Suboptimal Financial Decisions Research Articles

Crypto cravings: Gender differences in crypto investment intentions and the mediating roles of financial overconfidence and personality

AbstractCryptocurrencies have ballooned into a billion‐dollar business. To inform regulations aimed at protecting consumers vulnerable to suboptimal financial decisions, we investigate crypto investment intentions as a function of consumer gender, financial overconfidence (greater subjective relative to objective financial knowledge), and the Big Five personality traits. Study 1 (N = 126) found that people believe each Big Five personality trait as well as consumer gender and financial overconfidence to predict consumers' crypto investment intentions. Study 2 (N = 1741) revealed that less than 1 in 10 consumers from a nationally representative sample (Norway) are willing to invest in crypto. However, the proportion of male (vs. female) consumers considering such investments is more than twice as large, with less (vs. more) agreeable and less (vs. more) conscientious, but more (vs. less) open and more (vs. less) financially overconfident consumers also being increasingly inclined to consider crypto investments. Financial overconfidence, agreeableness, and conscientiousness mediate the link between consumer gender and crypto investment intentions. These results hold after accounting for a theoretically relevant confounding factor (financial self‐efficacy). Together, this research offers novel implications for marketing theory and practice that help understand the observed gender differences in consumers' crypto investments.

Household finance: a systematic literature review and directions for future research

PurposeThe objective of this systematic literature review (SLR) is to explore the current state of research in the field of household finance (HF). This study aims to summarize the existing research to highlight the importance of household finance in a nation’s economy. By exploring all conceptual and applied implications of HF, this study projects directions for future research to develop a comprehensive understanding of the subject.Design/methodology/approachThis SLR is based on 112 articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2006 and 2020 (Table 3). The methodology comprises five steps, namely, formulation of research questions, identification of studies, their selection and evaluation, analyses and syntheses and presentation of results.FindingsThe findings of this study show that studies on HF are gradually increasing worldwide with the USA registering the highest number of published research on the topic during the period under scrutiny. Notwithstanding the increasing attention and research on HF, empirical research in emerging economies is lagging. Additionally, this study finds that HF structure presents a perfect setting to understand how households compose their financial portfolio, make financial decisions and what factors influence their decisions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is an SLR – an accurate and accepted method of reviewing available literature on a selected subject. However, the selection of inclusion and exclusion criteria depends on the researchers’ rationale which might lead to research bias. This should be considered an inherent limitation of SLR.Practical implicationsBy synthesizing the contents of extant literature, this study presents important insights into HF. This study underlines the most discussed topics in the domain and identifies potential investigation areas. This study gives the knowledge of leading articles, authors and journals and informs scholars and academicians about the areas that need further investigation by portraying the complete picture of the subject in a systematic manner. Further, this study highlights that households make suboptimal financial decisions that affect their financial well-being. To reduce the adverse impacts of these decisions, policymakers and financial institutions must take steps to improve households’ use of formal financial markets. Household decisions can be reformed by enhancing consumers’ knowledge about financial products and services. Furthermore, households can be served better by offering customization in traditional financial products.Originality/valueThis study synthesizes the main findings of selected literature on HF. The expansion of studies on HF has generated the need to review the existing literature in a systematic manner. To the researchers’ best knowledge, this SLR is the first thorough study of available articles in the HF domain. This study presents the scope of future research by highlighting numerous aspects and functions of HF.

The effect of psychological factors on financial behaviour among older Australians: Evidence from the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic.

