Socioeconomic status and learning from financial information

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kuhnen, Camelia M.; Miu, Andrei C.
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; National Bureau of Economic Research; Babes Bolyai University from Cluj
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2017.03.002
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 349-372
• 关键词: Socioeconomic status; learning; beliefs; household finance; Stock market participation

摘要

The majority of lower socioeconomic status (SES) households in the U.S. and Europe do not have stock investments, which is detrimental to wealth accumulation. Here, we examine one explanation for this puzzling fact, namely, that economic adversity may influence how people learn from financial information. Using experimental and survey data from the U.S. and Romania, we find that lower SES individuals form more pessimistic beliefs about the distribution of stock returns and. are less likely to invest in stocks when these investments are likely to have good outcomes. SES-related differences in pessimism may help explain variation in investments across households. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.