How financial literacy and demographic variables relate to behavioral biases

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Kent Baker ◽  
Satish Kumar ◽  
Nisha Goyal ◽  
Vidhu Gaur
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Mental Accounting ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioral Biases ◽  
Investment Experience

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how financial literacy and demographic variables (gender, age, income level, education, occupation, marital status and investment experience) related to behavioral biases.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), factor analysis and multiple regression analysis to examine survey data from more than 500 individual investors in India.FindingsThe results reveal the presence of different behavioral biases including overconfidence and self-attribution, the disposition effect, anchoring bias, representativeness, mental accounting, emotional biases and herding among Indian investors. Hence, the findings support the view that individual investors do not always act rationally. The results also show that financial literacy has a negative association with the disposition effect and herding bias, a positive relation with mental accounting bias, but no significant relation with overconfidence and emotional biases. Age, occupation and investment experience are the most important demographic variables that relate to the behavioral biases of individual investors in the sample. Regarding gender, males are more overconfident than are females about their knowledge of the stock market.Research limitations/implicationsThe study does not test for causality, only association between the variables. Thus, the findings in this study should not be interpreted as suggesting causality. The study may have implications for financial educators in promoting the financial awareness programs for individuals. Financial advisors can potentially become more effective by understanding their clients’ decision-making processes.Originality/valueDespite an extensive literature on behavioral finance, limited academic research attempts to unravel the relation of how financial literacy and demographic variates relate to behavioral biases. This study contributes to this literature by trying to fill this gap.

Financial literacy or investment experience: which is more influential in cryptocurrency investment?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haidong Zhao ◽  
Lini Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Investment Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Asset Holding ◽  
Investment Experience ◽  
Subjective Financial Knowledge

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate how financial literacy and investment experience impact cryptocurrency investment behavior and explore which factor is more influential in cryptocurrency investment.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of US individual investors from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study Investor Survey, a three-step hierarchical logistic regression was conducted following a model-comparison approach. In addition, a mediation analysis was conducted using the Karlson−Holm−Breen (KHB) method to further explore the mediating effect of investment experience between financial literacy and cryptocurrency investment.FindingsThis study found that while both financial literacy and investment experience were positively associated with investing in cryptocurrencies, investment experience was more influential in cryptocurrency investment. The findings also demonstrated that investment experience, especially risky asset holding, had a significant mediating effect between subjective financial knowledge and cryptocurrency investment behavior.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study offer insight to researchers by providing a deeper understanding of the determinants of cryptocurrency investment in the United States. This study also provides detailed implications for financial institutions, financial professionals and policymakers to guide rational cryptocurrency investment behavior.Originality/valueThis study is one of the initial attempts to explore the determinant factors in cryptocurrency investment, an area that has rarely been studied in the literature.

A study of prominence for disposition effect: a systematic review

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Aliya Zahera ◽  
Rohit Bansal
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Funds ◽  
Behavioral Finance ◽  
Mutual Fund ◽  
Institutional Investors ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Experimental Market ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the disposition effect that is exhibited by the investors through the review of research articles in the area of behavioral finance. When the investors are hesitant to realize the losses and quick to realize the gains, this phenomenon is known as the disposition effect. This paper explains various theories, which have been evolved over the years that has explained the phenomenon of disposition effect. It includes the behavior of individual investors, institutional investors and mutual fund managers. Design/methodology/approach The authors have used the existing literatures from the various authors, who have studied the disposition effect in either real market or the experimental market. This paper includes literature over a period of 40 years, that is, Dyl, 1977, in the form of tax loss selling, to the most recent paper, Surya et al. (2017). Some authors have used the PGR-PLR ratio for calculating the disposition effect in their study. However, some authors have used t-test, ANNOVA, Correlation coefficient, Standard deviation, Regression, etc., as a tool to find the presence of disposition effect. Findings The effect of disposition can be changed for different types of individual investors, institutional investors and mutual funds. The individual investors are largely prone to the disposition effect and the demographic variables like age, gender, experience, investor sophistication also impact the occurrence of the disposition effect. On the other side, the institutional investors and mutual funds managers may or may not be affected by the disposition effect. Practical implications The skilled understanding of the disposition effect will help the investors, financial institutions and policy-makers to reduce the adverse effect of this bias in the stock market. This paper contributes a detailed explanation of disposition effect and its impacts on the investors. The study of disposition effect has been found to be insufficient in the context of Indian capital market. Social implications The investors and society at large can gains insights about causes and influences of disposition effect which will be helpful to create sound investment decisions. Originality/value This paper has complied the 11 causes for the occurrence of disposition effect that are found by the different authors. The paper also highlights the impact of the disposition effect in the decision-making of various investors.

