The University of Liechtenstein warmly congratulates Merlin Bartel on the successful defense of his dissertation, which he completed with the highest distinction. His thesis, entitled “Machine Learning in Financial Economics: An Investment Perspective”, was supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Stöckl and Dr. Pedro Barroso of the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics – a prime example of the University of Liechtenstein’s international research collaboration with leading partner institutions.

In his dissertation, Merlin Bartel explores how machine learning methods can enhance predictive accuracy in financial economics, particularly in the context of factor premia and capital market anomalies. His work focuses on the development of robust, economically interpretable models that remain effective under realistic investment conditions.

The dissertation includes several innovative contributions, such as three novel predictive signals, an integrated ML-based single-factor model, and the application of autoencoders for compressing complex financial signals.

His research has already been presented at numerous international academic conferences and received considerable attention from the scholarly community.

We sincerely congratulate Merlin Bartel on this outstanding achievement and wish him continued success in his professional and academic journey!