IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_8658.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Finance

Author

Listed:
  • Theresa Kuchler
  • Johannes Stroebel

Abstract

We review an empirical literature that studies the role of social interactions in driving economic and financial decision making. We first summarize recent work that documents an important role of social interactions in explaining household decisions in housing and mortgage markets. This evidence shows, for example, that there are large peer effects in mortgage refinancing decisions and that individuals’ beliefs about the attractiveness of housing market investments are affected by the recent house price experiences of their friends. We also summarize the evidence that social interactions affect the stock market investments of both retail and professional investors as well as household financial decisions such as retirement savings, borrowing, and default. Along the way, we describe a number of easily accessible recent data sets for the study of social interactions in finance, including the “Social Connectedness Index,” which measures the frequency of Facebook friendship links across geographic regions. We conclude by outlining several promising directions for further research at the intersection of household finance and “social finance.”

Suggested Citation

  • Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2020. "Social Finance," CESifo Working Paper Series 8658, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp8658.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abel, Andrew B, 1990. "Asset Prices under Habit Formation and Catching Up with the Joneses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 38-42, May.
    2. Arrondel, Luc & Calvo-Pardo, Hector & Giannitsarou, Chryssi & Haliassos, Michael, 2022. "Informative social interactions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 246-263.
    3. Arpit Gupta, 2019. "Foreclosure Contagion and the Neighborhood Spillover Effects of Mortgage Defaults," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(5), pages 2249-2301, October.
    4. Dimitris Georgarakos & Michael Haliassos & Giacomo Pasini, 2014. "Household Debt and Social Interactions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1404-1433.
    5. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 2016. "Understanding Booms and Busts in Housing Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(4), pages 1088-1147.
    6. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2013. "The Determinants of Attitudes toward Strategic Default on Mortgages," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1473-1515, August.
    7. Sumit Agarwal & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Neale Mahoney & Johannes Stroebel, 2015. "Regulating Consumer Financial Products: Evidence from Credit Cards," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 111-164.
    8. Johannes Stroebel, 2016. "Asymmetric Information about Collateral Values," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 1071-1112, June.
    9. Bailey, Michael & Farrell, Patrick & Kuchler, Theresa & Stroebel, Johannes, 2020. "Social connectedness in urban areas," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    10. Monika Piazzesi & Martin Schneider & Johannes Stroebel, 2020. "Segmented Housing Search," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(3), pages 720-759, March.
    11. Fabio Milani, 2021. "COVID-19 outbreak, social response, and early economic effects: a global VAR analysis of cross-country interdependencies," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 223-252, January.
    12. Charles Towe & Chad Lawley, 2013. "The Contagion Effect of Neighboring Foreclosures," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 313-335, May.
    13. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Katherine L. Milkman, 2015. "The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(3), pages 1161-1201, June.
    14. Veronika K. Pool & Noah Stoffman & Scott E. Yonker, 2015. "The People in Your Neighborhood: Social Interactions and Mutual Fund Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(6), pages 2679-2732, December.
    15. Patrick Bayer & Kyle Mangum & James W. Roberts, 2021. "Speculative Fever: Investor Contagion in the Housing Bubble," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(2), pages 609-651, February.
    16. Michael Bailey & Ruiqing Cao & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2018. "The Economic Effects of Social Networks: Evidence from the Housing Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(6), pages 2224-2276.
    17. Paige Ouimet & Geoffrey Tate, 2020. "Learning from Coworkers: Peer Effects on Individual Investment Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(1), pages 133-172, February.
    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. Haliassos, Michael & Jansson, Thomas & Karabulut, Yigitcan, 2021. "Wealth inequality: Opportunity or unfairness?," IMFS Working Paper Series 161, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    2. Bailey, Michael & Gupta, Abhinav & Hillenbrand, Sebastian & Kuchler, Theresa & Richmond, Robert & Stroebel, Johannes, 2021. "International trade and social connectedness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(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. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    2. Michael Bailey & Ruiqing Cao & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2016. "Social Networks and Housing Markets," NBER Working Papers 22258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Cramer, Kim Fe & Koont, Naz, 2021. "Peer effects in deposit markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119192, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. William N Goetzmann & Christophe Spaenjers & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "Real and Private-Value Assets [Gendered prices]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(8), pages 3497-3526.
    5. Kuchler, Theresa & Piazzesi, Monika & Ströbel, Johannes, 2022. "Housing Market Expectations," CEPR Discussion Papers 17158, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Johan Walden, 2023. "Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Beliefs and Undersaving," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1647-1704, June.
    7. Arrondel, Luc & Calvo-Pardo, Hector & Giannitsarou, Chryssi & Haliassos, Michael, 2022. "Informative social interactions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 246-263.
    8. McCartney, W. Ben & Shah, Avni M., 2022. "Household mortgage refinancing decisions are neighbor influenced, especially along racial lines," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. W. Ben McCartney & Avni Shah, 2021. "Household Mortgage Refinancing Decisions Are Neighbor Influenced," Working Papers 21-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    10. Kuchler, Theresa & Pagel, Michaela, 2021. "Sticking to your plan: The role of present bias for credit card paydown," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 359-388.
    11. Hu, Zhongchen, 2022. "Social interactions and households’ flood insurance decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 414-432.
    12. Diemer, Andreas & Regan, Tanner, 2022. "No inventor is an island: Social connectedness and the geography of knowledge flows in the US," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    13. Martin Brown & Jan Schmitz & Christian Zehnder, 2023. "Moral Constraints, Social Norm Enforcement and Strategic Default in Weak and Strong Economic Conditions," Working Papers 23.03, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    14. Weiran Huang & Ashlyn Nelson & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "Foreclosure Spillovers within Broad Neighborhoods," Working Papers 2018-096, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    15. Kleiner, Kristoph & Stoffman, Noah & Yonker, Scott E., 2021. "Friends with bankruptcy protection benefits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 578-605.
    16. Barboni, Giorgia & Cardenas, Juan Camilo & de Roux, Nicolas, 2022. "Behavioral Messages and Debt Repayment," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 633, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    17. Giang Nguyen & My Nguyen & Anh Viet Pham & Man Duy Marty Pham, 2023. "Navigating investment decisions with social connectedness : Implications for venture capital," Post-Print hal-04325756, HAL.
    18. Bailey, Michael & Gupta, Abhinav & Hillenbrand, Sebastian & Kuchler, Theresa & Richmond, Robert & Stroebel, Johannes, 2021. "International trade and social connectedness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    19. D’Acunto, Francesco & Rossi, Alberto G. & Weber, Michael, 2024. "Crowdsourcing peer information to change spending behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    20. Turnbull, Geoffrey K. & van der Vlist, Arno J., 2022. "The price of ignorance: Foreclosures, uninformed buyers and house prices," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social networks; peer effects; financial decision making; social dynamics; belief contagion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_8658. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.