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Irrational Diversification: An Examination of Individual Portfolio Choice

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  • Baltussen, Guido
  • Post, Gerrit T.

Abstract

We study individual portfolio choice in a laboratory experiment and find strong evidence for heuristic behavior. The subjects tend to focus on the marginal distribution of an asset, while largely ignoring its diversification benefits. They follow a conditional 1/n diversification heuristic as they exclude the assets with an “unattractive” marginal distribution and divide the available funds equally between the remaining “attractive” assets. This strategy is applied even if it leads to allocations that are dominated in terms of first-order stochastic dominance and is clearly irrational. In line with these findings, we find that framing and problem presentation have substantial influence on portfolio decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Baltussen, Guido & Post, Gerrit T., 2011. "Irrational Diversification: An Examination of Individual Portfolio Choice," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(5), pages 1463-1491, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:46:y:2011:i:05:p:1463-1491_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Castro, Luciano de & Galvao, Antonio F. & Kim, Jeong Yeol & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel & Olmo, Jose, 2022. "Experiments on portfolio selection: A comparison between quantile preferences and expected utility decision models," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Niculaescu, Corina E. & Sangiorgi, Ivan & Bell, Adrian R., 2023. "Does personal experience with COVID-19 impact investment decisions? Evidence from a survey of US retail investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Ola Mahmoud, 2022. "The Willingness to Pay for Diversification," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 6235-6249, August.
    4. Johannes Bock, 2018. "An updated review of (sub-)optimal diversification models," Papers 1811.08255, arXiv.org.
    5. Luciano de Castro & Antonio F. Galvao & Gabriel Montes-Rojas & Jose Olmo, 2022. "Portfolio selection in quantile decision models," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 133-181, June.
    6. Michael Curran & Patrick O'Sullivan & Ryan Zalla, 2020. "Can Volatility Solve the Naive Portfolio Puzzle?," Papers 2005.03204, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2022.
    7. Ibrahim Filiz & Thomas Nahmer & Markus Spiwoks & Kilian Bizer, 2018. "Portfolio diversification: the influence of herding, status-quo bias, and the gambler’s fallacy," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 32(2), pages 167-205, May.
    8. Filiz, Ibrahim & Nahmer, Thomas & Spiwoks, Markus & Gubaydullina, Zulia, 2020. "Measurement of risk preference," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    9. Sandro Ambuehl & B. Douglas Bernheim & Annamaria Lusardi, 2022. "Evaluating Deliberative Competence: A Simple Method with an Application to Financial Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3584-3626, November.
    10. Laurens Swinkels, 2023. "Empirical evidence on the ownership and liquidity of real estate tokens," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-29, December.
    11. Wulan Anggraeni & Sudradjat Supian & Sukono & Nurfadhlina Abdul Halim, 2023. "Catastrophe Bond Diversification Strategy Using Probabilistic–Possibilistic Bijective Transformation and Credibility Measures in Fuzzy Environment," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-30, August.
    12. Chmura, Thorsten & Le, Hang & Nguyen, Kim, 2022. "Herding with leading traders: Evidence from a laboratory social trading platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 93-106.
    13. Seth, Himanshu & Talwar, Shalini & Bhatia, Anuj & Saxena, Akanksha & Dhir, Amandeep, 2020. "Consumer resistance and inertia of retail investors: Development of the resistance adoption inertia continuance (RAIC) framework," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    14. Mahmoud, Ola, 2022. "Second-order uncertainty and naive diversification," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    15. Guo, Jing & He, Xue Dong, 2021. "A new preference model that allows for narrow framing," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

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