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The Display of Information and Household Investment Behavior

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  • Maya Shaton

Abstract

I exploit a natural experiment to show that household investment decisions depend on the manner in which information is displayed. Israeli retirement funds were prohibited from displaying returns for periods shorter than twelve months. In this setting, the information displayed was altered but the accessible information remained the same. Using differences-in-differences design, I find that this change caused reduction in fund flow sensitivity to past returns, decline in trade volume, and increased asset allocation toward riskier funds. These results are consistent with models of limited attention and myopic loss aversion, and have important implications for households' accumulated wealth at retirement.

Suggested Citation

  • Maya Shaton, 2017. "The Display of Information and Household Investment Behavior," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-043, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-43
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2017.043
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    Cited by:

    1. Kronlund, Mathias & Pool, Veronika K. & Sialm, Clemens & Stefanescu, Irina, 2021. "Out of sight no more? The effect of fee disclosures on 401(k) investment allocations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 644-668.
    2. Mugerman, Yevgeny & Steinberg, Nadav & Wiener, Zvi, 2022. "The exclamation mark of Cain: Risk salience and mutual fund flows," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    3. Borsboom, Charlotte & Janssen, Dirk-Jan & Strucks, Markus & Zeisberger, Stefan, 2022. "History matters: How short-term price charts hurt investment performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. Borsboom, Charlotte & Zeisberger, Stefan, 2020. "What makes an investment risky? An analysis of price path characteristics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 92-125.
    5. Balakina, Olga & Balasubramaniam, Vimal & Dimri, Aditi & Sane, Renuka, 2021. "Unshrouding product-specific attributes through financial education," Working Papers 21/344, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    6. Fang, Xuyun & Jiang, Zhiqian & Liu, Baixiao & McConnell, John J. & Zhou, Mingshan, 2022. "Ease-of-processing heuristics and asset prices: Evidence from the exchange-traded repo market in China," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).
    7. Samuel M. Hartzmark & David H. Solomon, 2020. "Reconsidering Returns," NBER Working Papers 27380, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Attention; Household Finance; Information Display; Myopic Loss Aversion; Salience;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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