IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v70y2024ics1062940823001948.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Individual investment adaptations to COVID-19 lockdowns

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Bin
  • Wang, Bin
  • Chen, Zixuan

Abstract

Utilizing online wealth management data from Ant Financial and manually curated data from COVID-19 lockdown regions in China, this study sheds light on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on individual investment pattern. Applying a Staggered Difference-in-Differences methodology, we find significant decrease in both the volume and proportion of individual holdings in risky mutual funds after their initial exposure to lockdowns. This decline mainly corresponds to a decrease in risky mutual fund purchases and an increase in redemptions. Mechanism analysis reveals this change is due to a notable decrease in individuals’ overall assets during lockdowns, leading to a higher allocation toward risk-free money market funds. Heterogeneity analysis highlights these impacts are more pronounced among individuals with lower risk tolerance. Additionally, there is a notable drop in individuals’ equity fund holdings. The lockdowns prompt a conservative shift in individuals’ wealth strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Bin & Wang, Bin & Chen, Zixuan, 2024. "Individual investment adaptations to COVID-19 lockdowns," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:70:y:2024:i:c:s1062940823001948
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2023.102071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940823001948
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2023.102071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoran Ivković & Scott Weisbenner, 2005. "Local Does as Local Is: Information Content of the Geography of Individual Investors' Common Stock Investments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 267-306, February.
    2. Yongsung Chang & Jay Hong & Marios Karabarbounis & Yicheng Wang & Tao Zhang, 2022. "Income Volatility and Portfolio Choices," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 44, pages 65-90, April.
    3. Li, Teng & Barwick, Panle Jia & Deng, Yongheng & Huang, Xinfei & Li, Shanjun, 2023. "The COVID-19 pandemic and unemployment: Evidence from mobile phone data from China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    4. Dana Goldman & Nicole Maestas, 2013. "Medical Expenditure Risk And Household Portfolio Choice," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 527-550, June.
    5. Evan Gatev & Philip E. Strahan, 2006. "Banks' Advantage in Hedging Liquidity Risk: Theory and Evidence from the Commercial Paper Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 867-892, April.
    6. Kaiser, Tim & Lusardi, Annamaria & Menkhoff, Lukas & Urban, Carly, 2022. "Financial education affects financial knowledge and downstream behaviors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 255-272.
    7. Daniel Fernandes & John G. Lynch & Richard G. Netemeyer, 2014. "Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Downstream Financial Behaviors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1861-1883, August.
    8. Cardak, Buly A. & Wilkins, Roger, 2009. "The determinants of household risky asset holdings: Australian evidence on background risk and other factors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 850-860, May.
    9. Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Mingzhu Tai & Wensi Xie, 2021. "How Did Depositors Respond to COVID-19? [A crisis of banks as liquidity providers]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5438-5473.
    10. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1996. "The Financial Accelerator and the Flight to Quality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(1), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Stefano Ramelli & Alexander F Wagner, 2020. "Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 622-655.
    12. Xiaohong Angerer & Pok‐Sang Lam, 2009. "Income Risk and Portfolio Choice: An Empirical Study," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 1037-1055, April.
    13. Brodeur, Abel & Clark, Andrew E. & Fleche, Sarah & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2021. "COVID-19, lockdowns and well-being: Evidence from Google Trends," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    14. Yixing Zhang & Xiaomeng Lu & Qiu Zhong, 2022. "Pandemic, Precautionary Saving, and Household Portfolio Choice: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(15), pages 4338-4349, December.
    15. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    16. Joshua D. Coval & Tyler Shumway, 2005. "Do Behavioral Biases Affect Prices?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 1-34, February.
    17. Luigi Guiso & Monica Paiella, 2008. "Risk Aversion, Wealth, and Background Risk," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(6), pages 1109-1150, December.
    18. Guiso, Luigi & Jappelli, Tullio & Terlizzese, Daniele, 1996. "Income Risk, Borrowing Constraints, and Portfolio Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 158-172, March.
    19. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2020. "Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    20. Ivković, Zoran & Sialm, Clemens & Weisbenner, Scott, 2008. "Portfolio Concentration and the Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 613-655, September.
    21. Joao F. Cocco, 2005. "Portfolio Choice in the Presence of Housing," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 535-567.
    22. Geert Bekaert & Eric C. Engstrom & Nancy R. Xu, 2022. "The Time Variation in Risk Appetite and Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(6), pages 3975-4004, June.
    23. Dietrich, Alexander M. & Kuester, Keith & Müller, Gernot J. & Schoenle, Raphael, 2022. "News and uncertainty about COVID-19: Survey evidence and short-run economic impact," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(S), pages 35-51.