Development and validation of behavioral biases scale: a SEM approach

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritika ◽  
Nawal Kishor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioral Biases ◽  
Investment Decision Making

PurposeThis paper attempts to identify the biases in decision-making of individual investors. The paper aims to develop and validate a higher-order behavioral biases scale.Design/methodology/approachScale development is done by identifying the relevant items of the scale through existing literature and then, adding new items for some biases. In phase 1, using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from 274 investors who invest in financial markets. The major dimensions of the scale have been pruned by using exploratory factor analysis administered on data collected in phase 1. Higher-order CFA is used to analyze the data and to validate the scale on another set of data (collected in phase 2) containing 576 investors.FindingsThe study reveals that the scale for measuring behavioral biases has many dimensions. It has two second-order factors and 13 zero-order constructs. Two second-order constructs have been modeled on the basis of cause of errors in investment decision-making, that is, biases caused due to cognition, biases caused due to emotions.Originality/valueBehavioral biases are yet to receive a due attention, especially, in the Indian context. The present research is focusing on providing an empirically tested scale to test the behavioral biases. Some of the biases, which have been analyzed using secondary data in previous studies, have been tested with the help of statements in this study.

Behavioral biases on institutional investors: a literature review

Kybernetes ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 1668-1684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selim Aren ◽  
Sibel Dinç Aydemir ◽  
Yasin Şehitoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Institutional Investors ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Home Bias ◽  
Institutional Investor ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Herding Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioral Biases

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate published institutional investor research focused on home bias, disposition effect, and herding behavior in recognized journals and to ascertain some substantial gaps with regard to them. Design/methodology/approach Recently published studies between 2005 and 2014, which intend to examine behavioral biases on institutional investors, have been reviewed through juxtaposing them under the three fundamental titles and figuring them according to the explanation why these biases occurs. Findings The research examining home bias has identified the presence of this effect on institutional investors and explained it with information or culture. Yet, the existence of disposition effect has not been found in the extant research. These studies have estimated disposition effect through overconfidence and experience. Also, extant studies have provided evidence of herding behavior, attributing this behavior to pursuing same published information and protecting their reputation and career. Originality/value Currently, no study, which reviews and evaluates the empirical research body on behavioral biases displayed institutional investors, exists. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper which highlights the empirical evidence on these bias and summarizes the explanations in these studies for these biases exhibited by institutional investors. This could contribute to the researchers focusing on behavioral biases on institutional investors by providing them with a meaningful figuralization regarding their evidence and explanation.

scholarly journals The effect of financial literacy on behavioral biases of individual investors in the Egyptian stock exchange

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2, special issue) ◽  
pp. 120-134
Author(s):  
Amr Youssef ◽  
Passent Tantawi ◽  
Mohamed Ragheb ◽  
Mohammad Saeed
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
General View ◽  
Behavioral Biases ◽  
Information Processing Biases ◽  
Belief Perseverance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Egyptian Stock Exchange

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the dimensions of financial literacy could affect the behavioral biases of individual investors in the Egyptian stock exchange. The study examines the data collected from 403 individual investors in Egypt. The findings revealed the presence of some kinds of behavioral biases among individual investors in the Egyptian stock exchange, which could be categorized into three main categories: belief perseverance biases, information processing biases, and emotional biases (Pompian, 2012). This supports the view that individual investors do not necessarily act rationally. The findings also support the general view that financial literacy has a negative effect on behavioral biases; however, the effect differs between the categories of the behavioral biases, with the most effect on information processing biases, moderate effect on belief perseverance biases, and low effect on emotional biases. Also, this study indicated that the impact of financial literacy on behavioral biases is greater on females than males (Baker, Kumar, Goyal, & Gaur, 2019). Financial intermediaries and consultants can possibly become more effective by understanding the decision-making processes of individual investors. This study adds to the limited academic research that attempted to tackle the impact of financial literacy on the categories of behavioral biases

Individual investor attention to stock split and the disposition effect

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Kesuma ◽  
Irwan Adi Ekaputra ◽  
Dony Abdul Chalid
Keyword(s):  
Stock Returns ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Stock Splits ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Investor Attention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stock Split ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis paper investigates whether individual investors are attentive to stock splits and whether higher split ratios (stronger private information signals) reduce the disposition effect.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs stock split events and transaction data in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from January 2004 to December 2017. The authors measure individual investors' attention using buy-initiated trades. To test the effect of split signal on disposition effect, the authors regress individual investors' sell-initiated trades on past stock returns.FindingsUnlike Birru (2015), the authors find that individual investors are attentive to stock splits, especially when stock split ratios are high. In turn, stock splits tend to weaken the disposition effect. The higher the stock split ratios, the weaker the disposition effect.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has a limitation in that the authors exclude all stock splits with dividend events around the split date. These stock splits cover 37% of all splits in Indonesia.Practical implicationsPractically, individual investors should look for stock-related information to reduce disposition bias.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to test individual investors' attention on stock splits based on their buy-initiated trades. This study is also the first to test the impact of stock split ratios on the disposition effect reduction. This study's findings enrich the scant literature on individual investors' attention and how to reduce their disposition effect bias.

Do behavioral biases differ among institutional and individual investors?

