IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v142y2021i2p737-755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engineering lemons

Author

Listed:
  • Vokata, Petra

Abstract

Recent complex financial products sold to households contradict the basic premise of canonical innovation theories: Financial innovation benefits its adopters. In my 2006–2015 sample of over 28,000 yield enhancement products (YEP), the securities offer attractive yields but negative returns. The products lose money both ex ante and ex post due to their embedded fees. On average, YEPs charge 6–7% in annual fees and subsequently lose 6–7% relative to risk-adjusted benchmarks. Simple and cheap combinations of listed options often statewise dominate YEPs. Competition, disclosure, or learning do not eliminate this inferior financial innovation over my sample period.

Suggested Citation

  • Vokata, Petra, 2021. "Engineering lemons," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 737-755.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:142:y:2021:i:2:p:737-755
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.04.035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X21001653
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.04.035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Egan, 2019. "Brokers versus Retail Investors: Conflicting Interests and Dominated Products," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(3), pages 1217-1260, June.
    2. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2011. "How Does Simplified Disclosure Affect Individuals' Mutual Fund Choices?," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in the Economics of Aging, pages 75-96, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Thomas Philippon, 2015. "Has the US Finance Industry Become Less Efficient? On the Theory and Measurement of Financial Intermediation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1408-1438, April.
    4. John Y. Campbell & Howell E. Jackson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Peter Tufano, 2011. "Consumer Financial Protection," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 91-114, Winter.
    5. Thomas Philippon, 2016. "The FinTech Opportunity," NBER Working Papers 22476, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    7. Itzhak Ben-David & Jiacui Li & Andrea Rossi & Yang Song, 2022. "What Do Mutual Fund Investors Really Care About?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(4), pages 1723-1774.
    8. Marta Szymanowska & Jenke Ter Horst & Chris Veld, 2009. "Reverse convertible bonds analyzed," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(10), pages 895-919, October.
    9. Sumit Agarwal & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Neale Mahoney & Johannes Stroebel, 2015. "Regulating Consumer Financial Products: Evidence from Credit Cards," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 111-164.
    10. Di Maggio, Marco & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2017. "The unintended consequences of the zero lower bound policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 59-80.
    11. Pedro Bordalo & Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer, 2016. "Competition for Attention," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(2), pages 481-513.
    12. W. Scott Frame & Larry D. Wall & Lawrence J. White, 2018. "Technological Change and Financial Innovation in Banking: Some Implications for Fintech," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2018-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    13. Luigi Zingales, 2015. "Does Finance Benefit Society?," NBER Working Papers 20894, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Xavier Gabaix & David Laibson, 2018. "Shrouded attributes, consumer myopia and information suppression in competitive markets," Chapters, in: Victor J. Tremblay & Elizabeth Schroeder & Carol Horton Tremblay (ed.), Handbook of Behavioral Industrial Organization, chapter 3, pages 40-74, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Joshua Coval & Jakub Jurek & Erik Stafford, 2009. "The Economics of Structured Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 3-25, Winter.
    16. Tufano, Peter, 2003. "Financial innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 307-335, Elsevier.
    17. Peter Tufano, 2003. "Financial Innovation," Levine's Working Paper Archive 618897000000000651, David K. Levine.
    18. Josh Lerner & Peter Tufano, 2011. "The Consequences of Financial Innovation: A Counterfactual Research Agenda," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited, pages 523-575, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Santosh Anagol & Hugh Hoikwang Kim, 2012. "The Impact of Shrouded Fees: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in the Indian Mutual Funds Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 576-593, February.
    20. Byeong-Je An & Andrew Ang & Turan G. Bali & Nusret Cakici, 2014. "The Joint Cross Section of Stocks and Options," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2279-2337, October.
    21. Bruce Ian Carlin & Shimon Kogan & Richard Lowery, 2013. "Trading Complex Assets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1937-1960, October.
    22. Fabian Duarte & Justine S. Hastings, 2012. "Fettered Consumers and Sophisticated Firms: Evidence from Mexico's Privatized Social Security Market," NBER Working Papers 18582, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Marianne Bertrand & Adair Morse, 2011. "Information Disclosure, Cognitive Biases, and Payday Borrowing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(6), pages 1865-1893, December.
    24. Gennaioli, Nicola & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2012. "Neglected risks, financial innovation, and financial fragility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 452-468.
    25. Marianne Bertrand & Dean Karlan & Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir & Jonathan Zinman, 2010. "What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 263-306.
    26. Jonathan Ingersoll & Ivo Welch, 2007. "Portfolio Performance Manipulation and Manipulation-proof Performance Measures," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1503-1546, 2007 17.
    27. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    28. Ian Martin, 2017. "What is the Expected Return on the Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(1), pages 367-433.
    29. Hanson, Samuel G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2015. "Monetary policy and long-term real rates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 429-448.
    30. Ausubel, Lawrence M, 1991. "The Failure of Competition in the Credit Card Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 50-81, March.
    31. Paul Heidhues & Botond K?szegi & Takeshi Murooka, 2016. "Exploitative Innovation," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, February.
    32. Franklin Allen, 2012. "Trends in Financial Innovation and Their Welfare Impact: An Overview," DNB Working Papers 355, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    33. Stephen A. Ross, 1976. "Options and Efficiency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 90(1), pages 75-89.
    34. Umit G. Gurun & Gregor Matvos & Amit Seru, 2016. "Advertising Expensive Mortgages," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(5), pages 2371-2416, October.
