Social Interaction Effects and Individual Portfolio Choice: Evidence from 401(k) Pension Plan Investors

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
Finance
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Lu, Timothy (Jun)
Tang, Ning
Contributor
Abstract

We show that participants are influenced by their coworkers when they make equity investment decisions. Using a rich dataset of 401(k) plans, we find that individuals are likely to increase (decrease) their risky share when they have lower (higher) equity exposure than their coworkers in the last period. The effect is especially strong when the difference in equity exposure is substantial. Furthermore, individuals are likely to increase their equity exposure if they earn lower equity returns than their coworkers did in the last period. However, when their returns on equity are higher than their peers’, they tend not to decrease their risky share. The interaction of peer behavior and peer outcome influences investment decisions, inducing individuals with substantially lower equity exposure than their coworkers to increase their risky share when coworkers also earned higher returns. Finally, we find that there exists heterogeneity in short-term excess returns following social interaction.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2015-06-01
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation
Collection