completely, but the other was so long i just skimmed and honestly that was fine for the exam because he goes over most of the important stuff in lecture from the books and other readings. Listen closely here though, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO IN THIS CLASS is read his behavioral finance book that he tells us to get. Like if you don't read anything in this class, at least try to read this because the topics he covered in lecture come seriously straight out of his book (i mean he wrote it so makes sense). Sometimes he doesn't explain things very well in class, so reading the book is super helpful to go over anything you're confused on. He even summarizes some important articles in there and tells you the major points from them. There are some chapters he did not assign that i also read since they were relevant to the articles we were supposed to read or things he said in class. My last tip is to just memorize a lot of the important things he says, like definitions of words. because on the exam the TA's have to take off points if its not like word for word what he wants. Kind of annoying but i got the hang of it by the second midterm. OH also he invites 8 people to lunch some weeks (just depends who replies to his emails fast enough). I went to two of these and the first one i did not enjoy cause he wasn't really connecting with the students, just kind of talking. The second one was a little better cause he knew me more (since i sat in the front) and remembered me from the last lunch. I think he is a decent person, he just came off as a stereotypical old white businessman at the start.... I really did enjoy learning about how people behave in the stock market and some psychological things that people do often. i think it is a good class to take once you get past some stuff. Also i did around average and above average a little bit because of these things i did so the curve really helped me at the end and i ended with a good grade. Ok i'm done thx.

Just posted my review for 4340 a few moments ago; Burton's courses are very similar for the most part, so if you want an overall skeleton of what to expect and really feel like reading a long paragraph of explanation about it from me (doubt you really will, but just in case I'm offering, I like writing mammoth reviews when I feel they're warranted, and did one for Michener's ECON 3720). Take 4340 before you take 4370, as Burton's testing format is the same in both, and being familiar with it is very helpful for this class. This class is probably two to three times as much reading as 4340 was, as well, and I felt you had to do the readings (with exceptions being the two books, which I skimmed) or at least be familiar with the wording in them to do well on the exams. Having been used to his class from the semester before, I didn't seriously acquaint myself with the article readings for the first exam, went in a bit overconfident and underprepared because I had another exam that day, and ended up about 5 points below the average (55 since the average was a 61, which was certainly disparaging having taken his class before). And when I skimmed The Undoing Project and read the articles/his textbook for the second exam, I did fairly well. Overall, this class's material was pretty interesting and worthwhile to learn, but I didn't find it as engaging as Theory of Financial Markets. I'd still suggest it to those who are interested in finance and are in the econ major/minor, but I'd probably only give this class a 6.5/10.

-He goes on tangents about economic state of the world offering his own predictions.

-If you like that sort of thing, he is a great professor to have

-He repeats the most important things he wants you to know, so just take good notes, and notice when he repeats subjects

- he pretty much tells you want he wants on the midterm and final the week before so pay attention there and ask him questions in office hours if what he says doesn't make sense

Prof. Burton is a great lecturer but the tests are challenging for a first time. The material is very interesting and overall it is a good course for Econ students.

I had my initial reservations about Professor Burton, but the class topic seemed interesting so I decided to plow through anyways. The content turned out to be pretty interesting - a nice mix of psych and econ, and Burton's teaching style is pretty straight-forward once you get used to it. However, studying for exams can be rather tedious - lots of readings, had to read 2 400ish pages books for the 2nd midterms on top of papers, so if you're bad with readings/memorization (like I am), maybe you'll want to reconsider your options, especially if you're aiming for that A. I had to spend a week studying for the 2nd midterm to get a pretty decent grade.

All in all, a fun class, definitely worth taking if you're more particular to learning and not grades.

I recommend taking Theory to Financial Markets before this course. There is hardly any overlap in the material, but the course is significantly easier if you are familiar with Burton's style of teaching and grading. So if you are a first year thinking about this class, pump the brakes. Take Theory to Financial Markets in the Fall and this course in the Spring–given you haven't been Burton'd out. The class is graded on a curve, and therefore, you will do a lot better if you know how to take Burton exams.

The material is really interesting, and everyone seems to really enjoy the readings. However, Burton presents the material in a way that is eerily reminiscent of Mr. Miyagi on the night of his wife's anniversary. In summary, the class is very interesting and thought provoking, but your GPA would appreciate it if you took this after Theory of Financial Market.

