Abstract
We provide causal evidence on one of the most prominent critiques of behavioral finance – that most of the evidence in psychology, which underpins the field, comes from experiments with little at stake for participants. How far do behavioral biases – leading to investment mistakes – get attenuated when stakes are raised? We study this issue by exploiting exogenous variation in stakes resulting from unexpected inheritances due to sudden parental death. We find that increasing stakes reduces investment mistakes, but this effect is economically small. Mistakes do not disappear when stakes are raised, even when this increase is substantial.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 2021 |
| Number of pages | 38 |
| Publication status | Published - 2021 |
| Event | The Eighth Annual Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research. ABFER 2021 - Virtual, Singapore Duration: 24 May 2021 → 2 Jun 2021 Conference number: 8 https://abfer.org/events/abfer-events/annual-conference/235:immb2021 |
Conference
| Conference | The Eighth Annual Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research. ABFER 2021 |
|---|---|
| Number | 8 |
| Location | Virtual |
| Country/Territory | Singapore |
| Period | 24/05/2021 → 02/06/2021 |
| Internet address |