The current study investigated the association between psychological factors and financial behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in older people. Older people were chosen compared to other age groups because of the relatively greater impact in this age group of suboptimal financial decisions on future financial wellbeing. We hypothesised that the psychological factors facilitating general wellbeing during the COVID-I9 pandemic, i.e., positive mental wellbeing, hope, and positive coping, will have positive effects on financial behaviour. Based on telephone interviews, 1501 older Australians (Men = 750 and Women = 751; 55-64y = 630; > 65y = 871) completed an omnibus questionnaire examining coping, hope, mental wellbeing, and financial behaviour. Data was analysed using logistic regression and an ordinary and two-stage least square frameworks. Analyses revealed that the psychological factors identified as facilitating general wellbeing during the COVID-I9 pandemic also facilitated positive financial behaviour with hope and mental wellbeing emerging as significant determinants. Based on weightings from principal component analysis, one item each from the hope and mental wellbeing scale with eigenvalues > 1 were found to be robust predictors of positive financial behaviours. In conclusion, the findings support the assumption that the psychological factors associated with general wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic are also associated with positive financial behaviour. They further raise the possibility that single hope and positive mental well-being items can also be used to monitor psychological health and predict financial behaviour in older people and, in particular, at times of crisis. The latter may be useful measures for government to monitor psychological and financial wellbeing and inform policy for supporting older people at times of crisis.

Who's on first? People asymmetrically attend to higher-ranked (vs. lower-ranked) competitors

Rankings, hierarchies, and competitions are an integral part of peoples' personal and professional lives and knowing one's standing vis-à-vis others helps employees decide how to outdo higher-ranked colleagues and how to refrain from being outdone by lower-ranked others. But whom do people attend to when considering these rankings? In seven studies (and five supplementary studies; N = 4496) we document a robust asymmetry in attention to higher-ranked versus lower-ranked competitors. First, using unobtrusive measures, we show that people attend more to and exhibit better memory for their higher-ranked (vs. lower-ranked) peers. Second, we demonstrate that this asymmetry is reduced when attention is shifted to lower-ranked competitors, and is moderated by participants' own standing. Finally, we find that asymmetrically attending to higher-ranked others leads people to overestimate minority representation in rankings and to make suboptimal financial decisions. We discuss implications for social comparison theory, workplace rankings, and the psychology of competition.

Self-awareness for financial decision making abilities is linked to right temporal cortical thickness in older adults.

Everyday financial decision making and the awareness of the integrity of one's financial decision making abilities (or financial awareness) are both critical to study in older adults as they can help identify those at risk for making suboptimal financial decisions and prevent financial loss. In the current study, we examined the cognitive and cortical thickness correlates of financial decision making and financial awareness in 59 community-dwelling participants co-enrolled in a larger study (mean age=68.35 years (SD=5.5), mean education=15.91 (SD=2.36), 61% = women, 67% = White, 30% = Black participants). Data from standardized measures of financial decision making and cognition was investigated along with FreeSurfer (v. 5.3) derived thickness regions. Based on metacognitive frameworks, financial awareness was measured along with a well-validated measure of memory awareness. Results revealed that numeracy, executive functioning and vocabulary were associated with financial decision making, whereas in analysis adjusted for financial decision making, memory awareness relative to cognition was most strongly linked to financial awareness. No significant associations between thickness and financial decision making were found. However, both financial and memory awareness were associated with the same right-hemisphere temporal thickness regions underscoring the idea of a common substrate of awareness. Interestingly, our findings converge with the emerging work on financial exploitation in which the right sided temporal regions have been found to play a prominent role. Incorporating the contributing role of self-awareness in various models of financial exploitation will be an important consideration for future studies.

U.S. POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND LOAN PRICING

AbstractUsing U.S. Department of Justice data on state‐level political corruption, we find that banks charge higher loan spreads (all‐in‐drawn spreads) to firms in states with higher corruption and that these effects are more pronounced for firms facing financial constraints but less pronounced for firms experiencing greater external monitoring. These results are robust to additional controls, alternative corruption measures, a measure of the lack of oversight of lobbyist activities, and the use of instrumental variables. Overall, our findings are consistent with the harmful corruption environment hypothesis, which states that banks charge higher loan spreads to firms in states with greater political corruption environments as these firms are susceptible to making suboptimal financial decisions to fend off rent‐seeking behavior.

