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). (...)

When faced with the challenge of forming a portfolio containing a risky and a risk-free asset, investors tend to apply the same portfolio weights independently of the volatility of the risky asset. This “percentage heuristic” can lead to different levels of portfolio risk when the same...

A recent theory by Gennaioli, Shleifer, and Vishny (2015) proposes that trust is an important component for delegated investing. This paper tests the theory in a laboratory experiment. Participants first play a trust game. Participants then act as investors who have to make two separate,...

Delegated stock market participation is fragile, especially during crises. Investors who had delegated all of their equity investments to fund managers before the financial crisis were almost twice as susceptible to exiting the stock market during the crisis than their peers who invested in...

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...

Does the evaluation of a portfolio of stocks depend on its composition of winner and loser stocks? To test this, we define a simple, counting-based measure of performance – the number of winner relative to the number of loser stocks in a portfolio – and examine how this composition measure...

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...

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...

Using data from surveys as well as as real transactions we analyze which and why investors choose funds with performance fees even though these funds may be more expensive. According to agency theory, performance fees could incentivize managers to achieve better returns, but they could also...