Stakes and investor behaviors

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sui, Pengfei; Wang, Baolian
• 署名单位: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; State University System of Florida; University of Florida
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104146
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Stakes; Behavioral biases; individual investors; household finance

摘要

We examine how stakes affect investor behaviors. In our unique setting, investors trade stocks in real accounts using their own money and simultaneously in a simulated setting. Our real-world within-investor estimation shows that investors exhibit stronger biases and perform worse in higher-stakes real accounts than in lowerstakes simulated accounts. Investors exhibit strong biases in both types of accounts, and the biases in both are strongly positively correlated. Such behavioral consistency suggests that low-stakes experiments are informative about real-world behaviors. Using additional account-level datasets, we demonstrate external validity by documenting a stronger (reverse) disposition effect on stocks (funds) with greater portfolio weights.