I took this class as an economics major interested in behavioral economics but without a special interest in finance. For my interests, I could have gotten the same thing out of just reading the books Thinking, Fast and Slow and Misbehaving on my own. I didn't find the rest of the class's finance topics very interesting, and Burton's lectures aren't the most engaging. However, for a 4000 level Econ elective, this class had nearly no weekly homework--just a handful of readings that could be done while studying for the midterms, so that was a plus. The tests are graded a bit strangely, as others have said, but the class final grade distribution ends up just fine, so it's not too much of a concern.

This was my second class with Burton as an Econ minor and solidified my thoughts on him and his classes. He is just awful. His lectures could not be more boring. More than half of the time his brooding involves nothing but vain self-praise and name dropping of all the nobel prize winning people he has lunch with and all the boards of finance companies he sits on. I think this topic could be really interesting but he makes it unbearable. The test grading is really the worst part. No less than 5 times have a put nearly word for word the same response as another classmate on an exam and been rewarded no points while the other person got full credit and he won't change the grades. If you can avoid taking his classes, please do. There are much more competent professors in the Econ department. It is super nice he takes students out to lunch though. Great dude...terrible class.

Pretty good class. Burton's lectures don't make much sense, but the readings are interesting. The course is very relevant as far as behavioral finance goes, but the grading sucks. The TAs suck and don't give you the points you deserve.

This was a really useful class on finance theory and behavior in market.

I'd recommend taking it, but don't write it off either. You'll learn a lot of useful, real world value information and Burton is a cool guy.

Some risk though...on an exam (almost entirely short answer), you could spend the same amount of time studying as somebody else and end up with a grade 10-20 points higher or lower because of how it's graded. The TA's look for one key phrase or word...even if you get the question right, if you don't have that phrase/word you don't get any credit (not even partial most of the time). Can be very frustrating or rewarding, depending on how the coin flips. Even so, if you study enough and do the readings it'll be pretty tough not to end up with at least a B.

Other than the exams, it's an interesting class. It's more psychology oriented than finance. Go to lunch with Burton at least once, he keeps track and is a very fascinating guy.

Burton's lectures can be off topic but do the readings and you should get an A.

Burton loves the topic and aims to make it interesting for everyone. Very open and available, and basically just wants you to summarize his lectures on the tests. They are writing intensive so bring extra pencils. But just go to class and pay attention to the key points he makes and you'll be fine.

Take it. Nearly identical tests every year so just get old copies

Really arbitrary grading.

You can't go wrong with a class taught by Burton.

This is a strange class, the information is probably the most pertinent you'll get in the Econ department in terms of useful knowledge, but Burton really comes across as a prick. That being said, he makes a really honest attempt at being accesible to student via taking them out to lunch, etc., but his manner of lecturing is pretty poor. Getting an A in this class doesn't require much more than having enough friends to have someone at lecture or understand what everyone author said in their respective paper/idea.

Really interesting subject material. Don't go to class. Burton is easily the worst lecturer I have had during college. His tests are graded poorly - the TAs arbitrarily took off points without explanation.

Not too bad a class, material is pretty enjoyable but lectures are dull. You don't need to attend class, just study the two days before exams and you'll be golden.

A lot of readings, but Professor Burton has a lot of insights to offer about this topic. Overall, it's a worthwhile class

favorite class I took at UVA

Really easy class. All you have to do is attend lecture and read the intros and conclusions to the articles he assigns. He beats the topics to death in lecture and tests exactly what he teaches.

Class isnt necessary to attend. Just know the basics of each reading and the tests are cake

Burton is a roundabout lecturer. He talks for the whole lecture, but only says 1 or 2 things that will be applicable for the tests. There is only a couple midterms and then the final. Not much reading at all, just a few chapters from his textbook and a couple books. Look out though, he is an arbitrary grader.

A lot of people skip this class because it's at 9:30, but you end up paying for it on the midterms and final. Interesting material and not too difficult. Material is unlike any other ECON class at U.Va. (except Burton's other course).

One of the easiest Economics electives, Burton is a very caring professor, for example, he helps 4th years with internships to an extent, hosts a barbecue, great guy to get to know. Also, an interesting and easy Econ elective. Definitely take this.

The lectures are really really boring but if you go to class you do not need to do any of the readings and you can get an A in the class.

Class is interesting. Your better off going to class and skipping the readings as Burton really emphasis the important things that will be on tests.

Professor Burton is enthusiastic and knows a lot about the subject matter. That being said, he can go on tangents like no other professor that I've had at the University. If you go to class, you should have no problem getting a good grade. Otherwise, you won't know which readings you actually need to know for the exams.

