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Are All Professional Investors Sophisticated?

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  • Lukas Menkhoff
  • Maik Schmeling
  • Ulrich Schmidt

Abstract

. Existing empirical evidence is inconclusive as to whether professional investors show more sophisticated behavior than individual investors. Therefore, we study two important groups of professional investors and compare them with laymen by means of a survey covering about 500 investors. We find that some professionals, i.e. institutional investors, behave in a more sophisticated manner than laymen, whereas the less researched investment advisors seem to do even worse. Our survey approach complements available evidence due to its design: it compares professionals with (qualified) interested laymen, it covers six measures of sophisticated behavior, uses several control variables and strictly compares investment decisions in the private domain.

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  • Lukas Menkhoff & Maik Schmeling & Ulrich Schmidt, 2010. "Are All Professional Investors Sophisticated?," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(4), pages 418-440, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i:4:p:418-440
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2009.00497.x
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    4. Roshani Chamalka Gunathilaka & J. M. Ruwani Fernando, 2021. "Do behavioral biases differ among institutional and individual investors?," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 2, pages 61-73, June.

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    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General

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