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Limited Awareness and Financial Intermediation

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  • Sarah Auster
  • Nicola Pavoni

Abstract

We study the market interaction between financial intermediaries and retail investors, who not only face uncertainty about the performance of the different investments but also have limited awareness of the available investment opportunities. Intermediaries compete for investors via the menu of investment options they offer. We show that when competition is limited, intermediaries restrict their offers to extreme options, e.g. very risky and very safe products. We also consider investor heterogeneity and show that the presence of sophisticated, fully aware investors can impose a negative externality on investors with limited awareness. Self-reported data from customers in the Italian retail investment sector support the key predictions of the model: the menus offered to less knowledgable investors contain few products, most of them are nevertheless perceived to be at the extremes.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Auster & Nicola Pavoni, 2020. "Limited Awareness and Financial Intermediation," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_252, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_252
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gui, Zhengqing & Huang, Yangguang & Zhao, Xiaojian, 2024. "Financial fraud and investor awareness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 104-123.
    3. Auster, Sarah & Pavoni, Nicola, 2024. "Optimal delegation and information transmission under limited awareness," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 19(1), January.
    4. Johannes Gierlinger & Pau Milán, 2021. "The Limits to Local Insurance," Working Papers 1293, Barcelona School of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unawareness; financial investments; delegation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage

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