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Roshani Chamalka Gunathilaka ◽  
◽  
J. M. Ruwani Fernando ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Institutional Investors ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Behavioral Biases ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Overconfidence Bias

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how does the behavioral biases differ among the individual and institutional investors based on Colombo Stock Exchange. The study considers the effect of four behavioral biases; overconfidence bias, representativeness bias, disposition effect and herd mentality bias on the financial investment decision making of individual investors and institutional investors. Design / methodology / approach: A questionnaire was utilized to collect the data and the final sample consisted with 104 individual and 71 institutional respondents. The data of 175 investors was analyzed by using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling approach. Findings: The study revealed that disposition effect make an impact on the investment decisions of both individual investors and institutional investors whereas overconfidence bias has impact only on the individual investors’ investment decisions. Originality: This study is one of the pioneering studies examining the behavioral biases differences of individual and institutional investors’ decision making. Thus, this study expands the existing literature in the field of behavioral finance particularly in emerging market context. In this sense, the findings of this study could draw important inferences for researchers, investors and policy makers to ensure that they make rational investments decisions.

Examining investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions during COVID-19 in the emerging stock market: a case of Pakistan stock market

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shagufta Parveen ◽  
Zoya Wajid Satti ◽  
Qazi Abdul Subhan ◽  
Nishat Riaz ◽  
Samreen Fahim Baber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
Behavioral Finance ◽  
Stock Markets ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Behavioral Biases ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on investors' sentiments, behavioral biases and investment decisions in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).Design/methodology/approachThe authors have assessed investors' behaviors and sentiments and the stock market overreaction during COVID-19 using a questionnaire and collected data from 401 investors trading in the PSX.FindingsResults of structural equation modeling revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected investors' behaviors, investment decisions and trade volume. It created feelings of fear and uncertainty among market participants. Evidence suggests that behavioral heuristics and biases, including representative heuristic, anchoring heuristic, overconfidence bias and disposition effect, negatively influenced investors' decisions at the PSX.Research limitations/implicationsThis study will contribute to behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries as it has revealed the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock market, and its results are generalizable to other emerging stock markets.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study will help academicians, researchers and policymakers of developing countries. Academicians can formulate new behavioral models that can depict the solutions of dealing with an uncertain situation like COVID-19. Policymakers like the Securities Exchange Commission and the PSX can formulate crisis management strategies based on behavioral finance concepts to cope with situations like COVID-19 in the future and help lessen investors' losses in the stock markets. The role of the Securities Exchange Commission is crucial as it regulates the financial markets. It can arrange workshops to educate investors to manage their decisions during crisis time and focus on the best use of irrational and rational decision-making at the same time using Lo (2004) adaptive market hypothesis.Originality/valueThe novelty of the paper is that the authors have introduced overconfidence and disposition effect as mediators that create a connection between representative and anchoring heuristics and investment decisions using primary data collected from investors (institutional and retail) to demonstrate the presence of psychological biases during COVID-19, and it has been done for the first time according to authors' knowledge. It is a contribution and addition to the behavioral finance literature in the context of developing countries' stock markets and their efficiency.

scholarly journals Evaluating the effectiveness of corporate boards

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Nordberg ◽  
Rebecca Booth
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Evaluators ◽  
Policy Direction ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to examine how board evaluations have emerged as an important tool in public policy and corporate practice for enhancing board effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the extensive literature on effectiveness and the emerging literature on board evaluation to identify ways to assess the current policy direction for external evaluation of corporate boards. Findings The paper develops an integrated framework of effectiveness that can be used as a tool for board evaluation, in particular for externally facilitated exercises. Research limitations/implications Through its integration of prior conceptual work this paper advances our theoretical understanding of this emerging part of policy and practice, with to-date lack much empirical basis. Practical implications The framework that is developed shows ways to focus how the practice is conducted by boards and external evaluators alike. Social implications It can also help policy formation by pointing out the limitations as well as benefits of various policy options. Originality/value In pointing to ways to develop study of the field through empirical research, it provides direction for future academic research. It also identifies a need for and direction toward the professionalization of practice.

An investigation of the impact of financial literacy, risk attitude, and saving motives on the attenuation of mutual fund investors’ disposition bias

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Jonsson ◽  
Inga-Lill Söderberg ◽  
Mats Wilhelmsson
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Mutual Fund ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Disposition Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Separate Model ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of financial literacy, risk attitude, and saving motives on the attenuation of mutual fund investors’ disposition bias. Specifically, the authors focus on individual characteristics explaining the investors’ propensity to sell shares in a poorly performing mutual fund. Design/methodology/approach The study relies on survey data collected from 1,564 Swedish households in 2013. The authors test the hypotheses considering three different portfolio compositions and portfolio performances. Each composition corresponds to a dependent variable and a separate model which are estimated using ordinal logistic regression. Findings The authors find that different forms of financial literacy affect attenuation of the disposition effect. Specifically, the authors find that knowledge about mutual funds and knowledge about current market conditions affect the attenuation of the disposition effect, whereas the authors find no support for the effect of “technical financial knowledge” (e.g. the ability to calculate compound interest rates). The authors also find no support for the effects of risk attitude and saving motives on the attenuation of the disposition bias. Originality/value The findings suggest a need for a more fine-grained conceptualization of the financial literacy concept and its effect on investors’ disposition bias. Since an important implication of the findings is that financial literacy could potentially help people overcome behavioral bias, the study provides insights for policymakers as well as into the discussion on the design of consumer education programs.

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