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It takes two to Tango: Households’ response to financial advice and the role of financial literacy

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  • Stolper, Oscar

Abstract

Using a unique dataset of over 6000 clients of a German advisory firm who have received rule-based financial advice on basic retirement provision and the insurance of major life risks, we investigate households’ response to advice when the risk of product misselling is effectively minimized. Overall, we document a low degree of following standardized financial advice: two thirds of the households under review ignore the advice completely and if they choose to heed it, they tend to follow it only to a relatively little extent. Moreover, we find that standardized financial advice is not able to break up the negative effect of financial literacy on following advisors’ recommendations. Instead, even in a setting where the potential for misselling is mitigated, the negative impact of advisees’ financial knowledge on their propensity to implement financial advice remains statistically and economically significant for all advisees under review except for the affluent households. Our findings support the notion that an increase in financial literacy leads to a higher confidence in one's own judgment and prompts individuals to use financial advice as just another source of information they process when making their financial decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Stolper, Oscar, 2018. "It takes two to Tango: Households’ response to financial advice and the role of financial literacy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 295-310.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:92:y:2018:i:c:p:295-310
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.04.014
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    Cited by:

    1. Ghafoori, Eraj & Ip, Edwin & Kabátek, Jan, 2021. "The impacts of a large-scale financial education intervention on retirement saving behaviors and portfolio allocation: Evidence from pension fund data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    2. Sorravich Kingsuwankul & Chloe Tergiman & Marie Claire Villeval, 2023. "Why do oaths work? Image concerns and credibility in promise keeping," Working Papers hal-04209489, HAL.
    3. Fong, Joelle H. & Koh, Benedict S.K. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rohwedder, Susann, 2021. "Financial literacy and financial decision-making at older ages," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Kamal Bookwala & Caleb Gallemore & Joaquín Gómez‐Miñambres, 2022. "The influence of food recommendations: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1898-1910, October.
    5. Baeckström, Ylva & Marsh, Ian W. & Silvester, Joanne, 2021. "Financial advice and gender: Wealthy individual investors in the UK," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Sarah Brown & Alessandro Bucciol & Alberto Montagnoli & Karl Taylor, 2020. "Financial Advice and Household Financial Portfolios," Working Papers 2020009, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    7. Hsu, Yuan-Lin & Chen, Hung-Ling & Huang, Po-Kai & Lin, Wan-Yu, 2021. "Does financial literacy mitigate gender differences in investment behavioral bias?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    8. Lex, Christoph & Tennyson, Sharon, 2021. "EU intermediary regulation and its impact on insurance agent quality: Evidence from Germany," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Matthias Stefan & Martin Holmén & Felix Holzmeister & Michael Kirchler & Erik Wengström, 2022. "You can’t always get what you want—An experiment on finance professionals' decisions for others," Working Papers 2022-02, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    10. Georgios A. Panos & Tatja Karkkainen & Adele Atkinson, 2020. "Financial Literacy and Attitudes to Cryptocurrencies," Working Papers 2020_26, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    11. Basha, Shabeen Afsar & Bennasr, Hamdi & Goaied, Mohamed, 2023. "Financial literacy, financial development, and leverage of small firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Altmann Kristina & Bernard René & Le Blanc Julia & Gabor-Toth Enikö & Hebbat Malik & Kothmayr Lisa & Schmidt Tobias & Tzamourani Panagiota & Werner Daniel & Zhu Junyi, 2020. "The Panel on Household Finances (PHF) – Microdata on household wealth in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(3), pages 373-400, September.
    13. Hevér, Judit, 2020. "A piaci likviditás és a szabályozás kapcsolatának vizsgálata általános egyensúlyelméleti modellkeretben [The effect of regulation on market liquidity: a general equilibrium approach]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 708-733.
    14. Malliaris, Steven & Malliaris, A.G., 2021. "Delegated asset management and performance when some investors are unsophisticated," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    15. Kim, Hugh H. & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2021. "How financial literacy shapes the demand for financial advice at older ages," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    16. Li, Xiao, 2020. "When financial literacy meets textual analysis: A conceptual review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    17. Reiter-Gavish, Liron & Qadan, Mahmoud & Yagil, Joseph, 2021. "Financial advice: Who Exactly Follows It?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 244-258.
    18. Liu, Bofan & Lu, Bin, 2023. "Can financial literacy be a substitute for financial advisers? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Lynn, Peter & Fumagalli, Laura & Muñoz-Bugarin, Jair, 2021. "Investigating the role of debt advice on borrowers’ well-being. An encouragement study on a new sample of over-indebted people in Britain," ISER Working Paper Series 2021-08, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    20. Feng, Xiangnan & Lu, Bin & Song, Xinyuan & Ma, Shuang, 2019. "Financial literacy and household finances: A Bayesian two-part latent variable modeling approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 119-137.
    21. Malliaris, Steven & Malliaris, A.G., 2022. "Reprint of: Delegated asset management and performance when some investors are unsophisticated," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    22. Litterscheidt, Rouven & Streich, David J., 2020. "Financial education and digital asset management: What's in the black box?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    23. Steffen Westermann & Scott J. Niblock & Jennifer L. Harrison & Michael A. Kortt, 2020. "Financial Advice Seeking: A Review of the Barriers and Benefits," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 39(4), pages 367-388, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial advice; Financial literacy; Household finance; Retirement provision;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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