Financial Literacy and Suboptimal Financial Decisions at Older Ages

Over the life-cycle, wealth holdings tend to be highest in the early part of retirement. The quality of financial decisions among older adults is therefore an important determinant of their financial security during the asset drawdown phase. This paper assesses how financial literacy shapes financial decision-making at older ages. We devised a special module in the Singapore Life Panel survey to measure financial literacy to study its relationship with three aspects of household financial and investment behaviors: credit card debt repayment, stock market participation, and adherence to age-based investment glide paths. We found that the majority of respondents age 50+ has some grasp of concepts such as interest compounding and inflation, but fewer know about risk diversification. We provide evidence of a statistically significant positive association between financial literacy and each of the three aspects of suboptimal financial decision-making, controlling for many other factors, including education. A one-unit increase in the financial literacy score was associated with an 8.3 percentage point greater propensity to hold stocks, and a 1.7 percentage point higher likelihood of following an age-appropriate investment glide path. The financial literacy score is only weakly positively linked with timely credit card balance repayment, both in terms of statistical significance and estimate size.

Financial Illiteracy and Stock Market Participation: Evidence from the RAND American Life Panel

Financially unsophisticated consumers who consistently make sub-optimal financial decisions may suffer lasting consequences for long-term wealth accumulation and welfare. This paper focuses attention on a well-documented area of potentially suboptimal financial decision making: the lack of stock market participation. Using a broad-based assessment of financial literacy administered to a sample of older American respondents in the RAND American Life Panel (ALP), we use a novel strategy for establishing causation between stock-market related financial literacy and stock market participation, using knowledge of other financial topics as instrumental variables. We find that ignorance of stock market investment knowledge significantly reduces propensity to hold stocks. In particular, a decrease of one-standard deviation in the relevant measure suggests a decrease on the order of 10% in participation.

Moderating Effect of Risk Perception on Financial Knowledge, Literacy and Investment Decision

Financially unsophisticated investors who consistently make sub-optimal financial decisions may suffer lasting consequences for long-term wealth accumulation and welfare. This study examines moderating effect of risk perception on financial knowledge, literacy and investment decision. Data was collected from 378 investors through the aids of structured questionnaires. The research hypotheses were tested using partial Least-square (PLS) regression. The findings reveals that there is positive and significant effect between financial knowledge, risk perception and investment decisions, while positive but insignificant effect was found between financial literacy and investment decisions. However, risk perception moderates the effect of financial literacy, investment knowledge on investment decisions. It recommends that investors, policymakers and individuals investors should embark on various educational programmes, to further influence the level of their investment decisions before committing their hard earning fund into project.

Moderating Effect of Risk Perception on Financial Knowledge, Literacy and Investment Decision

Financially unsophisticated investors who consistently make sub-optimal financial decisions may suffer lasting consequences for long-term wealth accumulation and welfare. This study examines moderating effect of risk perception on financial knowledge, literacy and investment decision. Data was collected from 378 investors through the aids of structured questionnaires. The research hypotheses were tested using partial Least-square (PLS) regression. The findings reveals that there is positive and significant effect between financial knowledge, risk perception and investment decisions, while positive but insignificant effect was found between financial literacy and investment decisions. However, risk perception moderates the effect of financial literacy, investment knowledge on investment decisions. It recommends that investors, policymakers and individuals investors should embark on various educational programmes, to further influence the level of their investment decisions before committing their hard earning fund into project.

Financial Literacy and Suboptimal Financial Decisions at Older Ages

Over the life-cycle, wealth holdings tend to be highest in the early part of retirement. The quality of financial decisions among older adults is therefore an important determinant of their financial security during the asset drawdown phase. This paper assesses how financial literacy shapes financial decision-making at older ages. We devised a special module in the Singapore Life Panel survey to measure financial literacy to study its relationship with three aspects of household financial and investment behaviors: credit card debt repayment, stock market participation, and adherence to age-based investment glide paths. We found that the majority of respondents age 50+ has some grasp of concepts such as interest compounding and inflation, but fewer know about risk diversification. We provide evidence of a statistically significant positive association between financial literacy and each of the three aspects of suboptimal financial decision-making, controlling for many other factors, including education. A one-unit increase in the financial literacy score was associated with an 8.3 percentage point greater propensity to hold stocks, and a 1.7 percentage point higher likelihood of following an age-appropriate investment glide path. The financial literacy score is only weakly positively linked with timely credit card balance repayment, both in terms of statistical significance and estimate size.