Strange grading. You learn something, but not a lot.

Great class. Interesting material. Probably the easiest 400 level econ available.

If you're interested in finance, this would be a good class for you to take. Otherwise, avoid. Do the readings, even if he says to just read the intro and conclusion. The tests sometimes contain pretty specific questions. There's a curve at the end.

Very interesting class, but test grading was a bit arbitrary. Worthwhile in general.

Interesting class. Do the readings, they aren't bad. Grading is unfair though and often times inexplicable.

All you have to do is read the articles. But you can read the articles and miss something small that Burton thought was crucial. Impossible to know what these things are but it helps somewhat to go to class. Grading is also really subjective

Awesome class, awesome teacher. Go to lecture, sit listen, take good notes, and you will never have to read a single article. He will explain all of them better than the authors themselves. Tests are short answer so make sure you understand the concepts and can explain them and you will be fine

Not super easy, but an A is definitely attainable. Exams are straight forward. The only reason some people do bad in the class is because they are lazy and never do the reading, which is a must. Take it

This class isn't very demanding, but the exams are pretty difficult. You are tested on the readings not all the random current events that Burton talks about for the predominant part of every class. While he says to just read the intro and conclusion it can be useful to scan the articles in their entirety as sometimes he can ask extremely specific questions. The exams can be a pain but there is a curve at the end too.

Burton is very knowledgeable and very aproachable, and is a great teacher. The test's are hard and all short answer, but if you study enough you can easily get an A.

Easy 4000 level econ course. Not a lot of work just some reading. Though the reading material is dense, Burton admits that only reading the intro and conclusion are necessary. If you can pick up on the basic premise and the key terms of each paper you will be fine. The best part is going to class is largely unnecessary (though usually interesting if you have the time) since he will usually ramble on or talk about some current political/economic issue. I liked to go becuase it was interesting, but it's good to know you can miss a class and not really have to worry too much. He posts all his slides as well, but they are often not related to the lecture.

Very interesting class if you're interested in finance. Professor Burton is very good at explaining fairly complex issues and has some pretty interesting views. Do the reading before midterms and you'll be fine

It felt like a really large psych class, but without discussion. Sounds like an interesting topic but it really only consists of reading a couple of related economics papers. didn't learn much

Behavioral Finance is a wonderful class. Professor Burton can sometimes be boring but overall the class is insightful. If you're interested in a different approach to finance definitely take it. If you've done well in Econ 434, you'll do well in this class.

Great class to take! You learn some great theory and it really is a manageable class. Take it if you can.

Definitely go to office hours. Lectures are entertaining, but the the curve can tough on exams.

Professor Burton Really knows his stuff. The topics covered were extremely interesting and the class was enjoyable. This is one of the best ECON class I have taken at UVA!

I really enjoyed this class. If you do the readings, which are quite interesting, you will learn a lot about finance and behavioral finance, and the midterms and final will also be pretty easy for you. I definitely recommend the course.

great class interesting and not much work. Tests are tricky though. it is worth putting in the time before the tests but no other work

Make sure you've done all of the reading--taking notes during lecture isn't too important.

Very enjoyable lectures, really know the stuff!

I agree, this is a verya ccessible course for anyone. The material is pretty interesting, although it is not delivered in such a great fashion. Burton tries to make the class as easy as possible and puts great curves on the exams (2 midterms and 1 cumulative final). Take it if you want a relatively straitforward and less difficult 400-level Econ class.

Awful professor...he mumbles a lot and goes off track on his lectures. No work outside of class besides studying for his midterms/final though!

By far the most accessible 400 level econ course at UVA. Huge curve and exams come mostly from power point slides posted online.

he is creepy, but the class is easy. just listen to the lectures.

Awful TA graders, tests usually not highly correlated w/ lectures

There isn't actually a discussion, which is great. Lectures aren't that entertaining, but Burton is a really great guy who knows what he's talking about. Tests are based almost entirely on the readings, do them and you'll be fine. The material is interesting if you're into financial theory....if you're not, you'll probably find this class a bit of a bore.

Very interesting class that explores behavioral economic theories that are fairly new or still being developed and tested. Easy enough class if you just read and understand the basics of the articles he tells you to read. Only annoying thing is that his lectures sometimes repeat themselves, or he goes on hour-long tangents about stuff that won't be tested or is even relevant to the course; but it's still useful info since it's usually about the current economy.

Really easy class. As long as you understand the articles you can ace the tests. If you go to class you don't actually need to read, or you can skip class and just skim the articles.