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Assoz. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Stöckl

Financial Economics

Fünf Mitglieder der Professur für Finanzökonomie stehen vor einem Gebäude der Universität Liechtenstein, business-casual gekleidet, lächelnd und nach vorne gerichtet, Symbol für Teamarbeit in Forschung und Lehre.

Our research focuses on how financial markets, from stocks, bonds and derivatives to (crypto) currencies and interest rate structures, respond to various forms of uncertainty. We concentrate on risk premiums, volatilities and structural factors shaped by political, economic policy and macroeconomic developments.

We employ modern quantitative methods, machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop robust forecasts and decision support tools for investment, risk management and sustainable investment strategies.

Our professorship is internationally networked, interdisciplinary and strongly engaged in scientific continuing education as well as practice-oriented teaching at Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD levels. We also work closely with practice partners in the Liechtenstein financial centre and develop digital simulation and analysis tools for research, teaching and transfer.

Fünf Mitglieder der Professur für Finanzökonomie stehen vor einem Gebäude der Universität Liechtenstein, business-casual gekleidet, lächelnd und nach vorne gerichtet, Symbol für Teamarbeit in Forschung und Lehre.

Research Focus Areas of the Professorship

Our teaching focuses on empirical capital market research, portfolio and risk management, as well as quantitative methods in finance, with a particular emphasis on programming with R.

We design our courses to be interactive and student-centred across all levels, from Bachelor’s to Master’s and PhD.

Special attention is given to innovative teaching formats, such as the competitive and interactive investment simulation (see projects) and interactive programming.

To support this, an RStudio server is operated at rstudio.uni.li for our students. 

Our research examines how uncertainty, whether political, economic or structural, influences price formation in financial markets. We analyse returns, risk premiums and market reactions using modern econometric techniques and methods from artificial intelligence.

 

Our focus areas include:

  • Robust portfolio management under uncertainty
  • Improvement of asset pricing factors
  • Explanation and prediction of global and local factor premiums (including factor momentum)
  • Development of AI-based forecasting methods (factor premiums, returns, yield curves, cryptocurrencies)
  • Effects of events (political or economic) and populism on financial markets

 

For ongoing research, presentations, working papers and publications, please visit my website www.sebastianstoeckl.com

Commitment to Bridging Science and Practice:

 

  • Innosuisse project “Timing Factor Risk and Factor Returns with AI” (from autumn 2025, in collaboration with Liechtensteinische Landesbank)
  • Innosuisse project “An ESG-based Investment Case for Absolute Return Funds” (2020–2023, in collaboration with Liechtensteinische Landesbank)
  • Erasmus+ project “Investment Management Game”: development of the online investment simulation Cesim Invest (2022–2025, in collaboration with Cesim Oy and the Free University of Bozen)
  • Erasmus+ projects UNPIE and USAVE on financial literacy (2017–2020, 2020–2023)

Sebastian Stöckl is the academic director of the Liechtenstein Undergraduate & Graduate School (LU&GS), chair of the doctoral commission and the LU&GS board, as well as the official representative of the University of Liechtenstein at AACSB. In this role, he is also active as a Peer Review Team (PRT) member in international accreditation procedures.

 

Further engagement for the academic community includes:

 

  • Organisation of the Finance Research Seminar (since 2017)
  • Organisation of the internal Research Colloquium Finance and Economics
  • Co-organisation of the Alpine Rhine Economic Policy Seminar
  • Co-founding of Alpine Finance and (co-)organisation of the annual Alpine Finance Summit, a small, high-profile finance conference held annually in different locations across the Alpine region.

 Additional Activities in Research Communication and Academic Practice:

  • Regular speaking engagements on artificial intelligence in finance, including at professional conferences, corporate events and cross-university formats.
  • Co-initiator of the “KI kompakt” series, which presents current developments in AI in an accessible way for the general public and financial practice alike.
  • Co-organiser of the conference series “AI in Financial Practice”, held annually in cooperation with Plexus AG at the university (from 2025 onwards with an academic conference).

An important part of the work by Sebastian Stöckl and his team is the development and maintenance of scientific software tools used both in research and teaching. All packages are openly available and documented.

 

 

R Packages:

  • crypto2
    Provides a revised, survivorship bias-free access to historical cryptocurrency data from CoinMarketCap. Ideal for empirical analyses without selection bias. CRAN / GitHub
  • ffdownload
    Automated download of Fama-French factor data and portfolios directly from Kenneth French’s database. Useful for replications and custom tests. CRAN / GitHub
  • InvestigatoR
    Developed jointly with students: an AI-based framework for AI-driven return forecasting and portfolio implementation, as well as direct AI-based optimisation of portfolio weights using deep learning. GitHub
Highlight

Cesim Invest: Competitive Online Investment Simulation

Finacial Economics Graphik mit Währungszeichen und Graphen

Cesim Invest is an interactive online simulation in which students take on the role of asset managers. They run their own wealth management firm, serve diverse client types with individual investment goals, and make strategic as well as tactical investment decisions, incorporating stocks, bonds, currencies and alternative investments.

 

Teams compete directly against each other, analysing markets, optimising portfolios with regard to risk and ESG criteria, while simultaneously organising their business operations. The simulation fosters strategic thinking, decision-making, teamwork and the application of quantitative methods in a realistic environment.

Finacial Economics Graphik mit Währungszeichen und Graphen

Cesim Invest was developed in collaboration with Cesim Oy and the Free University of Bolzano and is flexibly used at universities, schools and in professional education with practice partners.

 

Learning Objectives and Features:

  • Application of portfolio theory and asset pricing in realistic decision-making scenarios
  • ESG integration and sustainable investment strategies
  • Competitive, interactive learning format
  • Data-driven feedback and AI-supported performance analysis
  • Promotion of teamwork, reflection and strategic thinking

 

More information at: www.cesim.com/simulations/cesim-invest

Publications

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Questions about the Professorship?

Assoz. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Stöckl
Associate Professor - Financial Economics Academic Director - Liechtenstein Undergraduate and Graduate School Official Representative AACSB - University of Liechtenstein
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