How financial literacy and impatience shape retirement wealth and investment behaviors

AbstractTwo competing explanations for why consumers have trouble with financial decisions are gaining momentum. One is that people are financially illiterate since they lack understanding of simple economic concepts and cannot carry out computations such as computing compound interest, which could cause them to make suboptimal financial decisions. A second is that impatience or present-bias might explain suboptimal financial decisions. That is, some people persistently choose immediate gratification instead of taking advantage of larger long-term payoffs. We use experimental evidence from Chile to explore how these factors appear related to poor financial decisions. Our results show that our measure of impatience is a strong predictor of wealth and investment in health. Financial literacy is also correlated with wealth though it appears to be a weaker predictor of sensitivity to framing in investment decisions. Policymakers interested in enhancing retirement well-being would do well to consider the importance of both factors.

What Shapes Consumer Choice and Financial Products? A Review

Central to the field of consumer finance is that consumers make financial decisions that do not always coincide with the financial decisions ideally depicted in optimal economic models. In this review, we discuss developments in the field of household finance, focusing on how consumers make suboptimal financial decisions across different types of settings and factors that affect their decisions. Rather than conducting a comprehensive survey, we focus specifically on consumer choice in the context of research on credit card borrowing, housing and mortgage debts, investment and savings decisions, and spending and consumption. We also discuss financial product design and marketing, as well as the regulatory landscape of lenders of consumer financial products. We present five future research directions and considerations for researchers and policymakers.

COGNITIVE FUNCTION AS A PROXY OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING IN OLDER PRIMARY CARE ADULTS

Adults over 54 in the United States own about 2/3 of all wealth in the country. However, many older adults appear to make sub-optimal financial decisions, leaving them at high risk for financial exploitation and large monetary losses. To provide greater insights into the relationship among aging, diminished cognitive capacity, and financial decision-making, we administered a unique and comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests, as well as unique assessments measuring financial literacy and monetary choice delay discounting, to 60 subjects aged 35–85 years. We then used regression analysis to analyze the relationships among these measures. The Executive Function/Organization (EF-O), Attention Working/Memory (AWM), Delay Discounting (DD), and Visuospatial Functions (VF) variables were the best predictors of financial literacy. The EF-O, AWM, and VF coefficients displayed a positive sign, indicating that higher scores on these tests predicted higher levels of financial literacy. The DD variable coefficient appeared with a negative sign, suggesting that higher discount rates (implying higher levels of impulsivity) predict lower levels of financial literacy. The age variable was highly significant in a positive direction, suggesting that financial literacy rates increase with age. Performance on standard tests of intelligence, including the MMSE and the Test of Premorbid Functioning, did not appear to be significant predictors of financial literacy. Measures of verbal and visual memory also did not appear significant. Much of the attention on preventing financial exploitation among the elderly, especially within the financial services industry, has been focused on memory loss. However, our results suggests that the executive function-related deficits associated with Alzheimer's disease (or other forms of dementia) are the biggest threats to an individual's capacity to make good financial decisions. The significance of executive-function related capabilities suggests that memory loss is not the only, and perhaps not even the most consequential, indicator of diminished financial decision-making capacity. Executive function-related measures remained significant even after controlling for age. The study points to the desirability of closer communication among mental health professionals, family members, and financial advisers. Because they are often the first to observe behavioral changes in their clients, financial advisers need more training and tools to help them identify potential warning signs.

