Abstract
This paper explores how reduced self-control affects individual investment behavior in two laboratory tasks. For this purpose, I exogenously reduce subjects’ self-control using a well-established psychological treatment. In each task, I find no significant main treatment effect, but secondary effects consistent with findings on self-control from other studies and self-control’s potential relevance in financial markets. In experiment 1, I find no significant change in the disposition effect following the manipulation. However, treated participants trade fewer different shares per round. In experiment 2, I look at the effect of self-control on myopic loss aversion by implementing a 2×2 design by varying investment horizon and self-control in a repeated lottery environment. Average behavior suggests that reduced self-control increases framing effects, but I cannot reject the null hypothesis of equal investment levels between the self-control treatments within each investment frame. Analyzing the dynamics of decision making in more detail, self-control depleted participants in the narrow frame reduce their investment levels on average over time which seems to be driven by more intense reactions to investment experiences.
Item Type: | Paper |
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Keywords: | Self-control, loss aversion, disposition effect, trade clustering, myopic loss aversion |
Faculties: | Economics Economics > Chairs Economics > Chairs > Seminar for Economic Theory |
Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics |
JEL Classification: | G02, G11, D53, D81 |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-29071-6 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 29071 |
Date Deposited: | 28. Jul 2016, 06:15 |
Last Modified: | 04. Nov 2020, 13:07 |
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