    24. Carol C. Bertaut, 1998. "Stockholding Behavior Of U.S. Households: Evidence From The 1983-1989 Survey Of Consumer Finances," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(2), pages 263-275, May.
    25. Alessandro Beber & Michael W. Brandt & Kenneth A. Kavajecz, 2009. "Flight-to-Quality or Flight-to-Liquidity? Evidence from the Euro-Area Bond Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 925-957.
    26. Agüero, Jorge M. & Beleche, Trinidad, 2017. "Health shocks and their long-lasting impact on health behaviors: Evidence from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Mexico," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 40-55.
    27. Yongsung Chang & Jay Hong & Marios Karabarbounis & Yicheng Wang & Tao Zhang, 2022. "Income Volatility and Portfolio Choices," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 44, pages 65-90, April.
    28. Niels Joachim Gormsen & Ralph S J Koijen & Nikolai Roussanov, 0. "Coronavirus: Impact on Stock Prices and Growth Expectations," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 574-597.
    29. Itay Goldstein & Ralph S J Koijen & Holger M Mueller, 2021. "COVID-19 and Its Impact on Financial Markets and the Real Economy [A model of endogenous risk intolerance and LSAPs: Asset prices and aggregate demand in a “COVID-19” shock]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5135-5148.
    30. Doruk Cengiz & Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner & Ben Zipperer, 2019. "The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1405-1454.
    31. Pratt, John W & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 1987. "Proper Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 143-154, January.
    32. Hetschko, Clemens & Preuss, Malte, 2020. "Income in jeopardy: How losing employment affects the willingness to take risks," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    33. Anil K. Kashyap & Raghuram Rajan & Jeremy C. Stein, 2002. "Banks as Liquidity Providers: An Explanation for the Coexistence of Lending and Deposit‐taking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 33-73, February.
    34. Justine S. Hastings & Brigitte C. Madrian & William L. Skimmyhorn, 2013. "Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Economic Outcomes," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 347-373, May.
    35. Rui Albuquerque & Yrjo Koskinen & Shuai Yang & Chendi Zhang, 2020. "Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 593-621.
    36. Chie Hanaoka & Hitoshi Shigeoka & Yasutora Watanabe, 2015. "Do Risk Preferences Change? Evidence from Panel Data before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake," NBER Working Papers 21400, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Wang, Albert Y. & Young, Michael, 2020. "Terrorist attacks and investor risk preference: Evidence from mutual fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 491-514.
    38. Bogan, Vicki, 2008. "Stock Market Participation and the Internet," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 191-211, March.
    39. Ding, Wenzhi & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Xie, Wensi, 2021. "Corporate immunity to the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 802-830.
    40. Ulrike Malmendier & Stefan Nagel, 2011. "Depression Babies: Do Macroeconomic Experiences Affect Risk Taking?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(1), pages 373-416.
    41. Yoshiro Tsutsui & Iku Tsutsui-Kimura, 2022. "How does risk preference change under the stress of COVID-19? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 191-212, April.
    42. Junjian Yi & Junhong Chu & I. P. L. Png, 2022. "Early-life exposure to hardship increased risk tolerance and entrepreneurship in adulthood with gender differences," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 119(15), pages 2104033119-, April.
    43. Kimball, Miles S, 1993. "Standard Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 589-611, May.
    44. Hoffmann, Arvid O.I. & Post, Thomas & Pennings, Joost M.E., 2013. "Individual investor perceptions and behavior during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 60-74.
    45. Gao, Ming & Liu, Yu-Jane & Shi, Yushui, 2020. "Do people feel less at risk? Evidence from disaster experience," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(3), pages 866-888.
    46. Berkowitz, Michael K. & Qiu, Jiaping, 2006. "A further look at household portfolio choice and health status," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1201-1217, April.
    47. Tobin Hanspal & Annika Weber & Johannes Wohlfart, 2021. "Exposure to the COVID-19 Stock Market Crash and Its Effect on Household Expectations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 994-1010, December.
    48. Viral V Acharya & Sascha Steffen, 2020. "The Risk of Being a Fallen Angel and the Corporate Dash for Cash in the Midst of COVID," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 430-471.
    49. Di Maggio, Marco & Kermani, Amir & Ramcharan, Rodney & Yao, Vincent & Yu, Edison, 2022. "The pass-through of uncertainty shocks to households," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 85-104.
