This paper investigates factors influencing individual portfolio allocations withparticular focus on the role of illusion of control. By forming their portfolio of tworisky lotteries and one risk-less alternative, subjects are requested to reach a targetinvestment profit, whereby equal...

An empirically well-established finding is that equity portfolios are concentratedin the domestic equity market of the investor. Previous theoreticaland empirical analyses have mainly focused on institutional explanations andlargely neglected individual behavior. In this study we report the...

We experimentally test overconfidence in investment decisions by offering participants the possibility to substitute their own for alternative investment choices.Overall, 149 subjects participated in two experiments, one with just one risky asset, the other with two risky assets. Overconfidence...

This paper focuses on egocentric biases in financial decisions. Subjects first designa portfolio, whereby each combination of assets yields the same expected returnand variance of returns. They are then confronted with two alternative portfolios;the average portfolio and the portfolio of one’s...

E-nstructions facilitates the use of electronic instructions in computerized laboratory ex-periments in social sciences. In this article I provide a set of guidelines for the installationand the use of E-nstructions.

We experimentally investigate whether the satisficing approach isabsorbable, i.e., whether it still applies after participants become awareof it. In a setting where an investor decides between a riskless bondand either one or two risky assets, we familiarize participants with thesatisficing...

The paper explores the applicability of the satisficing approach. Inparticular, we investigate whether basic principles of aspiration formationand satisficing behavior are transferable between similar situations.Individuals are sequentially confronted with two risky investmenttasks, a simple and...

We report three repetitions of Falk and Kosfeld's (2006) low and medium control treatmentswith 364 subjects. Each repetition employs a sample drawn from a standard subject pool ofstudents and demographics vary across samples. Our results largely conict with those of theoriginal study. We mainly...

This article examines the nature of human behavior in a nested socialdilemma referred to as the Spillover Game. Players are divided into twogroups with positive production interdependencies. Based on theoreticallyderived opportunistic, local, and global optima, our experimental...