Financial literacy and the demand for financial advice

The low level of financial literacy across households suggests that they are at risk of making suboptimal financial decisions. In this paper, we analyze the effect of investors’ financial literacy on their decision to demand professional, non-independent advice. We find that non-independent advisors are not sufficient to alleviate the problem of low financial literacy. The investors with a low level of financial literacy are less likely to consult an advisor, but they delegate their portfolio choice more often or do not invest in risky assets at all. We explain this evidence with a highly stylized model of strategic interaction between investors and better informed advisors with conflicts of interests. The advisors provide more information to knowledgeable investors, who anticipating this are more likely to consult them.

Financial Literacy and the Demand for Financial Advice

The low level of financial literacy across households suggests they are at risk of taking sub-optimal financial decisions. In this paper we assess to what extent financial advisors can substitute for low financial knowledge. We analyze the effect of investors' financial literacy on their demand of professional, non-independent advice. Using the 2007 Unicredit Customers' Survey we find that non-independent advisors are not sufficient to alleviate the problem of low financial literacy. Investors with a low level of financial literacy are less likely to consult with an advisor, while they delegate their portfolio choice more often or do not invest in risky assets. We explain this evidence with a highly stylized model of strategic interaction between investors and better informed advisors facing conflicts of interests. Advisors reveal information only to the more knowledgeable investors, who anticipating this are then more likely to consult with them.

Managerial Decisions, Internal Organization Structure, And Agency Considerations

This paper deals with issues related to productive inefficiencies that occur at a divisional level of a multinational firm. More specifically, the paper introduces an additional consideration in the agency relationship, namely, the internal organization structure. It is argued that the internal organization structure imposes restrictions on the behavior of divisional managers resulting in financial decisions characterized by short-term orientation and risk aversion. These suboptimal financial decisions generate organizational costs, called managerial regulatory costs, which should be distinguished from agency-type costs.

Financial Literacy and the Demand for Financial Advice

The low level of financial literacy in many countries suggests that households are at risk of sub-optimal financial decisions. In this paper we assess to what extent financial advisors can substitute for such a lack of knowledge, by analyzing the effect of investors’ financial literacy on their decision about how much to rely on financial advisors. We model the strategic interaction between poorly informed investors and perfectly informed advisors facing conflicts of interest. We find that more knowledgeable investors are more likely to consult advisors, while less informed ones either invest by themselves (without any professional advice) or delegate their portfolio choice, suffering the agency costs of such decision. These results are confirmed empirically, where we investigate the effect of financial literacy on the demand for financial advice using the 2007 Unicredit Customers’ Survey. Overall, our results suggest that non-independent advisors are not sufficient to alleviate the problem of low financial literacy.

How Financial Literacy and Impatience Shape Retirement Wealth and Investment Behaviors

Two competing explanations for why consumers have trouble with financial decisions are gaining momentum. One is that people are financially illiterate since they lack understanding of simple economic concepts and cannot carry out computations such as computing compound interest, which could cause them to make suboptimal financial decisions. A second is that impatience or present-bias might explain suboptimal financial decisions. That is, some people persistently choose immediate gratification instead of taking advantage of larger long-term payoffs. We use experimental evidence from Chile to explore how these factors appear related to poor financial decisions. Our results show that our measure of impatience is a strong predictor of wealth and investment in health. Financial literacy is also correlated with wealth though it appears to be a weaker predictor of sensitivity to framing in investment decisions. Policymakers interested in enhancing retirement well-being would do well to consider the importance of these factors.

The Flaws of Our Financial Memory

Our cognitive abilities like memory, perception, self-reflection etc. are highly evolved, but maladapted to the challenges of modern life. In this article the most common flaws of memory are described and it is shown how these flaws of memory might impact our recollection of financial events and decisions in the past. Faulty, inexistent or inadequate memory might give rise to sub-optimal financial decisions today and impair our ability to learn from the past. Thus, financial professionals and investors alike need to be aware of these flaws of memory and develop ways to mitigate their negative impact. Two techniques (investment policy statements and investment diaries) seem particularly promising in dealing with these problems. At the same time these techniques may be proactively used as a defense against unethical practices that try to exploit these flawed memories.