    35. Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson, 2004. "Product Differentiation, Search Costs, and Competition in the Mutual Fund Industry: A Case Study of S&P 500 Index Funds," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(2), pages 403-456.
    36. Mark Broadie & Mikhail Chernov & Michael Johannes, 2009. "Understanding Index Option Returns," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(11), pages 4493-4529, November.
    37. Robin Greenwood & David Scharfstein, 2013. "The Growth of Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 3-28, Spring.
    38. Henderson, Brian J. & Pearson, Neil D., 2011. "The dark side of financial innovation: A case study of the pricing of a retail financial product," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 227-247, May.
    39. Kathryn Barraclough & Robert E. Whaley, 2012. "Early Exercise of Put Options on Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1423-1456, August.
    40. Justine Hastings & Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson, 2017. "Sales Force and Competition in Financial Product Markets: The Case of Mexico's Social Security Privatization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85(6), pages 1723-1761, November.
    41. Baule, Rainer, 2011. "The order flow of discount certificates and issuer pricing behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 3120-3133, November.
    42. Carlin, Bruce I., 2009. "Strategic price complexity in retail financial markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 278-287, March.
    43. Josh Lerner & Scott Stern, 2012. "The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lern11-1, March.
    44. Henderson, Brian J. & Pearson, Neil D. & Wang, Li, 2020. "Pre-trade hedging: Evidence from the issuance of retail structured products," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 108-128.
    45. Li, Xindan & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar & Yang, Xuewei, 2018. "Can financial innovation succeed by catering to behavioral preferences? Evidence from a callable options market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 38-65.
    46. Chen Lian & Yueran Ma & Carmen Wang, 2019. "Low Interest Rates and Risk-Taking: Evidence from Individual Investment Decisions," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(6), pages 2107-2148.
    47. Andra C Ghent & Walter N Torous & Rossen I Valkanov, 2019. "Complexity in Structured Finance," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(2), pages 694-722.
    48. Franklin Allen, 2012. "Trends in Financial Innovation and their Welfare Impact: an Overview," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(4), pages 493-514, September.
    49. Luigi Zingales, 2015. "Presidential Address: Does Finance Benefit Society?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1327-1363, August.
    50. Bessembinder, Hendrik, 2018. "Do stocks outperform Treasury bills?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(3), pages 440-457.
    51. Hersh Shefrin & Meir Statman, 1993. "Behavioral Aspects of the Design and Marketing of Financial Products," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 22(2), Summer.
    52. Black, Fischer, 1972. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Restricted Borrowing," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(3), pages 444-455, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong Ru & Antoinette Schoar, 2020. "Do credit card companies screen for behavioural biases?," BIS Working Papers 842, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Ammann, Manuel & Arnold, Marc & Straumann, Simon, 2023. "Pricing, issuance volume, and design of innovative securities: The role of investor information," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    3. Marc Arnold & Dustin Schuette & Alexander Wagner, 2021. "Neglected Risk in Financial Innovation: Evidence from Structured Product Counterparty Exposure," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 27(2), pages 287-325, March.
    4. Lunn, Pete & McGowan, Féidhlim & Howard, Noel, 2018. "Do some financial product features negatively affect consumer decisions? a review of evidence," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS78, June.
    5. Henderson, Brian J. & Pearson, Neil D. & Wang, Li, 2020. "Pre-trade hedging: Evidence from the issuance of retail structured products," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 108-128.
    6. Baule, Rainer & Münchhalfen, Patrick & Shkel, David & Tallau, Christian, 2023. "Fair-washing in the market for structured retail products? Voluntary self-regulation versus government regulation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    7. Rawley Z. Heimer & Alp Simsek, 2017. "Should Retail Investors' Leverage Be Limited?," NBER Working Papers 24176, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Heimer, Rawley & Simsek, Alp, 2019. "Should retail investors’ leverage be limited?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(3), pages 1-21.
    9. John Y. Campbell, 2016. "Restoring Rational Choice: The Challenge of Consumer Financial Regulation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 1-30, May.
    10. Mark Egan & Shan Ge & Johnny Tang, 2022. "Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(12), pages 5334-5386.
    11. Liu, Lu, 2019. "Non-salient fees in the mortgage market," Bank of England working papers 819, Bank of England.
    12. Gabaix, Xavier & Laibson, David & Li, Deyuan & Li, Hongyi & Resnick, Sidney & de Vries, Casper G., 2016. "The impact of competition on prices with numerous firms," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-24.
    13. Ammann, Manuel & Arnold, Marc & Straumann, Simon, 2017. "Illuminating the Dark Side of Financial Innovation: The Role of Investor Information," Working Papers on Finance 1704, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    14. W. Scott Frame & Lawrence J. White, 2009. "Technological change, financial innovation, and diffusion in banking," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2009-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    15. Jackson P. Lautier & Vladimir Pozdnyakov & Jun Yan, 2022. "On the Convergence of Credit Risk in Current Consumer Automobile Loans," Papers 2211.09176, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.
    16. Hong Ru & Antoinette Schoar, 2016. "Do Credit Card Companies Screen for Behavioral Biases?," NBER Working Papers 22360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Giné, Xavier & Mazer, Rafael Keenan, 2022. "Financial (dis-)information: Evidence from a multi-country audit study," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    18. Mark Egan & Gregor Matvos & Amit Seru, 2019. "The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 233-295.
    19. Schertler, Andrea, 2021. "Listing of classical options and the pricing of discount certificates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    20. Limbach, Peter & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Schürmann, Henrik, 2020. "The Death of Trust Across the U.S. Finance Industry," CFR Working Papers 20-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2020.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household finance; Financial innovation; Hidden costs; Complexity; Structured products;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:142:y:2021:i:2:p:737-755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.