IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/228864.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who are robo-advisor users?

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Seongsu David
  • Cotwright, Marty
  • Chatterjee, Swarn

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the demand for robo-advising services by analyzing the participants’ behavioral characteristics and investment patterns. With the 2015 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor data, we found that robo-advisor users were younger investors with high risk tolerance, whose self-assessment of financial knowledge is comparatively higher than their actual knowledge, and were independent decision-makers. By controlling for those behavioral attributes of robo-advisor users, we also found that robo-advisor users were reluctant to invest in individual stocks, while they showed the largest preference for investing in pooled investment products such as Exchange Traded Funds. Implications of this study’s findings can be beneficial to financial planning practitioners, academics, and regulators.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Seongsu David & Cotwright, Marty & Chatterjee, Swarn, 2019. "Who are robo-advisor users?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(2), pages 33-50.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:228864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/228864/1/Kim_et_al_Robo.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xusen Cheng & Fei Guo & Jin Chen & Kejiang Li & Yihui Zhang & Peng Gao, 2019. "Exploring the Trust Influencing Mechanism of Robo-Advisor Service: A Mixed Method Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    2. 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.
    3. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    4. Ciccotello, Conrad S. & Wood, Russell E., 2001. "An investigation of the consistency of financial advice offered by web-based sources," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-4), pages 5-18.
    5. Jeffrey R. Brown & Austan Goolsbee, 2002. "Does the Internet Make Markets More Competitive? Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(3), pages 481-507, June.
    6. Laibson, David I. & Agarwal, Sumit & Driscoll, John C. & Gabaix, Xavier, 2009. "The Age of Reason: Financial Decisions over the Life-Cycle with Implications for Regulation," Scholarly Articles 4554335, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    7. Lee, In & Shin, Yong Jae, 2018. "Fintech: Ecosystem, business models, investment decisions, and challenges," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 35-46.
    8. Bernardo Nicoletti, 2017. "The Future of FinTech," Palgrave Studies in Financial Services Technology, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-319-51415-4, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brunen, Ann-Christine & Laubach, Oliver, 2022. "Do sustainable consumers prefer socially responsible investments? A study among the users of robo advisors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    2. Isaia, Eleonora & Oggero, Noemi, 2022. "The potential use of robo-advisors among the young generation: Evidence from Italy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).

    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. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    2. Kadoya, Yoshihiko & Khan, Mostafa Saidur Rahim, 2020. "What determines financial literacy in Japan?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 353-371, July.
    3. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell & Noemi Oggero, 2020. "Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(5), pages 1005-1034, August.
    4. Ziyuan Lyu & Li Wei, 2021. "Information sources and participation in the Chinese insurance market: knowledge as a mediator," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(1), pages 79-106, January.
    5. Ćumurović, Aida & Hyll, Walter, 2016. "Financial Literacy and Self-employment," IWH Discussion Papers 11/2016, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    6. Silvia Mariela Méndez-Prado & Vanessa Rodriguez & Kevin Peralta-Rizzo & Patricia Everaert & Martin Valcke, 2023. "An Assessment Tool to Identify the Financial Literacy Level of Financial Education Programs Participants’ Executed by Ecuadorian Financial Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-24, January.
    7. Fong, Joelle H. & Koh, Benedict S.K. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rohwedder, Susann, 2021. "Financial literacy and financial decision-making at older ages," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Klapper, Leora & Lusardi, Annamaria & Panos, Georgios A., 2013. "Financial literacy and its consequences: Evidence from Russia during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 3904-3923.
    9. Yang, Junhong & Wu, Yu & Huang, Bihong, 2023. "Digital finance and financial literacy: Evidence from Chinese households," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Anoosheh Rostamkalaei & Allan Riding, 2020. "Immigrants, Financial Knowledge, and Financial Behavior," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 951-977, September.
    11. Yoshihiko Kadoya & Naheed Rabbani & Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan, 2022. "Insurance literacy among older people in Japan: The role of socio‐economic status," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 788-805, June.
    12. Shen, Chung-Hua & Lin, Shih-Jie & Tang, De-Piao & Hsiao, Yu-Jen, 2016. "The relationship between financial disputes and financial literacy," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 46-65.
    13. Mark Kaahwa & Chang Zhu & Moses Muhumuza & Rodgers Mutyebere & Robert Mawenu, 2019. "Assessing the efficacy of Audio Media Technology in enhancing Financial Literacy Knowledge of Radio Listening Club Members. A case of selected Rural Communities in Western Uganda," Proceedings of Teaching and Education Conferences 9612203, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    14. Abdullah Al-Bahrani & Whitney Buser & Darshak Patel, 2020. "Early Causes of Financial Disquiet and the Gender Gap in Financial Literacy: Evidence from College Students in the Southeastern United States," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 558-571, September.
    15. Azra Zaimovic & Anes Torlakovic & Almira Arnaut-Berilo & Tarik Zaimovic & Lejla Dedovic & Minela Nuhic Meskovic, 2023. "Mapping Financial Literacy: A Systematic Literature Review of Determinants and Recent Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-30, June.
    16. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Angelici, Marta & Del Boca, Daniela & Oggero, Noemi & Profeta, Paola & Rossi, Maria Cristina & Villosio, Claudia, 2022. "Pension information and women’s awareness," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    18. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    19. Florian Deuflhard & Dimitris Georgarakos & Roman Inderst, 2019. "Financial Literacy and Savings Account Returns," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-164.
    20. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Henkens, Kene, 2018. "Do people really want freedom of choice? : Assessing preferences of pension holders," Other publications TiSEM 448e8a93-9ded-401f-9da0-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Robo-advisors; Fintech; Financial Planning; Financial Literacy; Investing; Risk Tolerance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy

    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:zbw:espost:228864. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    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.