Educating Investors about Dividends

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Hackethal, Andreas; Hanspal, Tobin; Hartzmark, Samuel M.; Brauer, Konstantin
• 署名单位: Goethe University Frankfurt; Vienna University of Economics & Business; Boston College; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454; 1465-7368
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhaf074
• 发表日期: 2025-11-09
• 关键词: G11; G41; D14; G53

摘要

We educate investors about the benefits of dividend reinvestment and costs of misperceiving dividends as free income. The intervention increases planned dividend reinvestment in survey responses. Using trading records, we observe a causal increase in dividend reinvestment in the field of roughly 50 cents for every euro received. This holds relative to investors' prior behavior and various control samples. Investors who learned the most from the intervention update their trading the most. The results suggest the free dividends fallacy is a significant source of dividend demand. Our study demonstrates that simple, targeted, and focused educational interventions can affect investment behavior.