Peer Advice on Financial Decisions: A Case of the Blind Leading the Blind?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ambuehl, Sandro; Bernheim, B. Douglas; Ersoy, Fulya; Harris, Donna
• 署名单位: University of Zurich; Stanford University; University of Chicago; University of Oxford
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01269
• 发表日期: 2025-01
• 页码: 240-255
• 关键词: social-interaction; literacy; performance; INFORMATION; education

摘要

We investigate the impact of peer interaction on the quality of fi-nancial decision making in a laboratory experiment. Face-to-face commu-nication with a randomly assigned peer significantly improves the qualityof subsequent private decisions even though simple mimicry would havethe opposite effect. We present evidence that the mechanism involves gen-eral conceptual learning (because the benefits of communication extend topreviously unseen tasks), and that the most effective learning relationshipsare horizontal rather than vertical (because people with weak skills benefitmost when their partners also have weak skills). The benefits of demon-strably effective financial education do not propagate to peers.