    50. Kamstra, Mark J. & Kramer, Lisa A. & Levi, Maurice D. & Wermers, Russ, 2017. "Seasonal Asset Allocation: Evidence from Mutual Fund Flows," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 71-109, February.
    51. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    52. Marjorie Flavin & Takashi Yamashita, 2002. "Owner-Occupied Housing and the Composition of the Household Portfolio," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 345-362, March.
    53. Cornett, Marcia Millon & McNutt, Jamie John & Strahan, Philip E. & Tehranian, Hassan, 2011. "Liquidity risk management and credit supply in the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 297-312, August.
    54. Shin, Su Hyun & Kim, Kyoung Tae & Seay, Martin, 2020. "Sources of information and portfolio allocation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    55. Zhang, Annie C. & Fang, Jiali & Jacobsen, Ben & Marshall, Ben R., 2018. "Peer effects, personal characteristics and asset allocation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 76-95.
    56. Laura Alfaro & Anusha Chari & Andrew N. Greenland & Peter K. Schott, 2020. "Aggregate and Firm-Level Stock Returns During Pandemics, in Real Time," NBER Working Papers 26950, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    57. Tran, Nhu & Uzmanoglu, Cihan, 2022. "COVID-19, lockdowns, and the municipal bond market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    2. Nicholas Apergis & Christos Bouras, 2023. "Household choices on investing in financial risky assets: Do national institutional factors have their own merit?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 405-420, January.
    3. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    4. Michal Bernardelli & Zbigniew Korzeb & Pawel Niedziolka, 2021. "The banking sector as the absorber of the COVID-19 crisis’ economic consequences: perception of WSE investors," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(2), pages 335-374, June.
    5. Xiaoli, Gan & xiaoyi, Zhang & Xiaoyang, Ma & Khalid, Fahad, 2023. "Impact of financial environment on household risk financial asset selection: A micro perspective," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 137-145.
    6. Lei Li & Philip E. Strahan & Song Zhang, 2020. "Banks as Lenders of First Resort: Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis," NBER Working Papers 27256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Marco Pagano & Josef Zechner, 2022. "COVID-19 and Corporate Finance [The risk of being a fallen angel and the corporate dash for cash in the midst of COVID]," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 849-879.
    8. Pagano, Marco & Wagner, Christian & Zechner, Josef, 2023. "Disaster resilience and asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2).
    9. He, Zekai & Shi, Xiuzhen & Lu, Xiaomeng & Li, Feng, 2019. "Home equity and household portfolio choice: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 149-164.
    10. Mathur, Aakriti & Sengupta, Rajeswari & Pratap, Bhanu, 2024. "Equity market responses to surprise Covid-19 lockdowns: The role of pandemic-driven uncertainty," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    11. Raslan Alzuabi & Sarah Brown & Mark N. Harris & Karl Taylor, 2024. "Modelling the composition of household portfolios: A latent class approach," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 243-275, February.
    12. Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Mingzhu Tai & Wensi Xie, 2021. "How Did Depositors Respond to COVID-19? [A crisis of banks as liquidity providers]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5438-5473.
    13. Dekui Jia & Ruihai Li & Shibo Bian & Christopher Gan, 2021. "Financial Planning Ability, Risk Perception and Household Portfolio Choice," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(8), pages 2153-2175, June.
    14. Bender, Svetlana & Choi, James J. & Dyson, Danielle & Robertson, Adriana Z., 2022. "Millionaires speak: What drives their personal investment decisions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 305-330.
    15. Chen, Zhuo & Li, Pengfei & Liao, Li & Liu, Lu & Wang, Zhengwei, 2024. "Assessing and addressing the coronavirus-induced economic crisis: Evidence from 1.5 billion sales invoices," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. Tami Gurley-Calvez & Josephine Lugovskyy, 2019. "The role of entrepreneurial risk in financial portfolio allocation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 839-858, December.
    17. Angrisani, Marco & Atella, Vincenzo & Brunetti, Marianna, 2018. "Public health insurance and household portfolio Choices: Unravelling financial “Side Effects” of Medicare," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 198-212.
    18. Cardak, Buly A. & Martin, Vance L., 2023. "Household willingness to take financial risk: Stockmarket movements and life‐cycle effects," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Ferriani, Fabrizio, 2023. "Issuing bonds during the Covid-19 pandemic: Was there an ESG premium?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. Ducret, Romain, 2021. "Investors' perception of business group membership during an economic crisis : Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," FSES Working Papers 524, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risky mutual fund; Individual investment decisions; Risk-taking; COVID-19 lockdown;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:70:y:2024:i:c:s1062940823001948. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.