This paper evaluates numerous diversification strategies as a possible remedy against widespread costly investment mistakes of individual investors. Our results reveal that a very broad range of simple heuristic allocation schemes offers similar diversification gains as well-established or...

In a panel survey of individual investors, we show that investors’ second-order beliefs—their beliefs about the return expectations of other investors—influence investment decisions. Investors who believe others hold more optimistic stock market expectations allocate more of their own...

Previous research indicates that a lack of financial sophistication might explain the past strong growth in active management. We construct an objective financial literacy score and analyze the relation between financial literacy and mutual fund investment behavior. We show that there is a...

Portfolio choice and the implied asset pricing are usually derived assumingmaximization of expected utility. In this Paper, they are derived from risk-value models that generalize the Markowitz-model. We use a behaviourally-based risk measure with an endogenous or exogenous benchmark...

This paper reports the results of an experiment on portfolio choice in the presence of nontradeable income. The nontradeable income part could either be riskless or risky (background risk). (...)

This paper determines the results of experiments on portfolio choice in the presence of nontradeable income. The nontradeable income part could either be riskless or risky.

Assuming investors are loss averse, repeated risky investments are less attractive inmyopic evaluation. A theoretical foundation for this effect is given by the behavioralconcept of myopic loss aversion (MLA). The consequences of MLA have been confirmedin several between-subject experimental...

Do women invest differently than men? We contribute to the answer of this question by analysing the Panel on Household Finances (PHF) of the German Bundesbank. This representative panel collects a wide variety of behavioural and financial variables in the area of household finance. We find that...

The disposition effect is implicitly assumed to be constant over time. However, drivers of the disposition effect (preferences and beliefs) are rather countercyclical. We use individual investor trading data covering several boom and bust periods (2001-2015). We show that the disposition effect...